£150
4to, pp. [vi], ii, xxix, [i], iii, [i], 841, [1], iv, [2] + frontispiece and 61 plates containing 72 images (19 in colour; two omitted from plate list). Errata slip tipped to penultimate leaf. Original purple-brown silk, front board blocked in blind, spine and front board lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, original printed heavy card box. Cloth lightly spotted, box rubbed and a bit bumped and worn at extremities.
An important early work in English on the Japanese poetic art of haiku, certainly the largest such compilation published before R.H. Blyth's work of the 1950s and 60s. Based on Miyamori's 1930 compilation 'One Thousand Haiku', but vastly expanded and revised to make it suitable for an international audience - the earlier work was primarily aimed at Japanese learners of English - it influenced Blunden and has been argued as the source of Yeats's 'Imitated from the Japanese' as well. Scarce in this condition, especially with the original box.
