[Seiko] Kaikoku heidan [Military Defense of a Maritime Nation] by HAYASHI, Shihei

Many woodcut illus., some full-page & double-page. Eleven columns per page; 21 characters per column. Mis-paginations in Vols. 3, 7, & 8. Ten vols. 8vo, orig. patterned wrappers, orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. Japan: Prefaces dated 1786 & 1851. A privately printed edition of this famous text and an extremely rare example of a mokkatsujiban (a moveable wooden type Japanese book printed after 1653; for a fascinating discussion, see Kornicki, The Book in Japan, pp. 159-63). Hayashi (1738-93), was a Japanese scholar and a specialist in military affairs. In 1777, he travelled to Nagasaki, where he was greatly impressed by the size and strength of the Dutch ships. While there, he also learned of the Russian intentions to advance south from Siberia into Asia. This promted him to go to the northernmost island of Hokkaido to study the situation. As a result of this journey, he became alarmed at the weakness of Japan's coastal defenses and ignorance of the outside world. In 1787, Hayashi began to privately issue, in a series of 16 volumes (only 38 sets were produced), his famous and controversial Kaikoku heidan, which recommended stronger military forces and a maritime defense capability. Hayashi had money problems and it took until 1791 for all the volumes to be published. His series is a remarkable example of a study on modern strategy, introducing the military sciences of the West to Japan. Hayashi describes the powerful weaponry of the Western powers and openly criticizes the shogunate for its ignorance of the rest of the world and reliance upon an isolationist policy while neglecting maritime defenses. Kaikoku heidan caused a sensation and was banned by the government in 1792 on the grounds that national security matters were being discussed without official consent. Almost all copies and the woodblocks were confiscated (apparently, only the Library of Congress copy survives, acquired in 1949). Hayashi was placed under house arrest in 1792 and died the following year. Immediately after Kaikoku heidan became a forbidden book, many manuscript copies were made from Hayashi's retained original manuscript and circulated. Hayashi and his fears were soon vindicated: in September 1792 a Russian mission arrived in Hokkaido to press Japan to commence trade. As a result, Hayashi's controversial views continued to receive serious attention and discussion for many years. By the early 1850s, the Japanese government had received a number of unwanted foreign missions demanding that the country end its policy of seclusion and open its doors to commerce. The interest in Hayashi's Kaikoku heidan was revived, and in 1851 or shortly thereafter, our edition was privately printed using moveable type. The choice of employing moveable type instead of woodblocks for our edition was deliberate: the print run was intended to be limited because of the controversial text, issued sub rosa and not for commercial distribution. Books printed in moveable type were less subject to government censorship and typically do not carry a colophon (our example does not have a colophon), which was required for commercial block-printed books (again, see Kornicki, cited above). The greater fragility of wooden type precluded running off large numbers of copies. While some of the woodcuts depict Western cannon and equipment, most of the illustrations depict Japanese defensive techniques. These include protecting ships with bamboo girding the hull; a flying ship (based on that of Lana Terzi); catapults for throwing boulders; spears; shoes designed to slide on top of the snow; pontoon bridges; Dutch, Portuguese, and Chinese style swords; fortification for castles (with an illustration of fortification designed by Vauban); battering rams; assault ladders; treatment for horses; how to build horse stables; etc., etc. The text is also fascinating: Hayashi states that foreigners become weak when the fighting gets bloody, etc. In 1856, three years after Perry's first appearance, there was issued a commercial block-printed edition of Kaikoku heidan. Fine set, preserved in a chitsu. We have located only one other copy of this edition, at the Aoi-Bunko Collection at the Shizuoka Prefectural Central Library (the official library of the Tokugawa Shogunate).