There is a class of books that are very famous and have been talked about too much in history, but the commentators are often vague, and the arguments are not without errors or contradictions, so that the reader is always confused - "The Words of the Book Ticket" is such a book. Ninety-three years since the advent of this book, because of the high cost, small number of prints, the stock is originally extremely limited, and most of them are hidden in private book baskets, even if there are occasional "Zhengrong" in ancient bookstores or auctions and other occasions, it is also a strange price, it is difficult to associate with ordinary literati and scholars, and almost a strange book is annihilated in the smoke and dust of the century.
The author's first Japanese edition of "Words of Book Collection Tickets" (August 1929 edition of The Literary market agency) and Chinese edition (translated by Wei Dahai, August 2021 edition of the Seventh Floor Bookstore and Jincheng Publishing House)
According to Mr. Wu Xingwen, a scholar from Taiwan, in "My Journey to Collect Book Tickets", in the early 1990s, he first came to Beijing and went to Dongzongbu Hutong to visit Mr. Fan Yong, a big man in the publishing industry:
He showed me Ye Lingfeng's collection of books and periodicals. At that time, I had agreed with him that when he had asked someone to complete the translation of Shozo Saito's "Words of The Book Ticket" and retrieve the first version of the dark green sheepskin suit sent for decoration, I would find someone for him to publish it. (Wu Xingwen, "My Journey to Collect Book Tickets", Sanlian Bookstore, August 2001, first edition, 267 pages)
It can be seen that at least thirty years ago, publishers on both sides of the Taiwan Strait had the intention of translating this book into the Chinese-speaking world. In the meantime, the secret is little known. Until August 2021, "The Story of the Book Ticket" was finally translated into a Chinese, produced by the Seventh Floor Bookstore of Zhongtu Network and paid by Jincheng Publishing House, which finally unveiled the mystery of this strange book and the long-cherished wish of more than one generation of cultural people in the country.
"My Journey to Collect Book Tickets", by Wu Xingwen, Sanlian Publishing House, August 2001
Chinese official advertising slogans on the waist cover, such as "Masazo Saito, the originator of the Japanese book collection ticket", "The Bible of the Oriental Book Ticket", "The pioneering work of the Asian Book Ticket Research", and "If the collectors and researchers of the book ticket do not collect this book, or write a long article about this book, it is a great 'incompatibility with the identity'", etc., in addition to the five consecutive exclamation points appear to be too strong, the "originator" is slightly insufficient evidence, it should be said that it is generally reliable, this book is indeed worthy of those names, Some of them are actually slogans or industry comments when the Japanese version was first published. The translator Wei Dahai is a well-known translator who is known for his translations. However, rao is like this, Chinese version does not mean that the original Japanese version is an obvious fact:
As a "biblical book", the text is only one of the contents, and the collection ticket and the way it is presented, as well as the physical form of the book itself as a medium of text and graphics, are also important aspects. And in this regard, the Chinese version is inferior to the original version, and it is really not possible to calculate. To use an inappropriate analogy, if the original Japanese version is a heavily colored oil painting, the Chinese version is basically just a sketch sketch. As far as the folio is concerned, the Chinese edition is made into a semi-naked ridge hardcover, which is less than half the size of the first Japanese version, resulting in the inner page format being too pocket-sized, coupled with the general paper use and low printing quality, it is an indisputable fact that the beauty of the original book's collection ticket is damaged. The author has always advocated that for books outside the region, especially those rare books that have long been evaluated in the history of publication, either do not get involved, and if they are to be introduced, it is advisable to implement the "take-ism" and strive to retain the original taste, otherwise the meaning is not great, and this case is also.
