[Hanabi Hiden-shu].

Risho.

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Naniwa (Osaka), Kawachiya Genshichiro [c1817 to 1825]. 15.5x10cm publisher's cloth with remnants of the printed label; 39 double leaves and colophon page inside the back cover, double page frontispiece, woodcut illustrations, some full page. A wormed copy, carefully repaired with washi placed within each folded leaf and the stitching renewed. Most of the worming is towards each end, particularly the back, but there is not so much in the way of serious loss and the whole is legible and remarkably clean and fresh for a book like this. Specially when compared to the only other copy I've ever had in my hands. The first Japanese book on fireworks. One issue of this is dated 1817 but CiNii, the NDL and Waseda are not certain enough to assign a date to the others. Philip's 'Bibliography of Firework Books' does list it but only from a translation of the Kokusho Somokuroku (the national bibliography of books before 1867) entry provided to him by the British Library. There it is dated c1825 and Philips states that no more than six copies are extant in Japanese libraries. This can be revised a touch, not a lot:This copy is identical to the NDL copy online.Identical but for wrapper colours to Waseda's copy - including no hint that there was ever a title inside the front cover - until we get to the colophon leaf which is very different. They both bear the name of Kawachiya Genshichiro, both in Shinsaibashi but Osaka rather than Naniwa. Their copy was co-published by Suharaya Mohei of Nihonbashi in Edo (Tokyo) who must be part of the Suharaya/Kinkado tangle.Cinii finds five entries, three at Tenri University.Tokyo University's copy is dated Bunka 14 (1817) in the colophon. The colophon, still Kawachiya in Shinsaibashi but Osaka rather than Naniwa, is very different. That copy has an illustrated title page inside the front cover, unlike any other I've found.Kyushu University doesn't mention colophon or publisher.Tenri University has a colophon in line with Waseda; they may also have another incomplete copy.The title translates as firework secrets and, like many trades, the secrets were kept in the trade. Until this book and for at least another fifty years the secrets of fireworks were held in manuscripts. The attrition rate for a book like this with an audience of black-thumbed, fire-prone pyrotechnists must have guaranteed not too many secrets leaked out.

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• Titolo: [Hanabi Hiden-shu].
• Condizione: very good