[Oriental Series] Japan and China.

“The Viceroy Edition” printed on Japon, limited to 50 “numbered and registered” sets, this No.8. Educated at the Royal School, Dungannon, Trinity College, Dublin and the Royal Military Academy, Brinkley first went out to Japan in 1867 as a Military Attaché to the British Legation. In 1871 he resigned his commission to become an adviser on Foreign Affairs to the new Meiji Government, also teaching at the Naval Gunnery School of the new Imperial Japanese Navy. From 1881 he owned and edited the Japan Mail, which later merged with the Japan Times, receiving financial support from the Japanese Government, consequently maintaining a highly positive view of their modernizing stance. He was also the Tokyo-based correspondent for The Times of London gaining fame for his dispatches during the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars. He was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure by Emperor Meiji for his contributions to Anglo-Japanese relations. He died in 1912 and was buried in the foreign section of the Aoyama Reien cemetery in Tokyo. A lavish production with authoritative text reflecting Brinkley’s wide-ranging expertise in Japanese and Chinese history, culture and arts.

12 volumes, Japan in 8, China in 4, 8vo. Original forest green full morocco, all boards with double panel of French fillets gilt enclosing a border of gilt cherry blossom mon, large central device of a rippled pool with floating blossoms, spine gilt with further floral and geometric tools, crêpe de chine doublures, t.e.g. others uncut, Each volume with a window-mounted water-coloured frontispiece on silk, 20 mounted hand-coloured woodblock prints, profusely illustrated with coloured and tinted photogravure and half-tone plates, all with coloured Japanese tissue-guards, two large folding coloured maps. Spines uniformly sunned to dark brown, very light shelfwear, but remains a very handsome set.