Numbered page of the first edition of the author's collection of "Words of The Book Ticket" (No.431)
One of the original sticker pages of the original collection ticket in the author's original edition
The author's original copy of the book stamp in the first edition of the collection is the second page of the original extension payment page
For nearly a century, Chinese the world's reading of this "Bible" can almost write a "History of the Acceptance of the Words of the Book Ticket". Fan Gong recalled the enlightenment of his library ticket, saying:
As early as the 1930s, I read an article in a literary journal entitled "Book Stamps and Book Seals", which may have been written by Ye Lingfeng, which immediately attracted me. Since then, I have been keeping an eye on the introduction of book tickets, and my interest has not diminished. (Fan Yong, "Everywhere in the Book", 294 pages)
Ye Wen enlightened Fan Yong, and Ye Lingfeng's own collection ticket enlightenment originated from Saito Shozo. To be precise, it was Saito and an Oriental printmaking magazine called "Print art" that "often sees book tickets designed by Japanese printmakers." It was the book advertisement in that magazine that made Ye Lingfeng know that "Shozo Saito, who was famous for studying book tickets, wrote a book "Words of Book Tickets" and wrote to him to buy it":
He replied to the letter and gave me a few of his own book collection tickets, and told me that there was an organization in Japan that loved book collections, and that like collecting stamps, they could exchange their collections with each other, and asked me to send a batch of my own book collection tickets, so that I could exchange them for a batch of other people's book collection tickets. I did as he said, and sure enough, I got a lot of Japanese bibliophiles' book tickets. Later, they introduced my book ticket to the member's publication, saying that I was the only bibliophile in China who was keen on collecting book tickets. (Ye Lingfeng, "Library Tickets and Me", published in Hong Kong's New Evening News, September 13, 1962)
According to Mr. Chen Zishan's research, Ye Lingfeng and Saito Shozo corresponded between 1932 and 1933, "exchanging book tickets, inheriting Saito Shozo's gift of the first edition of "The Story of The Book Ticket" and a volume of "Paper Fish Fanchang Chronicle", and Ye Lingfeng returned Ye Dehui's famous works "Shulin Qing dialect" and "Shulin Yu dialect", and thus began the two people's intimate but very moving divine friendship for more than ten years." The "organization that loves book tickets" mentioned in Ye Wen should be the Japan Book Collection Ticket Association established in July 1933, whose purpose is to introduce and export Japanese book tickets to overseas, and at the same time introduce overseas book tickets to promote the development of book ticket culture. Prior to that, Saito and Toyotomi co-hosted another book-collecting and good-nature organization, the Japan Ticket Collection, from July 1922 to April 1928, he held five book-ticket exhibitions in Tokyo and Osaka, and published five collections of collected tickets. The sixth book ticket exhibition was originally planned to be held, but in the preparatory stage, it was fruitless due to the discord between Saito and Toyotaka.
In December 1933, Ye Lingfeng published a long article in the second issue of the fourth volume of Modern Times, "The Words of the Book Ticket", which is recognized as an authoritative text in the history of Chinese book tickets, and has a great achievement in enlightenment. According to Mr. Chen Zishan's research, this article "not only borrows the title of Shozo Saito's book, but also the content is deeply influenced by Shozo Saito's "Words of the Book Ticket"":
Ye Lingfeng's article is divided into four parts: the so-called book ticket, the small history of the book ticket, the production of the book ticket and the afterword, the second part of the small history of the book ticket is borrowed from the "Words of the Book Ticket", and the history of the development of the Japanese book ticket is almost wordless. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that China's book ticket research has been inspired by the "Bible" of Japanese book tickets from the beginning.
Another fan of Shozo Saito was Lu Xun. During his lifetime, he wrote almost everything about Saito, and until a month before his death, he also collected Saito Masazo's newly published collection of books and sayings, "Paper Fish Offerings". The collection of books published by the Book Prospect Society in May 1936 was a special edition limited to 500 copies, and according to Mr. Chen Zishan's investigation, Lu Xun's collection was No. 490 - this is a digression. As far as "The Words of the Book Ticket" are concerned, before Ye Lingfeng, Lu Xun should be an earlier reader. "Lu Xun's Diary" recorded on June 13, 1930: "At night, I went to the Neishan Bookstore to buy a copy of the "ShuShu Ticket の話", ten yuan. However, Lu Zang's "Words of the Book Ticket" was not the first limited edition of August 1929, but a popular edition (or revised version) published in April 1930, unnumbered, and now in the Lu Xun Museum in Beijing.
