A Collection of Ten Japanese Fairy Tale Series Crepe-Paper Books, Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 20

Tokyo: T. Hasegawa, circa 1898-1911. Ten volumes, small 18mo, approximately 4 x 6 inches each, subject to exact measurement. Color-printed chirimen, or crepe-paper, wrappers and folded crepe-paper leaves, predominantly sewn through two spine holes with silk ties. Profusely illustrated throughout in color from Japanese woodblocks. Text in English, with Japanese colophons and publisher's advertisements in several volumes. A substantial gathering of ten numbers from Takejiro Hasegawa's celebrated Japanese Fairy Tale Series: No. 1, Momotaro, or Little Peachling; No. 3, Battle of the Monkey and the Crab; No. 4, The Old Man Who Made the Dead Trees Blossom; No. 5, Kachi-Kachi Mountain; No. 6, The Mouse's Wedding; No. 15, My Lord Bag-o'-Rice; No. 16, The Wonderful Tea-Kettle; No. 17, Shippeitaro; No. 18, The Ogre's Arm; and No. 20, The Enchanted Waterfall. The first five stories listed above were translated by David Thomson; My Lord Bag-o'-Rice by Basil Hall Chamberlain; and the remaining later tales by Mrs. T. H. James. The books belong to the celebrated class of Japanese export publications commonly called chirimen-bon. The printed sheets were creped after printing, producing their characteristic cloth-like texture and shrinking the folded leaves into the familiar pocket-sized format. Hasegawa combined European-language texts with Japanese pictorial design and color printing, creating books that appealed simultaneously to children, travelers and Western collectors of Japonisme. Bibliographically, these are later crepe-paper issues rather than the plain-paper Kobunsha first editions. Hasegawa frequently retained an earlier colophon in later reprints; consequently, the Meiji dates printed in a volume do not necessarily date the physical copy. Several books in the present group carry the address 38 Honmura-cho, Yotsuya-ku, rendered in English as 38 Yotsuya Hommura, an address used from 1902 to 1911. Their advertisements include the three titles of the Second Series, including The Broken Images of 1903, placing those copies no earlier than 1903 and suggesting the circa 1910 reissue state known for the twenty-volume series. The Enchanted Waterfall carries an earlier advertising state extending through No. 23 and is conservatively dated circa 1898-1902. The undated copies are cataloged within broad, evidence-based ranges rather than assigned unsupported exact years. Condition varies. Nine volumes retain their original pictorial front wrappers. The Wonderful Tea-Kettle lacks the original illustrated front wrapper, the surviving text beginning with the illustrated title opening. The group shows the usual fragility of crepe-paper books: rubbing and fading to wrappers, dust-soiling, waviness, folds and creases, worn or loosened silk ties, chipped corners, short edge tears and occasional marginal loss. The Ogre's Arm has irregular tears and losses at the fore-edge of several leaves, mostly outside the principal text in the photographed areas. Battle of the Monkey and the Crab has several sharply folded and curled outer corners. The Enchanted Waterfall has a notably rubbed and faded wrapper; Shippeitaro has edge wear and small losses around the binding; My Lord Bag-o'-Rice has conspicuous wrapper creasing and wear. Despite these defects, the illustrations retain much attractive color, and the collection remains visually engaging. The text sequences appear generally continuous from the photographs, but the books have not been physically collated leaf by leaf against a formal bibliography. An appealing collection representing ten of the best-known and most graphically inventive titles in Hasegawa's series, including heroic, supernatural, animal and moral tales. Of interest for Japanese woodblock printing, illustrated children's books, folklore, Meiji-period publishing and the Western reception of Japanese visual culture.…