19th Century Western Travels of a Japanese Tea Merchant

[Diary of a Tour of the United States and Europe] Obei man'yu nisshi

Otani, Kahyoe (also Romanized Kahei)

Publication: Yokohama: (the author / Tokyo Insatsu Kabushiki Kaisha Yokohama Bunsha), 1900 (Meiji 33). First Edition.

Notes: A privately printed version of the diary kept by Otani Kahyoe, the president of the Japan Central Tea Traders' Association. "Mr. Otani visited America and Europe in 1899–1900, when he represented both the Tokyo and Yokohama Chambers of Commerce at the Philadelphia Commercial Convention" (William Harrison Ukers, All About Tea, vol. 2, p. 224).

The book provides brief day-by-day accounts of his travels, the scenery, business meetings and dinners he attended, with regular mentions (without much description) of tea shops and tea merchants he visited along the way.

Otani was a merchant in Yokohama and worked as "a buyer for Smith, Baker and Co., one of the large Western merchant houses active in the city. Apparently with financial backing from this firm, he became an export merchant himself in 1868, and he rose to become the leading figure in the Yokohama tea export trade by 1890"—Edward Pratt, Japan's Protoindustrial Elite (Harvard University Asia Center, 1999, p. 93).

[4], [28 leaves of monochrome halftone photographs], [4], 365, [2] pages. The photographs are a combination of commercial images of noteworthy buildings and snapshots of Otani.

OCLC: 16710895 (Yale, LC, Cleveland Public), 672422495 (National Diet Library); OCLC also locates single copies of 1903 and 1908 editions, as well as a 1987 reprint.

Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing). A very good copy in the original green cloth covered boards. Probably lacking a paper slipcase.

Item No: #361857

Price: $750