Zhou Zuoren should have been powdered by Saito Masayoshi three times very early. According to the scholar Zhou Yun's excavation and collation of the old collection of Zhou Zuoren, which is now in the library of foreign documents in the National Map, Zhou Yun has at least four kinds of compilations by Shozo Saito, such as "The History of Perverted Worship" purchased by the author on July 14, 1930", and also the "History of Modern Literature and Art", as well as the "History of Modern Literature and Art", Taisho Thirteenth Year [1924] January. Title page Zhu Wenfangyin: Zhou Zuoren) is a book, and its content is quoted in the Introduction to the Chinese Translation of the Ancient Chronicles and Divine Scrolls. "On November 6, 1933, the East Asia Corporation purchased the "Great Chronology of Modern Writings and Writings" (Tokyo: Hokodo Bookstore, Showa 7 [November 1932]), which completely replaced the History of Modern Literature and Art."
Author of "The Tale of the Book Ticket", Shozo Saito and Buntori (april 25, 1953)
And the same version as Lu Zang's "Words of the Book Ticket", Zhou Zuoren also had a copy:
357. Shozo Saito, "蔵書票の話", Tokyo: Book Prospect Society, Showa 5 (1930) April. Title page Zhu WenFang seal: Bitter Rain Zhai collection of books, sheepskin spine, book spine damaged, yellow paper, printed 500 parts, there is a store logo: Yuyingtang Bookstore Tokyo Kanda store Hongo store. (Zhou Yun, "Collected Wild Geese", Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, "Liuhe Series", November 2021 edition, 550 pages)
Liuhe Series: "Collected Wild Geese", by Zhou Yun, Shanghai Literature and Art Society, November 2021 edition
The book was apparently purchased at the Yuyingtang Bookstore. Zhou should be the old patron of that store, and there is no shortage of records of purchases from that store in "Zhitang Collection of Books and Scattered Examinations". Tamakido is located in Ichigome-do, Jimbo-cho, and is the core of the core of Shuji. Founded in Hongo in 1902 and opened in the 15th year of Taisho (1926), the current owner, Takao Saito, is a disciple of the legendary "First Person to Identify Ancient Books in Jimbo town" and the late Owner Ofomachi Shigeo. However, it is not known whether the "Words of the Book Ticket" collected by Zhitang was purchased by himself or given to someone. As for the time of entry, according to Mr. Shinan's unpublished diary of Zhou Zuoren, the reply to me was:
February 9, 1941: "Toku Gyokueido Yori-Yōichi. "Empress"The Story of Shozo Shibuto's Book Slip".
According to the spirit of the resolution of the first library meeting after the restoration of the Beiping Library to discuss the "case of receiving the books of various traitors", "the books in the Zhitang Collection were handed over to the Beiping Library for safekeeping after they were checked correctly on June 24, 1947" (Zhou Yunyu). Since then, this "Bible" has completely disappeared from the mainland's media vision, and it has been nearly half a century since it re-emerged. At the beginning of this article, it is mentioned that in the early 1990s, after Mr. Wu Xingwen met with Fan Gong in Beijing, he agreed that Fan Gong would "ask someone to complete the translation of Saito Shozo's book "The Words of the Book Ticket", and Mr. Wu promised to "find someone to publish it for him". At that time, Fan Gong had already "sent the "dark green sheepskin first version" in his hand to be "renovated", and the first version that had been "renovated" should be the one that Ye Lingfeng had given to Saito Shozo himself in the early 1930s, and then flowed into Fan Gong's hands, "now in the Shanghai Press and Publication Museum" (Chen Zishan).
After meeting Fan Gong in Beijing, Mr. Wu seemed encouraged, "On the way back to Hong Kong, I was in a hurry and first borrowed a revised version of the book from Huang Jundong (back in leather, the content is the same as the first version, but with an extra book ticket)". Here we need to add, who is Huang Jundong? Mr. Chen Zishan wrote in the preface to the Chinese edition of "The Words of the Book Collection Ticket":
Hong Kong book talker Wong Chun Tung is also a collector and researcher of book tickets. In the early 1960s, following the good intentions of Mr. Takeuchi, an expert in modern Chinese literature in Japan and an emeritus professor at Kyoto University, Huang Jundong obtained a first edition of "The Words of the Book Ticket", and if he obtained the treasure, he wrote the article "The Words of the Book Ticket". ...... Although it is only more than a thousand words, it is the first text in China to introduce the "Words of the Book Ticket".
