The Black Ship Scroll: An Account of the Perry Expedition At Shimoda in 1854 & the Lively Beginnings of People-To-People Relations between Japan and America, Based on Contemporary Records, with Translations by Richard Lane, Ph. D. and Scroll Paintings in Full-Color

Very Good+ to Near Fine in a Very Good DJ. The Book shows rubbing to the titles at the back-strip, though they remain easily legible; a hint of tanning to the text pages; the binding is square and secure; the text is clean. Free of creased or dog-eared pages in the text. Free of underlining, hi-lighting, notations, or marginalia. Free of any ownership names, dates, addresses, notations, inscriptions, stamps, plates, or labels. A handsome copy, structurally sound and tightly bound, showing the noted imperfections only. Bright and Clean. Corners sharp. The DJ shows a hint of rubbing and toning to the panels and back-strip; two small coffee stains to the upper front panel; the price has been clipped. Remains attractive, but showing the noted imperfections. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. Small, thin 4to (10.35 x 5.3 x 0.65 inches) . Text and 40 pages of color scroll paintings. Language: English. Weight: 12.7 ounces. Black quarter-cloth on cream boards with embossed red and black titles at the upper front panel and cream titles at the back-strip. Decorated endpapers. Weathermark Editions. Hardcover with DJ. An unusual and aesthetically pleasing volume, centering around the unofficial Japanese perspective of the Perry expedition of 1854. Though titled "The Black Ship Scroll", the stylized colored pictures are really from two scrolls, which circulated among the general readership of Japan soon after the expedition and which may indeed have had a single original source. The introduction is 23 pages long and contains much interesting background information, but of course is by no means an exhaustive history of the expedition - nor is it intended to be. Colored pictures with Japanese captions and English footnotes span 40 pages. They are not in themselves exceptional artistically, but represent your average Japanese scrollwork of the time. Their interest is mainly historical as a representation of the attitudes and cultural impressions and exchanges of the moment. ; Small 4to 9" - 11" tall; 80 pages.…