Ai deshou?

As someone who has spent much of their time changing faces to suit the situation, I forget who I am sometimes. When that happens, I just go back and remember what makes me smile. Because those memories are constant and at the root of my being.

My love, my passion.

So here is one facet of my love: old books.

Old books are a combination that I absolutely adore: history and the printed word. Before internet, before computers, before even movies, this was our way of spreading information and entertainment. This was our advancement.


I bought this book some years ago, with very little information on it. The online seller put the bare minimum up about it, probably due to English not being their first language, but the pictures sold me on it. When I first opened the package, it was love at first sight. The book was so fragile, I was almost afraid to touch it. Every page is thinner and more delicate than newspaper, almost fabric, like a dollar bill that has gone through the wash too many times. The whole book itself sags under its own weight if not supported properly.


I decided to get more information about it. The problem was I only knew a moderate amount of Japanese, and even then the cursive script of this era was unreadable to me. So I decided to use what sources I had: my professors. Luckily for me, I was taking World History at the time with Dr. Lutz. She agreed to look over the book for me with her coworkers. Interestingly, even though I told her what to expect, she still seemed delightfully surprised when I brought it in.

She brought it back a couple of days later, resealed in its original mailing package inside an archival box, along with small packet of information. Dr. Lutz told me that her coworkers were amazed by my book and pointed out certain highlights in the information packet. Apparently it is an issue of Kinmo zui Taisei by Tekisai Nakamura and Shusui Shimokobe from 1789. A sort-of encyclopedia with short descriptions and an accompanying illustration.


These are the only pages scanned because I like to handle this book as little as possible. Just peeling apart the pages is nerve-wracking because every crease has been there longer than I have been alive. It has a few holes from where small bugs have eaten through as well, but those in itself are amusing because you can trace where an insect burrowed through five pages decades ago.

How did I get this book?

Ebay. For only $100.

The internet is a magical place.