‎"SHIRASAWA, M. HOMI (YASUMI). - THE MONUMENTAL ""FOREST TREES IN JAPAN"".‎
‎Iconographie des Essences Forestiéres du Japon. Préparée par M. Homi Shirasawa, Inspecteur des Forêts. Tome I-II. 2 Vols. - [THE MONUMENTAL ""FOREST TREES IN JAPAN"".]‎

‎Tokio (Tokyo), 1900-08. Folio. (43x30 cm.). Bound in 2 contemp. hcalf. Covers gilt and with gilt lettering. 2 title-pages in French, 2 title-pages in Japanese and 1 colophon-leaf in Japanese in each volume. With 162 (88 + 74) fine chromolithographed plates, each with Latin nomenclatur and text in Japanese at foot. Some brownspots to the Japanese titles, plates fine and clean.‎

Reference : 51223

‎Extremely scarce first edition of this monumental work on the forest trees of Japan. The copies in the European libraries seem to be without text, and only a few have all the plates - ""no text seen to vol. II"" ( Stafleu & Cowan). A volume of text to vol. I published, but only in Japanese ??.""Atlas of Forest Trees in Japan consists of two volumes. The author is Yasumi Shirasawa (1868-1947), who held a Doctor of Science degree in forestry and was the first President of Japanese Forestry Society, and an engineer of the Bureau of Forestry, the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. Published in the 33rd year of the Meiji Period (1900), the first volume includes 88 plates of the trees in Japan painted by Nobumitsu Maruyama. The second volume was published eight years later, in the 41st year of the Meiji Period (1908), and contains 74 plates of trees drawn by Hideo Oishi. The two volumes together record 162 species of forest trees in Japan. The plates feature both the exterior appearance of each species and sectional profiles, as well as detailed illustrations of the transverse sections and the grain of each tree. The atlas is the earliest application of three-dimensional illustration techniques for the rendering of trees. Along with the rich shades and bright tones used to color each plate, the complexity and sophistication of the drafting capture each tree in remarkable vividness."" (Taiwan Forestry Research).Stafleu & Cowan, 11.901.‎