[From Preface]: Tōō kikō 東奧紀行 [Travelogue from Mutsu & Dewa Provinces]

19 woodcut illus. & maps, some double-page. 33 folding leaves. Large 8vo, orig. wrappers with the orig. title-slip (label rubbed), new stitching. Osaka: Asano yahei 浅野彌兵衛, 1792.




First edition of this travelogue from a journey to the northern part of the main island of Honshu. Mutsu and Dewa provinces were very large territories that today correspond to Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, Aomori, Yamagata, and Akita prefectures. At the time of publication, the region was relatively far removed from the center of Japanese civilization.


Locations pictured in the book include Shiogama, a town in present-day Miyagi Prefecture; the group of pine-covered islands called Matsushima; and Mount Chōkai, an active volcano in the region; and other places.


Nagakubo (1717-1801) was "a geographer and mapmaker, one of the first to place Japan on the longitude and latitude grid, and creator of a number of influential woodblock-print maps of Japan and of Asia. Sekisui also worked on the Dai Nihon shi, the grand history project centered in his home domain of Mito. His study of geography, and the travels that formed part of his research, were undertaken in the context of that larger project. But in addition to his geographical and historical scholarship, Sekisui was also a prolific author and, as many intellectuals did, he fancied himself an accomplished composer of poetry in the Chinese style (kanshi)" (Yonemoto, Mapping Early Modern Japan, p. 70).


"All of Sekisui's travel accounts blended poetry in Chinese with description of local scenery, routes, and roads. In this way, his writings combine his vocation and his avocation, as long stretches of relatively unadorned prose are punctuated by highly allusive kanshi verses and an occasional diagram or illustration" (Marcia Yonemoto, pp. 70-71).


Nagakubo includes detailed descriptions of several stele, including the Tagajō stele 多賀城碑 and the Nasu no kuni no miyatsuko stele 那須國造碑. The Tagajō stele, almost two meters tall, was erected in 762 to commemorate the restoration of the town of Tagajō. The stele records the distances from Tagajō to various locations throughout Japan, followed by a record of the city's founding and restoration. The stele was discovered in the second half of the 17th century. The Nasu no kuni no miyatsuko stele was erected in memory of a local official who died in 700 CE. This stele too received attention in the late 17th century. In our book, Nagakubo includes transcriptions of the stele inscriptions as well as drawings of the stones.


In an appendix to the main text, entitled Hokuetsu shichiki 北越七奇, Nagakubo describes the "seven marvels of Echigo." Nagakubo set out to find these locations without earlier guidebooks to help him, but was able to locate them by asking locals. The definition of these seven varies, but in our book they include, for example, the "smelly water," "fire well," the "bundle of eight plums," the "triple chestnut," the "upside-down bamboo," the "mummified Buddha," and the "burnt earth."


Nagakubo's book was finished in 1760 but only published in 1792.


Fine copy, very minor worming occasionally touching characters, preserved in a chitsu.