On the subject of Japanese shell books: Does anyone have any information
about a book in my possession Titled "A Collection of Japanese Shells" by
Shintaro Hirase published in 1934 ? The book has tissue between color plates
and has an index and text in both Japanese and English. I am especiially
interested how the color plates were made . They  are still in very good
condition and appear to have faded very little.

----- Original Message -----
From: Masashi Yamaguchi <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2000 10:53 PM
Subject: Re: Japanese shell book


> The first edition of Kira's book was published in 1954 and it was revised
in
> 1959. My copy was
> printed in 1972 (18th printing of the 2nd edition) and has a picture of
> Spondylus on its cover (and two strombids on the box cover). This
> represented our standard reference book for Japanese shells for three
> decades after the first edition was published.
>
> Masashi Yamaguchi
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:   Patty Jansen [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent:   Wednesday, January 19, 2000 2:51 PM
> To:     [log in to unmask]
> Subject:        Japanese shell book
>
> I recently acquired a copy of this book in a second hand library (with the
> three Cymatiums on the front cover). Whereas it seems there is only
> Japanese text, my copy has a title page mostly in English. It says:
> Coloured illustrations of the Shells of Japan by Tetsuaki Kira 1955, Osaka
> Japan. As for the rest of the book, there are many colour plates (quite
> unusual for a book that old), and the text is in Japanese, but at least,
> as
> Tucker Abbott used to say 'the latin is in English'
>
> Patty
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>
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