Takejiro Hasegawa’s crepe paper publications
Sep 6th, 2017 by bachmann
Takejiro Hasegawa was a Japanese publisher focused on books for export to Europe, the tourist trade, and for foreign residents during Japan’s Meiji period. Hasegawa was noted for employing foreign residents as translators of famous Japanese poems and folktales and recruited notable Japanese artists as illustrators. In 1885 he started what was known as Ehon (“picture”) books for Westerners. The publisher used the traditional Japanese book binding style “fukuro-toji”. The process involves woodblock printing on one side of long sheets of paper, folded up in half in a zig-zag manner, and secured along the spine with silk sewing. While following traditional Japanese book binding, these were produced for Westerners with a left to right reading sequence and text primarily in English.
The most notable characteristic of Hasegawa books was the use of “chirimen-gami”, or crepe paper. The production of this paper was laborious, where moistened Japanese paper was wrapped around a cylinder and crinkled by pressing the paper down. It was removed, flattened and re-wrapped over the cylinder in the opposite direction, eventually repeating this routine several times before moving into printing. While it was costly, Hasegawa noticed how Westerners loved the paper for it’s texture and durability (particularly with use by children).
The Rat’s Plaint
This color woodblock publication was translated into English by Archibald Little, who was married to Alicia Little, known for her battle against the Chinese foot binding practice.
This little jeu d’esprit is well known, but, as with many of our own nursery classics, its authorship is unacknowledged. I bought my copy at a book-stall in Ichang for 1 1/2 d. Whether it dates from the Sung dynasty (twelfth century), as one wise native informed me it did, or later, I am unable to say. Suffice it that, apart from its unquestioned humour, the poem gives us incidentally some interesting and effective pictures of Chinese social life, and so has, I venture to think, a more than ephemeral interest and needs no apology from me for its introduction to Western readers. – Archibald Little
White Aster
This publication was originally translated into German by Prof. Karl Florenz and then into English by the missionary, Arthur Lloyd. The story is based on the Chinese original by Tetsujiro Inouye. The story follows a maiden who was found in a clump of white asters. She goes on an epic journey in search of her missing father.
In the version which is here offered to the favorable consideration of the western reader the translator has allowed himself considerable latitude, sometimes trying to render his original accurately, and sometimes very freely; thinking that he could thus do more justice to the poets of the Far East than he could by a rigidly conscientious literal translation which would have killed all the poetical charm of the work. – Florenz and Lloyd
- Description:
- Little, Archibald John 1838-1908 translator. rat’s plaint. Tokyo: Published by T. Hasegawa, [1891].
- Persistent Link:
- http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:30086774
- Repository:
- Widener Library
- Institution:
- Harvard University
- Description:
- Florenz, Karl 1865-1939 author. White aster, a Japanese epic together with other poems. Tokyo: Published by T. Hasegawa, [1897].
- Persistent Link:
- http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:33830448
- Repository:
- Widener Library
- Institution:
- Harvard University