Official Guides to Eastern Asia.

imperial japanese railway guides - complete set with original slipcases

These comprehensive and attractive guides were compiled by the Imperial Government Railways of Japan. The project was started in 1909 by the then minister of communications Baron Goto. The idea was to produce 'A Japanese Baedeker' for Asia and this they did successfully replicating the quality and detail of the maps and information.

Originally the Japanese intended to include the 'East Indies' in Vol. IV China but the 'material dealing with China Proper was so great, that we found it no easy task to compress it within a single volume' and therefore a separate volume on the 'Far East' was published. It includes chapters on the Philippines, Bali. Lombok, Java and part of Borneo. Maps include Manila, Saigon, Bangkok, Angkor, Hanoi and Singapore.

It is extremely difficult to find a complete set and one with original slipcases.

First edition; 5 vols, small 8vo (16 x 12 cm). pp. lxxxvi, 350, 19 maps and plans, cciv, 370, 15 maps and plans, x, 488pp, 25 maps and plans, cxxiv, 414, [4], xxx, 519, 26 maps and plans, regulations from the Royal Asian Society pasted down on front free endpaper in 4 vols, numerous illustrations throughout, some in text and some full page, some coloured; publisher's brown cloth gilt; overall all vols in very good condition and all housed in their original brown printed slipcases, some slight staining to the slipcases.