Bird Hunting Methods in Japan: A photographic record (in Japanese) + Photographic Record of Bird Hunting in Japan (complete English translation), in 2 volumes

Pp. (4), 1-4, 1-4, (2), 1-92, (1), 1-66, (2); 211 fine black-and-white photographs, 10 text-figures. Publisher’s original course weave brown tan cloth, lettered in silver on the spine and with a color image of birds flying into a net inset into the cloth on the front cover, pictorial endpapers, sm 4to (10.25 x 7.5 inches) + Pp. 95 (complete typescript translation into English of the Japanese text) with original pencil drawings of images from the Japanese text. One-half yellow cloth, lettered in black on the spine, over light purple decorated boards, sm 4to (10.25 x 7.25 inches). This rare volume on bird hunting in Japan deals with all hunting methods including the use of air-nets, water-nets, blinds, hooks and bait, baskets, box-traps, cage-traps, rope-snares, hawking/falconry, cormorants, decoys and more standard methods such as shooting. For each method, specific diagrams are provided for building the traps or for training the hawks. The English translation, which was likely authored by Seinosuke Uchida who helped edit the original Japanese text, is divided into sections similar to the Japanese printing – the custom translation (single-sided) is very detailed and the quality of the English is good. From the research library of ornithologist Oliver L. Austin (past Director of the Austin Ornithological Research Center in Wellfleet, Massachusetts and past Curator of Ornithology at the Florida Museum of Natural History), with his rectangular Japanese/English name-stamp seal on the rear endpaper. This work is very rare especially with the custom translation into English.