Batchelor Ven John (2 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. First edition. WITH THE RARE DUST JACKET. Blue cloth, decorated in white and gilt. Jacket with photo of an Ainu man. Octavo volume with 448 pages, frontis portrait of the author and numerous plates and illustrations. Near fine condition, bright clean and sharp. Buff colored jacket with two small chips, but VG+. Batchelor was a British missionary who spent most of his life in northern Japan. He lived amongst the Ainu for 60 years, during which time he devoted himself to the study of their culture and language into which he translated the bible and the book of common prayer. He became the most well-known western scholar working with the Ainu.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. The blurb on the front of the dustwrapper of the book reads: "The writer of this book is known as the greatest living authority on the language, customs, religion and folk lore of the Ainu people. This book contains some of the results of his observations during more than fifty years. The Ainu were the ancient inhabitants of Japan, driven farther and farther north, until now they are found only in Hokkaido and Saghalien. Even there their numbers are diminishing fast. This book will be of interest to ethnologists and students of folk lore and all those desiring to know something of Japanese beliefs and legends, the correspondences with which are most suggestive and worthy of investigation before it is too late. There are numerous illustrations, chiefly from phographs or in colour, from watercolour drawings by Ainu and Japanese artists." This is a large, thick 8vo book running to 448pp, bound in blue cloth (pattern with gilt to upper borad, gilt lettering to spine) and measuring 9" x 7" x 2.25". 95 illustrations, 15 of which are in colour. VG, with scattered foxing, in original and brittle VG buff-coloured dustwrapper (black lettering, photo of "an old Ainu friend"). Dustwrapper has slight loss at the head of the spine, else all intact with just a couple of tiny closed nicks. A scarce book, and rarely found with its original dustwrapper.