was an innovative Japanese publisher specializing in books in European languages on Japanese subjects. He employed leading foreign residents as translators and noted Japanese artists as illustrators, and became a leading purveyor of export books and publications for foreign residents in Japan.

Beginnings

Hasegawa's earliest known books were published under the "Kobunsha" imprint in the mid-1880s but around 1889 he began publishing under the names "T. Hasegawa" and "Hasegawa & Co." Early publications included a monochrome woodcut illustrated

Hokusai , known mononymously as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. His woodblock printing in Japan, woodblock print series ''Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'' includes the iconic print ''The Gr ...

collection and a two volume ''Writings of Buddha'' (Kobunsha, 1884). Many of Hasegawa's early books were in the form of '' chirimen-bon'' (ちりめん本) or

crêpe paper Crêpe paper is thin, textured, and often colorful decorative paper used in paper craft. It is created by adhering wet tissue paper to the cylinder of a Yankee dryer and then scraping it off with a blade once dry. This process creates gathers in ...

books.

Japanese Fairy Tale Series

In 1885, Hasegawa published the first six volumes of his Japanese Fairy Tale Series, employing American

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

missionary Rev. David Thomson as translator. As the series proved profitable, Hasegawa added other translators beginning with

James Curtis Hepburn James Curtis Hepburn (; March 13, 1815 – September 21, 1911) was an American physician, educator, translator and lay Christian missionary. He is known for the Hepburn romanization system for transliteration of the Japanese language into the L ...

for the seventh volume, including

Basil Hall Chamberlain Basil Hall Chamberlain (18 October 1850 – 15 February 1935) was a British academic and Japanologist. He was a professor of the Japanese language at Tokyo Imperial University and one of the foremost British Japanologists active in Japan during ...

Lafcadio Hearn was a Greek-born Irish and Japanese writer, translator, and teacher who introduced the culture and literature of Japan to the Western world. His writings offered unprecedented insight into Japanese culture, especially his collections of legend ...

, and Chamberlain's friend Kate James, wife of his

Imperial Japanese Naval Academy The was a school established to train line officers for the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was originally located in Nagasaki, moved to Yokohama in 1866, and was relocated to Tsukiji, Tokyo, in 1869. It moved to Etajima, Hiroshima, in 1888. Students ...

colleague, Thomas H. James. The books were illustrated by Kobayashi Eitaku until his death in 1890, and by various other artists afterwards. By 1903, the series reached 28 volumes in two series. Most of the stories were based on well-known Japanese folk tales, but some of the later books, including several by

, are thought to have been invented rather than translated, or perhaps combine elements of several folk tales. The books continued to be reprinted, sometimes with variant titles, for several decades. The two series of fairy tale books were also packaged into various types of sets. In 1922 an additional

title, '' The Fountain of Youth'' was added, and a five volume Hearn set was sold. '' Princess Splendor: The Woodcutter's Daughter'', a translation of '' Taketori monogatari'' by American missionary Edward Rothesay Miller, was presumably excluded from the series because of its greater length. A three volume series of Aino Fairy Tales translated by

, consisting of '' The Hunter in Fairy-Land'', '' The Birds' Party'', and '' The Man Who Lost His Wife'', was also issued in 1887. Many of the fairy tale books appeared in other European language translations, including French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Swedish.

Other publications

Besides the popular fairy tale books, Hasegawa produced other books for Japan's tourist trade and foreign community. Many, like his illustrated calendars with humorous verses, were of an ephemeral nature. There were also translations of Japanese poetry, including the three volume series, ''Sword and Blossom: Poems from Japan'' translated by Charlotte Peake and Kimura Shotaro (1907-1910), collections of prints by famous artists such as

Hiroshige or , born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format landscape series '' The Fifty-three Stations ...

and

, and illustrated books on Japanese life and customs, such as ''Japanese Pictures of Japanese Life'' (1895), ''Japanese Topsyturvydom'' by Mrs. E.S. Patton (1896), and ''The Favorite Flowers of Japan'', with text by Mary E. Unger and illustrations by Mishima Shoso (1901).

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * Riccardo, Franci (2008) ''Takejiro Hasegawa e le fiabe giapponesi del Museo Stibbert'', Livorno, *

External links

Hasegawa's Night Scenes series of woodblock printsThe Hasegawa Typeface
History and downloadable version of his font
Video about Hasegawa's crepe books
by David Bull (30 mins) {{DEFAULTSORT:Hasegawa Takejiro Book publishing companies of Japan