Unexpectedly, mr. Wu borrowed the book from Huang Jundong, but on the way home, he landed on the taxi, "for this matter I have been grumbling, and finally bought an identical version in early 1997 and returned it to the owner in mid-June." Later, Mr. Wu told me that he actually bought two copies at once, one for the owner of the book and one for his own use. Mr. Chen Zishan said that Huang Jundong's collection was the "first version", which seemed to be wrong, and should be based on Mr. Wu's own words, that is, the "revised version" of the "back leather suit" (the leather spine), which was the same as the one in his own hand, without numbering.
This is basically the general acceptance of this "Bible" in the Chinese cultural circles for about seventy years from its publication to the end of the 1990s. Judging from the materials found in publications and media, from Er Zhou to Huang Jundong and Wu Xingwen, all the collections are "revised editions", and only Ye Lingfeng and Fan Yong have the first version, and they are the same book. So the question arises: what kind of book is "The Story of the Book Ticket", and what is the difference between the first and revised editions? In the first version of the self-prologue, Saito Shozo wrote:
The publication of the book "The Story of the Book Ticket" has been mentioned repeatedly, but it has always been empty slogans and has not progressed, and it has been five years since then. Of course, the reasons are also manifold, and I have long been mentally prepared for the difficulty of seeking perfection. Sakamoto of Wengu's study was in charge of publishing, and most of the typesetting was completed last spring (1928), just for printing, but eventually shelved again due to market relations. To be ashamed, the inscriptions of Mr. Defu Sufeng, the island of Wushui and starr's preface, which were delivered by the courier, were shelved for more than a year and a half. Later, there was a troubling problem of the loss of the original drawing of the tibetan ticket and the blurring of the printed sample. Painstakingly conceived publications, including many precious documents that have not been introduced to Japan so far. Fortunately, at the end of last year, Mr. Umehara enthusiastically expressed his concern. I saw that he was enthusiastic and respectful of the publication work, so I simply handed him all the topics.
The text is not long, but the information revealed is quite dense. First of all, we know that the publishing plan had been in operation five years before the first publication (1924), which was a fateful end. The two publishers, Sakamoto and Umehara, are mentioned in the article, and an anecdote from the history of modern publishing is drawn. However, a missing translation in the preface to the Chinese edition has some impact on understanding the background of the publication. The original text is to say: At first, Sakamoto of Wengu Bookstore accepted the publication "with the intention of losing money", but in the end he picked the pick. You can imagine how adventurous this publishing project is. Sakamoto, the owner of Wengu Bookstore, was the main publisher of the magazine "Literary Market", and it was none other than Saito who persuaded Sakamoto to take on this task. "Literary and Art Market" is a legendary literary and art magazine, Taisho fourteen years (1925), founded by the strange coffee publisher Umehara Kita ming, known for its fierce selection of topics, sufficient materials, large scale and famous, although the sales are not satisfactory, but it has been repeatedly "banned" (distribution prohibition) sanctions, the future is worrying. Beiming himself has long been on the blacklist of the authorities' publication censorship, labeled as a "lewd publisher," and the economic punishment is not a problem, and he often invites the misfortune of being reckoned with, and sometimes has to hide in Shanghai, the "freest city in East Asia.", in the concession of the magic capital, taking advantage of the protection of extraterritorial jurisdiction, boldly engaging in "knowledge production", and then smuggling the printed books back to Japan, which is quite respected by the lovers of secret books in the Interior of the East, and is called "our Umehara.". As one of the core authors, Saito naturally hoped that the journal would survive, so he recommended Sakamoto, the "most reliable publisher", to Umehara, and shoved his own "private goods" - the title of the book collection to Sakamoto.
"Obscene Publishing Maniac" Umehara Kitaki (1901-1946), photographed on August 6, 1934
However, objectively speaking, Sakamoto's pick is also reasonable. The Japan Ticket Contest, hosted by Saito and Toyotomi, held five book ticket exhibitions in six years, and the best performance was the second exhibition held in 1923 at the Ueno Pond Nobata Crab Leaf Hall, with 93 participants and 106 paintings. Immediately after the Great Kanto Earthquake, it deteriorated, and the number of members was always less than 100. As a publisher, it was only natural that Sakamoto was worried that there was no market for "The Story of Book Tickets". In addition, the magazine "Literary and Art Market" was banned, and the publisher Umehara had to flee to Shanghai. In September of the second year of Showa (1927), after the compilation of the September and October issues of "Literary and Art Market", Kitaki sent a "Notice of Editorial Office Relocation" to all its members and readers, and the payment was signed by Kitaki and the publication's colleagues, Hongxia Sato and Jie Sakai:
Doing magazines in Japan, where small bureaucrats are becoming more and more stubborn, and doing it for two years, I feel that I am even tired of being perfunctory. In view of this, we have finally taken the first step of internationalization – to Shanghai, the "Asakusa of the World", the capital of free speech.
