Yokusai Iinuma

Yokusai Iinuma
Shintei Somoku Zusetsu [Illustrated Book of Plants, Revised], 1875
2213

Revised by Tanaka Yoshio & Ono Shokui. Ogaki: Hirabayashio. 20 volumes, large 8vo. Text in Japanese characters with foreword and occasional Latin translations in western script. 1 lithographic portrait of Iinuma. 1205 woodcut plates, many with small sections hand-coloured, each plate captioned in western script with the plant's name in Japanese followed by the botanical binomial and the family to which the plant belongs, all in western type. Bound in the traditional concertina-form between original limp yellow patterned boards, paper title slip on each volume, all contained within five dark blue cloth chemises with toggle catches. Early edition of the "most remarkable [work] ... that Japan had produced in the field of botany' (Franchet & Savatier), with plates that are "artistic and accurate ... [and] striking" (Bartlett & Sohara). "Iinuma was a pupil of Ono Ranzan. he began his Somoku Zusetsu in 1832, and twenty volumes of it were published in 1856, containing descriptions of 1201 species of herbaceous plants ... a second edition was published in 1874 ... and this one contains Latin names in Roman letters. the illustrations are both artistic and accurate. Sometimes in addition to the drawing of the plants as a whole there are excellent enlarged details, nicely hand-colored ... Franchet and Savatier describe this work as the most remarkable that Japan had produced in the field of botany ... they say that von Siebold instructed Iinuma, and his work gives evidence of his acquaintance with European languages. The order of the work is Linnaean ... The second edition [was published in Tokyo in 1874, with the present edition appearing the following year. Both of these editions of this... remarkable flora [were] ... published with a preface in French and a lithographic portrait of the author. The editors were Tanaka and Odo Motoyoshi. The former tells us that they added the Latin names to the illustrations, as well as spelling out the Japanese names in Roman following the English pronunciation. They thanked Savatier, resident in Yokosuka, for verifying the scientific names. The figures are striking for the contrast between the upper and lower leaf surfaces, the former rendered in white on black and the latter black on white." (Bartlett & Shohara pp.65-66). Cf. H.H. Bartlett & Hide Shohara Japanese Botany (Los Angeles; 1961), #29 and pp. 65-67; cf. A. Franchet & L. Savatier Enumeratio Plantarum Japonia sponte crescentium [Paris:1875-1879); cf. David D. Frodin Guide to the Standard Floras of the World ... second edition (Cambridge University Press: 2001) p.775.

Price Upon Request