Early Migrations - Japanese Wrecks Stranded and Picked up Adrift in the North Pacific Ocean by Charles Wolcott Brooks
'Ethnologically Considered, as Furnishing Evidence of a constant infusion of Japanese Blood among the Coast Tribes of Northwestern Indians.'
Fascinating publication that lists all the known incidences of Japanese vessels adrift or wrecked around the world from 1613 to 1876 including cases of crew being rescued (and sometimes crew found dead). Prior to the 1860s, Japanese were forbidden to return to Japan due to the 'Closed Country' or sakoku policy, even if the sailing vessels the Japanese people were on got caught in typhoons or strong winds and were blown off course for hundred of miles. These records are very important and interesting to read. Wolcott's theory about the mixing of rescued Japanese sailors mixong with North American Indians is also fascinating. In Japan only copies found at the National Diet Library and the International Research Center for Japanese Studies Library in Kyoto. A reprint was published in 1964 but ours is the original 1876 edition.
San Francisco, California. Re-printed from the Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences. 1876.
pp. 23[1] + 1 folding map. 22.7 x 14.3cm.
In very good condition. Wear to covers near binding (residue from being nicely repaired?). Internally very good. Number at top left of front cover written neatly in red ink. Small, 'Bancroft Library, University of California Withdrawn' stamp in two places. Otherwise very good. b36051605
