天文図解 Tenmon Zukai (= Illustrated Explanation of Astronomy)

A$7,500 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Osaka : Ganshōdō, 1897 (first published in Osaka by Itamiya Mohe Kaihan, 1689). Five volumes, octavo, original printed wrappers (lightly marked); printed title labels, 32, 31, 37, 64, 54 folding leaves, with 60 woodcut illustrations of astronomical diagrams, devices and star maps, including a volvelle in volume three; complete; housed in a modern slipcase. A rare late-Meiji printing of the first book on astronomy published in Japan. The Japanese astronomer Iguchi s Tenmon Zukai is a remarkable work that brings together Chinese and Buddhist astronomy and Western physics as introduced to East Asia by the Jesuit missionaries. It is richly illustrated with diagrammatic representations of the earth and celestial bodies, including the nine-sphere universe diagram drawn from the Chinese edition of Matteo Ricci’s A Profound Demonstration of the Two Spheres (1603), and others based on the writings of Johann Adam Schall and Ferdinand Verblest. This groundbreaking treatise explains for the Japanese reader the modern concepts of cosmography as they relate to ancient Chinese teachings, some of which Iguchi explains are now outdated. Iguchi s work was first published in 1689. This identical late-Meiji printing, although made two centuries later, is nonetheless rare. It is an important document that demonstrates the residual influence of Jesuit scientific teachings long after their missionaries had been officially expelled from Japan in 1614 and the strict isolationist policy known as Sakok

• Binding: Hardcover

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