At this point, this book survived for two years, and a total of nineteen volumes of cultural publications died. But legally, the publisher is still there. In the shanghai concession area, Beiming edited and published the Indian "The Kamasutra", because it was published in Shanghai, the whole book was not abridged, no tildes (referring to some sensitive words that need to be avoided were replaced by symbols such as ×, △, ○), which read like a cloud and flowing water, and it was smooth and vivid. But needless to say, this is also a banned book.
In the spring of the following year (1928), as soon as Bei Mingfu returned to China, he was arrested and released in the summer. In the autumn of the same year, Saito and Kitaaki met unexpectedly at Shinagawa Station. Saito recalls in the article "My Bad Guy Friend Kitaaki" (轍悪の友北明):
Shinagawa Station in early autumn. I actually ran into beiming, who had been missing for a long time, and he was poking his head out of the car window. ...... He was going to Oiso and said that he would spend the night at a friend's villa. So we talked until the Chigasaki station where I got off the bus.
He said that the problem at hand had been basically dealt with, and a new group of people was ready to reopen the drum. Then I asked if I had any suitable plans, and if there was, he could take over, and I gave him the title of "Words of Book Tickets" that had been difficult to give birth for five or six years. For him, this is obviously a loss-making publishing project, so he plans to clean up the backlog of projects in the next two or three years, and then go back to this book collection ticket. I didn't admit it, just out of six or seven books, it was my turn to be clumsy. In June, after making the decision to put it into printing, he endured the pain of the third phase of flower willow disease, looking around for high-quality paper, moving from one paper shop to the next, and managing to put together a dozen kinds of luxury paper needed for printing.
After the "order" of the first edition of the "Words of the Book Ticket", there is the numbered page of the limited edition ("five hundred limited publications"). On that page, in addition to the numbers handwritten in red pencil, the types of paper used in that edition were indicated: a total of nine kinds of paper were listed, mostly foreign, and Mr. Chen Zishan listed six of them in the preface to the Chinese edition. It should be known that in Japan in the early years of the Showa, paper was a scarce strategic material, and strict control was implemented. Without Umehara's social resources and energy, it is hard to imagine that the original version of the Mimoto would have appeared. This is evident only by looking at the paper used in Japanese publications of the same period.
The elegance of the use of paper goes without saying, and the high standard and quality of the printing are also phenomenal. Four or six times the edition (Japanese version specifications, equivalent to sixteen open) folio, hardcover envelope, pure lambskin cover, hand-pressed back pattern, four-color hot stamping of the title, Tenjin (i.e. hot stamping on the upper book). The inner text is printed in two colors, and according to different papers, the beauty of the library ticket is presented by four printing processes - loose plate, screen, chromo plate and wood plate. Among them, the twenty-five frames of the book stamp from the Taisho period to the early Showa period are the original sticker payment: pure black Austrian rosa paper, printed with a green silk bar border, the book ticket is pasted in the middle of the border or slightly above, when reading, there is a kind of effect of reading the old photo album, and it has become one of the selling points of the first edition.
Saito, as a "book idiot", was originally an extremely picky person for binding, but because the manuscript was entrusted to Hokumei, not someone else, he was relieved that after the manuscript and the plate were out of hand, he went to the hot spring hotel to lie flat, but this time there was a bad pool. Beiming did everything that should be done, thinking that it was foolproof, and after seeing part of the printed product, he found that the gilded title of the spine of the book was misspelled in the Latin "book ticket": "EXLIBRIS" was written as "EXLIBLIS". Correct it immediately, and the rest should be the correct spelling - "EXLIBRIS". Most of the wrong version, with the title of the book inscribed by Defu Sufeng, "The Words of the Book Ticket" (蔵書票の話) plus a square box of gilded gold stamping on the strip of lambskin, and then the gilded strip is manually pasted on the spine of the book, from the appearance can not see that it is "two skins", even if you touch it with your hands, you can hardly feel the thickness difference.
