Item No: #362037 [Agricultural Theory] Nogyo honron. Inazo Nitobe.
[Agricultural Theory] Nogyo honron

Key Agricultural Work by the Author of Bushido

[Agricultural Theory] Nogyo honron

Notes: One of the most influential Meiji-era agricultural works, a philosophical and theoretical (rather than practical) exploration of farming that was reprinted many times. Nitobe studied at an American-run agricultural college in Japan and continued his studies in the US; this book synthesizes American and Japanese ideas about agriculture.

The book was published while Nitobe was on an extended visit to the United States, during which he would write and publish, in English, his most enduring work, Bushido: The Soul of Japan, which remains in print in the US today. During the early 20th century, Nogyo honron competed with Bushido as Nitobe's major work.

The title is somewhat difficult to translate. Scholars who reference it in English have referred to it as Agricultural Theory, Premises of Agronomics, Fundamentals of Agronomy, and An Orthodox Theory of Agriculture.

Nitobe (1862–1933) was part of the second class of students at the Sapporo Agricultural College (now Hokkaido University), a school founded and run by American professors at the request of the Meiji emperor. While in college, Nitobe converted to Christianity. After graduation he attended Johns Hopkins for several years, he converted to Quakerism, and then went to Germany, where he wrote his Ph.D. thesis on how changes in Japanese land ownership affected agriculture. He returned to the US in 1890 and married a Quaker woman, Mary Ellinton (the families of both the bride and the groom opposed the marriage and the Society of Friends originally withheld approval). Nitobe returned to Japan where he had a long, distinguished career as an intellectual, writing notable books on many subjects.

2, 4, 4, 4, 10, 454 pages

The first edition is scarce. OCLC: 61727099 (Berkeley), 673376795 (NDL); 50575216 (4th ed., Yale), 17323429 (5th ed., LC), 122863436 (8th ed., Columbia)

Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing). A lovely copy in the original printed paper wrappers. The sheets are opened but untrimmed at the top and fore-edge. With the notation, "Library of Harata 1898" written in ink on the first blank (who Harata was has not been determined by your cataloguer). A lovely copy in original condition.

Publication: Tokyo: Shokabo, 1898 (Meiji 31).

Item No: #362037

Price: $1,000