Browse Items (63 total)
- Collection: West Meets East
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A succinct account of the adventures of Mr William Adams.
William Adams (1564-1620) was the first Englishman to reach Japan, arriving on a Dutch ship at Bungo (a principality containing present day Usuki City) in May 1600. After a summons by the Emperor at Osaka, imprisonment and interrogation, he was…
A view of Fusy-yama : from a Japanese drawing.
"Towering over all in the western distance, but too often concealed by clouds, the majestic Fusi-yama reared its conical summit" (Oliphant, 1859, v. II, p. 97).
An authentic account of an embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China ...
In 1792, George, Lord Macartney was appointed Ambassador to the Emperor of China. His prime objective was to negotiate a treaty of commerce and friendship, and to establish a resident Ministry at the court of the Emperor at Peking (Beijing).…
Boudoir and Bed-chamber of a Lady of rank.
"Less crowded with articles of furniture than the apartments of ladies of quality in England, the decorations of a bedchamber and boudoir in China are not less costly or complete - a suite of rooms being appropriated to the females of the mandarin's…
Camps and trails in China [front cover].
Roy Andrews (1884-1960) was an explorer, and long-time curator and director of the American Museum of Natural History. His Asiatic Zoological Expedition of 1916-17 was written up in his "Camps and Trails in China". The pagoda on the cover is found at…
China monumentis [frontispiece].
Kircher was ordained a Jesuit in 1628 in Mainz, Germany, but fled his homeland and settled in Rome in 1634 to escape the Thirty Years War. He remained in Rome most of his life researching a wide variety of disciplines, from geography and astronomy to…
Chinese Vessels.
This detail shows "two of the vessels made use of by the Chinese. The first of these marked (A), is a junk of about a hundred and twenty tons burthen, and was what the Centurion hove down by; these are most in the great rivers, though they sometimes…
Cormorants Fishing
"The Chinese fishermen take out with them in the morning ten or twelve of these birds, still fasting, either in light boats, or on bamboo rafts. They make them dive one or two at a time: the cormorant seldom comes up without having taken a fish, and…
Garden of the temple at lewchew.
"About this period a mutual friendship began to exist between us; confidence took place of timidity; and now, instead of permitting only a few to visit the shore at a time, they fitted up the garden of a temple as a sort of general arsenal for us;…
Glimpses of unfamiliar Japan [front cover].
Patrick Lafcadio Hearn reinvented himself. He was known as Patrick in his native Ireland, Lafcadio in America, and Yakumo Koizumi in Japan. He wrote 11 substantial books about his adopted country. On arrival he was given useful advice: 'Do not fail…
Illustration from The Circle of Chalk.
"Mrs Chang: My lord, the matter is settled. since I have accepted your gifts, my daughter is yours. You may take her away at once. And you my child, you know that it is not I who send you forth from the shelter of my arms. For now you have been…
Indiae orientalis ... .
Abraham Ortelius (1527-98), rightly called the 'Father of Modern Cartography', developed the idea of assembling a compendium of maps to form an atlas. The first edition of his "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum" was published in 1570 and it was a great…
Ixos Haemorrhous - (Gmelin).
"In Mr Heine's notes we find the following in reference to this bird: 'I found this species in various places around Macao. Like nearly all the other birds, it had retired to the rocky hills, where it hopped gaily from bough to bough, or flitted…
Japan, an attempt at interpretation [front cover].
Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) is almost as Japanese as haiku. Both are an art form, an institution in Japan. Haiku is indigenous to the nation; Hearn became a Japanese citizen and married a Japanese [Setsu Koizumi], taking the name Yakumo Koizumi. His…
Japanese women, Simoda.
From the middle of the seventeenth to the beginning of the nineteenth-century, Japan, through the Tokugawa Shōgunate, was successful in rigorously enforcing a policy of seclusion. No Europeans were allowed into Japan except the Dutch who were…
Kotto : being Japanese curios, with sundry cobwebs [front cover].
This first edition contains a selection of Japanese legends and stories, including nine tales from old Japanese books to illustrate some strange beliefs. Hearn adds: 'They are only curios.'
Life in the Chinese Royal Household [01].
A rare 1880s illustration on pith-paper of a scene in the Chinese Royal household.
Life in the Chinese royal household [02].
A rare 1880s illustration on pith-paper of a scene in the Chinese Royal household.