After discovering the misplanting, the spine of the book was used to remedy the sticker with the inscription "Words of the Book Ticket" with the inscription "The Words of the Book Ticket" plus the box
This is probably one of the most famous misplants in the history of Japanese publishing. When it comes to the reasons for the misplanting, it is also quite intriguing, and it can be said that it is quite "Japanese". Saito himself spoke English, and also published books in English about library tickets ("Japanese Library Tickets", Meiji Shobo, Showa 16th Edition), and Umehara was Waseda English Branch (Naka Retired), who was himself a translator, and it is reasonable to say that such a low-level error should not be made. But on the one hand, the book ticket has not been in Japan for a long time, it is still a new thing imported; on the other hand, the Japanese pronunciation of "R" and "L" is not distinguished, it sounds like "li". Perhaps Umehara, who speaks English, deliberately wrote "R" as "L" in order to avoid the pronunciation problems of Japanese people, and the result was self-defeating and unknowable - of course, this is the author's speculation.
As far as the results are concerned, after timely remediation and stop loss, it has not had much impact on the publication itself, but in this way, objectively there is another version. So, the question arises: how many versions of the first edition of "The Story of the Book Ticket" are there? How many copies were printed each? This is also a problem that has long plagued me, because so far, all kinds of historical materials have contradicted each other and are so inconsistent that the "facts" that were once considered to be nailed down have begun to loosen and wander, and there is a real need to get to the bottom of the source.
A little combing through the various theories of different eras will find that people's eyes are more focused on two points: one is the five-hundred-part limited full-numbered version, and the other is that among the five hundred, it is divided into several versions, and how many copies are printed. The former seems to have become a "consensus", but about the latter, everyone has always said that everyone is different, and there are many opinions. For example, the Japanese scholar Naoto Higuchi wrote in his book The Beauty of The Hidden Book Ticket ("蔵書票の話", Shobokan December 1998 edition): "Eleven of the 500 are bound in white leather, and the rest are bound in full russet leather, which is exquisite." Mr. Chen Zishan said in the "Preface to the Chinese Edition": "The first edition is limited to 500 copies, of which 12 are the author's own copies, and the other 488 are deluxe books, which are sold by number." Different statements actually stem from Saito's own accounts on different occasions - objectively speaking, the "bell tying people" also played the role of "initiators".
First of all, on the page of the first edition of "Limited Publication of Five Hundred Books", there are four accounts, the first of which is "detailed": "Twelve private distributions, four hundred and eighty-eight deluxe editions sold" (- Inner translation: twelve private cloths, four hundred and eighty-eight copies of the cloth). Mr. Chen Zishan's statement stems from this. However, in the preface to the first edition, Saito wrote: "Of course, the audience of this book is only a few scholars, and the number of prints is limited to five hundred. Ten of them are super special editions, and 490 are special editions, which are naturally not the same as the common publications on the market. The cost is also slightly higher. Among them, the "super special edition" should refer to the "private distribution" version, but the number is not twelve, but ten; the so-called "special edition", that is, the "deluxe edition", the number is not four hundred and eighty-eight, but four hundred and ninety. Higuchi obviously noticed the author's two claims, but he did not have the accuracy of which was closer to the truth, so he adopted the compromise scheme "Eleven" in his work- this is the author's speculation.
Scholar Shinan also noticed the contradiction between Saito's two accounts. He wrote in his travel diary:
The author's self-prologue (written in May 1929) also says the same thing about the number of versions of the two editions (referring to ten super special editions and four hundred and ninety deluxe editions - the author's note). However, the page marked "Limited publication of five hundred copies" reads: "Twelve private distributions, four hundred and eighty-eight distributed editions", which is signed "The Frame and Publisher's Consciousness on July 20, 1929".
However, he believes that different accounts appear in the same book, "but there is an adjustment in the process of publication." That is to say, the super special edition was increased from the original plan of ten to twelve, while the deluxe edition was reduced from 490 to 488, but the total number of prints of the first edition remained unchanged, and it remained 500.
