Famous Products of Japan’s Mountains and Seas, Illustrated (Nihon sankai meisan zue), 1799

Woodblock-printed book

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries

This five-volume work promoted various products from all around Japan, from its prosperous “mountains and seas,” as the title states. Specific places became famous for their manufacture, and curious readers could learn more about the honey from Kumano, sake wine from Itami, abalone from Ise, along with many other manufactured products. In one of the openings shown here, we see a fisherman cutting a tentacle from the great octopus from the Nakagawa River in Etchū. A view of Deshima, the fan-shaped island residence of Dutch traders in the period, is represented in the other volume; the area on the right is described as the “grounds of the red-haired Dutchmen,” and the vessel as the “red-haired Dutchmen’s ship coming into harbor.”

Julie Nelson Davis