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Lot 30•
POLAR - JAPANESE EXPLORATION SHIRASE (NOBU) Chisima Tanken-Roku [Records of Chisima], Aichi, Kasuagi, 1901
23 March 2022, 12:00 GMT
London, Knightsbridge£800 - £1,200
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POLAR - JAPANESE EXPLORATION
SHIRASE (NOBU) Chisima Tanken-Roku [Records of Chisima], second edition, text in Japanese, 3 full-page, blue-tinted illustrations (one with long tear), 8-page advertisements printed on purple paper, publisher's pictorial wrappers, price label on upper cover, some soiling, short tear to upper cover, spine repaired [Ross 1.1.2], 8vo, Aichi, Kasuagi, 1901
Footnotes
The second edition of the first book written by Shirase, being an account of his part in the ill-fated two-year expedition led by Captain Shigetada Gunji in 1893 to the Kuril Islands, an archipelago north of Japan. On landing on the north-eastern-most island of Senshu the crew members established themselves in a cave, resulting in the death of 10 men. Shirase and five others were left to overwinter, but with inadequate nutrition three of the party died from scurvy, before the final survivors were rescued by a ship sent by the governor of Hokkaido. Described by Chet Ross, bibliographer of Shirase's works, as "very rare".