Olive full leather edition in the first edition of The Book Ticket (only twenty copies printed)
Revised edition of "The Story of the Book Ticket" (popular version), Book House Prospect Society, 1930 edition
There is another detail about these two accounts that is of little concern: it is an account of two people, not one person. The preface (also in the front) appears under the signature "Author", i.e., Shozo Saito; the account that appears later (also later in time) on the "Five Hundred Limited Editions" page is signed "Bound and Published by", i.e. Umehara Hokuaki. Accounts of authors and publishers appear in the same edition of the same book and are rare inconsistencies. I can't say whether this means anything or not, as Mr. Shinan said, reflects the "adjustment" in the "publishing process." But in the end, whether the "adjustment" was really made, and what the result was, and it will be allowed to be described later.
Although two versions were mentioned in the first version, there is no detailed description of the super special edition until the point is reached. Regarding the specific circumstances of that mysterious version, including the origin of its publication, the author later made a statement on other occasions:
The original "Words of the Book Ticket" published by Umehara Beiming (referring to the first edition - the author's note) actually produced three kinds. The basic version is a brown full-leather hardcover edition, which was misplanted in the spine of the book "EX LIBRIS", and the result was affixed with a Japanese inscription - this is the majority. The second is the olive fully kneaded leather book, out of twenty. These are the five hundred of the first editions.
At that time, some of the foreign book receipts I had on hand were goods that were difficult to pass during publication inspections. There are almost twenty or so pieces of self-speculation that are "out of date", and they are not used in the above two limited editions. It was a pity that he was buried in vain in his hand, so he made ten supplementary editions. The supplementary version is all white and full-sized denim, and the leather material fee alone costs eight yuan. This is a special version, the unit price is twenty yuan. After printing, one book was taken away in plain clothes, and the author kept the first number, and there should be eight copies circulating in circulation. I can assert that the so-called "special editions" found in the catalogues of ancient books are actually upper editions, and the real special editions are actually not ancient bibliographies.
This "Private Speech on Book Collection Tickets" was written on September 16, 1933, and was included in the book "The Tour of the Idle Edition of the Book Country" published in December of the same year, more than four years after the first edition of "Words of the Book Ticket" was completed. With the passage of time, even the fact that the plainclothes police of the Ministry of the Interior can take the sheep by the hand can be made public, and there is obviously no more concern, and the credibility of its cloud should not be low. From this, three points can be confirmed: First, regarding the number of prints of the first edition, the "consensus" of five hundred copies is really difficult to establish, and the accurate data should be five hundred and ten. The second is to put aside the difference between cover binding, in terms of the content itself, the first edition should include two versions, namely "upper edition" and "special edition", or use the expression in the author's self-prologue, "special edition" and "super special edition" - note that the previous "special edition" is different from the later "special edition". For the avoidance of confusion, this article uses both special and super special editions. The contents of the two are different: compared with the special edition, "the super special edition pastes more than the collection ticket page fifteen, and the printed collection ticket page eight", in addition, after the first version of the "mesh", there is an additional "super special edition special catalog", and also "entrained sixteen-page booklet" (Stop-an); the price is also different: the special edition is ten yuan, and the super special edition is twenty yuan.
Due to the high price of the original edition, the low print volume, the imperfection of the Nippon system and the library of editions published in Japan at that time, and some reasons that could not be put on the table (such as the reputation of the publisher Kitaaki Umehara as a "lewd publisher" and the risk of avoiding some special censorship measures against him), the book has been shrouded in fog for ninety-three years. Most of the introductions to the history of publications and the history of book collections are very general, and it is not enough to believe that they have tasted and stopped, and people are also cloudy. According to the author's limited academic vision, only two biographies of Shozo Saito: Portrait of a Bookworm ("Shuto Shozo Saito Shozo: Portrait of a Bookworm" ("Shufu Fuji Masanobu" ("Shuto Shozo Shozo" bookish outlook society", "Yagi Fukuji, First Edition of The Ordinary Society, January 2006) and "Bookworm Shozo saito And The Book Prospect Society" ("Portrait of Shozo Saito Shozo", by Nobuhide Kawamura, first edition of Jingbunsha in June 2017) have made a relatively in-depth examination of this, but the main basis is only Saito's "Private Words on Book Tickets". Instead, some collectors in China are relentlessly following the development of version research and, in their own way, are promoting it. On the Cloth Book Company forum, there is a post entitled "Discussion on the Edition of the Book Ticket", which is the most informative argument I have ever seen about the first edition, although due to its earlier time (May 2010), it did not cover the latest information, nor was it without error, but it was a valuable discussion.
