學海指針社 - 帝國讀本 巻之一 Teisei Teikoku Tokuhon - 1893-1894

Errata Corrige Imperial Readers, Volume I (Teisei Teikoku Tokuhon, Volume I)
Edito by 學海指針社 (Gakkai Shishinsha)
Published in Tokyo by Kobayashi Hachirō / Shūeidō (集英堂), circa Meiji 26-27 (1893-1894).

Corrected edition (訂正), approved by the Ministry of Education (文部省検定済).

Traditional Japanese format (wasō, bound with a dangling strap / fukuro-toji), yellow paper cover with title label on the back. Dimensions: 22.5 × 15 cm. 62 pages (about 30 sheets).

This is a primer (読本) for primary school children of the Meiji era, one of the most widespread private school texts before the definitive introduction of state textbooks (1903-1904). Volume I introduces the hiragana syllabary and a basic vocabulary through short sentences and richly woodblock-illustrated images, often hand-colored or stencil-colored.

Illustrated contents (extracted from visible pages):
• Typical landscapes (shrine torii, sailing boats on the river, fields).
• National flag (Hinomaru) with leaves and patriotic elements.
• Animals: rooster on a branch, fish, cat, dog, weasel.
• Parts of the human body (head, ear, mouth, eye) and portrait of a young person in traditional clothing.
• Traditional weapons (bow, arrows, spear, katana).
• Scenes of daily life and military life (soldiers marching, domestic interiors).

The text alternates large characters for children and furigana, with simple, moralizing language typical of Meiji education.

This is a copy from the Teikoku Tokuhon series (“Imperial Reader”), one of the main reading series for Japanese primary schools in the late Meiji period. Approved by the Ministry of Education, it represents a valuable document of Japanese educational modernization: the meeting of Confucian/patriotic tradition and Western methods of teaching reading through pictures.

Complete or well-preserved copies are today rare on the market, because schoolbooks of the era were intended for intensive use and often destroyed. Volume I, being the first in the series, is particularly sought after by collectors of Japanese children’s books, the history of education, and Meiji illustration. The original stitched binding and vivid illustrations enhance its antiquarian and documentary interest.

Condition: typical signs of use (stains, pencil notes by a student, slight paper darkening), but intact structure and sturdy binding.

A beautiful piece of late 19th-century Japanese educational history.