I have here for sale a book entitled THE SERPENT WITH EIGHT HEADS No. 9 in the Japanese Fairy Tales series published by T Hasegawa in Japan around the end of the 19th century.  No date stated, but this one was published around 1886 and retold in English by Basil Hall Chamberlain.  It is printed on the original crepe paper double sheets and secured with white silk thread.  Illustrated throughout in colour.  The whole series is listed on the inside back cover.

In 1885, Hasegawa published the first six volumes of his Japanese Fairy Tale Series, employing American Presbyterian missionary Rev. David Thomson as translator. As the series proved profitable, Hasegawa added other translators beginning with James Curtis Hepburn for the seventh volume, including Basil Hall Chamberlain, Lafcadio Hearn, and Chamberlain's friend Kate James, wife of his Imperial Japanese Naval Academy colleague, Thomas H. James.  The books were illustrated by Kobayashi Eitaku until his death in 1890, and by various other artists afterwards.  By 1903, the series reached 28 volumes in two series. Most of the stories were based on well-known Japanese folk tales, but some of the later books, including several by Lafcadio Hearn, are thought to have been invented rather than translated, or perhaps combine elements of several folk tales. The books continued to be reprinted, sometimes with variant titles, for several decades.

Colour illustrated paperback covers with silk thread ties.  In fine condition.  28 pages, 15 x 10.5 cm.

We have over 2000 items in our Ebay shop on a wide range of subjects, so please feel free to have a browse and see if anything else takes your fancy.

Postage will be by Air Mail outside of UK.  If you buy more than one item then the postage cost falls for the second and further items as I will put them into one parcel - so you save money. We wrap and post the parcels on Monday and Tuesday - therefore if you pay before midday on Tuesday we will get it in the postal sacks on Tuesday night, and if it is after that time then it will go into the postal service on the following Monday.