MITSUKURI, Shogo.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Gaiban kifu ("Flags of Foreign Lands"). A brightly illustrated compendium of 153 world flags, improving upon one of the most influential atlases in late Edo-period Japan. It includes the flags of the United Tribes of New Zealand, the Vatican, much of South America, Venice, Morocco, and Prussia. It also gives variations for countries with separate national, merchant, and ambassadorial standards.Gaiban kifu is the appendix to Kon'yo zushiki ho ("An Overview of the Geography of the World, Updated") Volume 3, issued both as part of the set and separately. Kon'yo zushiki ho, published by the Dutch-studies scholar Mitsukuri Shogo (1821-1847), was widely circulated in the lead-up to the Meiji Restoration and contained detailed information about America and Australia, areas that were not well known by the Japanese populace. As noted in the preface to Gaiban kifu, this appendix was issued to expand the scope beyond just America and Australia to include other parts of the world.

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