Jul 09, 2020 - Sale 2540

Sale 2540 - Lot 320

Price Realized: $ 938
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
(OPIUM WAR.) Kaigai Shinwa. 5-volume report on the Opium War and hostilities between Great Britain and China. 8vo format, 10x7 inches, original pale patterned wrappers with printed paper labels, moderate wear; scattered staining and corner thumb soiling. Japan, 1849

Additional Details

Tinted woodblock illustrations by Utagawa Sadahide including a world map with hand-colored portions indicating areas under British control; a map of China, Korea and Taiwan; portraits of an English commander and soldiers; incineration of opium at the Bogue; warships; naval battles, ground battles, and various other wartime atrocities.

Published only a few years before Commodore Perry and the Black Ships arrived in Japan, this historical text reported the events which occurred in China and how a foreign power (here Great Britain) was taking control of a neighboring Asian country - a sensational and alarming warning to the isolationist country to protect themselves against potential similar circumstances.


together with: Seimei Gundan. 5-volume history of the Chinese repelling foreign invasions. 8vo format, 10x7 inches, original blue wrappers with printed paper labels, worn; minor scattered staining and corner thumb soiling. Japan, 1849.

and: An attractive color-printed woodblock map of China. 14 1/2x19 1/4 inches, center fold, small worm track repairs. Japan, 1849.