Japanese Family Crests [Tourist Library: 37]

Softcover 8vo, 105pp. Very Good with mild sunning and bumping to yapp edges. A tidemark of dampstaining around the first and last pages, contents otherwise bright and clean. Color frontispiece, many photographs and diagrams printed in a deep brown color. Surveys the symbolism and uses of the crests, illustrated with isolated design elements and photographs of them in use. The Tourist Library Series began ca. 1935, amidst a notable period of modernization in Japan. The books were written on various aspects of Japanese culture, providing background on the traditions along with information on how they had evolved and were present in modern culture. They were intended particularly for Western tourists to become informed and curious about the cultural offerings of modern Japan. This publication was among the last in the series, published in the spring of 1941, shortly before the bombing of Pearl Harbor.