Nichi-Bei Saho No Joshiki / The Common Sense of American and Japanese Etiquette
Tokyo: Uedaya Shoten, 1937. Large octavo, 9.5 x 6.5", maroon cloth with gilt titles to spine, "Etiquette" gilt stamped to front cover, [27], 3, 18, 308 pp, 4 pages of illustrations. Third printing, published the same year as the first. Text in Japanese. An etiquette manual by Yoriaki Nakagawa, an Issei schoolteacher who served as principal of the Japanese Language School in Seattle from 1928 until his arrest in 1941 by the FBI. The book covers Japanese and American etiquette, and was was "widely read in Japanese communities in the Western United States, serving as a basic guide for those interested learning about manners and etiquette" (Report on Designation, Seattle Japanese Language School, City of Seattle). Japanese Language Schools such as Nakagawa's enforced strict discipline in order to teach students "how to behave properly across the divide of Japanese and American cultural spaces" (Fleet, "Nikkei in the Pacific Northwest, 127). Nakagawa himself states that he wrote the book because "I felt keenly the over-riding importance of etiquette for us who lived in a foreign land. Since the old days we had been the race of courtesy, and I wanted people to demonstrate this national characteristic as international citizens in America." To this end, the book contains sections on posture, shaking hands, clothing, speaking style, Western and Japanese table manners, gift giving, sending Christmas cards, behavior in a retail shop, recognizing flags of the West Coast states, and much more. Eight in OCLC. A nice copy with slight toning to pages and bowing to covers. Item #11497
Price: $850.00