Marrin's Bookshop

Item Description

8vo. 8.5 x 6 inches. 462 pp. + [1] pp. colophon. Bound in original maroon cloth, gilt. in unclipped dust wrapper with slight top edge sunning and of spine. Minor wear of extremities and top edge foxed; otherwise a very good copy. Illustrated by 4 pages of facsimile plates. A collection of documents in Japanese and English relating to the first English expedition to Japan. It includes transcripts of letters and of the diary of Richard Cocks (1565-1624, who established the East India Company trading post in Hirado in 1613. This was closed by the company in 1623 for suspected financial mismanagement. The book includes extensive noes and a glossary of Elizabethan words in Part II. Suburo Ninagawa was a professor at Meiji Gokuin University, Tokyo and Yokohama.