Shozo Saito Portrait of Calligraphy, Written by Nobuhide Kawamura, Shobunsha, June 2017
For example, regarding the question of whether the super special edition has ten or twelve, the author of the post, Glass Radio, believes that "10 are special editions (that is, the super special edition - the author's note), which are non-selling products stored by the author." The other 490 are for sale", but "2 of them are also preserved by the author, and 12 are not sold". This is indeed a more reasonable inference, and by virtue of this reasoning he unifies the author's statement in the first edition in the self-prologue ("ten parts") with the account of the "bound and published" on the page "Five Hundred Limited Publications" ("Twelve Parts"), which seems more natural and convincing than Mr. Shinan's statement that "there is an adjustment in the process of publication". Mr. Chen Zishan's statement in the preface to the Chinese edition - "The first edition is limited to five hundred copies, of which twelve are the author's own copies, and the other four hundred and eighty-eight are deluxe books, and the number is sold" - may have been influenced by this post. However, the problem is that the judgment of the so-called "author's own non-sale" in the original post seems to lack evidence. Because, these ten or twelve books are also numbered, and there is a price (twenty yuan), not "non-sale". The next question is how many versions of the first version, including the author's own copy, were published. In this regard, Glass Radio believes that there are three types:
First, No. 1-10, is a non-sale special edition. What does this cover look like? It is not mentioned in Japan, but Professor Naoto Higuchi, the most famous japanese researcher of book tickets after Saito Shozo, mentioned it in the book "The Beauty of Library Tickets". These ten are specially bound with white pig skin. This is somewhat similar to Kelmscott's Chaucer's Collection, in which 48 of the 425 limited editions are special editions in white pig skin. It is not known whether Shozo Saito knew of this masterpiece of history and emulated William Morris, or whether the lovers of books in the East and the West had a sharp mind.
Second, 11—? No, is a misplanted book. That is, the book that Mr. Chen Zishan visited, the terracotta lambskin is bound, the cover is decorated with colorful flowers and leaves, the title of the gilded book, and the spine is gilded with "EX LIBRIS".
Third, ? +1—500 number, for a replacement. Dark green lambskin binding, cover embossed with a circle of pattern lace and the words "EX LIBRIS", brown spine, top-down gilded with title, author and publisher.
The glass radio evidence is quite valuable, but also quite representative, so it is necessary to make a general response. First, about numbering. His argument is still based on the "consensus" that the first print run is five hundred, but I think this "consensus" is questionable in itself. Saito wrote very clearly in the "Private Speech of the Book Ticket", the basic tea color plus the olive color of twenty copies, that is, all of the five hundred. Later, as an supplementary version, ten pure white copies were made, adding up to a total of 510. As for the numbering, I personally tend to think that the first two are No.1-500, but which is in the front and which is in the back, is to change another color from a number, or whether the two colors are interspersed with each other, it is unknown; pure white is a separate number, No.1-10. Therefore, according to the different binding and quantity of glass radio stations, the division of the numbering area occupied by each edition is basically not established. Moreover, there is also an obvious contradiction: since the super special edition of the ten and twelve parts have been "unified" (unified into twelve parts), why is it only ten (number 1-10) in the "one"?
Second, about the pure white version. Regarding the cover binding material of the super special edition, Glass Radio said in "One", "These ten are specially bound with white pig skin", and on this basis, an extension was made. I don't know the origin of the "white pig skin", but this is obviously a misunderstanding and has a lot of influence. The author has mentioned Naoto Higuchi's description of the super special edition in his book The Beauty of the Book Ticket, but Higuchi only said "white leather binding", not "white pig skin"; and regarding the number of prints of that version, Higuchi said "eleven", not "ten". (「蔵書票の話》, Elementary School Library December 1998 edition, 202 pp.)
Higuchi Naoto, "The Story of The Library Vote", Shogakukan December 1998 edition)
Third, the type of binding. Glass Radio believes that among the five hundred first editions, including the super special edition, there are three kinds of binding. According to the author's research, there are at least five kinds of binding in the first version of the five hundred and ten films. In addition to the super special edition (ten parts) and the dark green full lambskin cover (that is, olive full kneading leather, twenty parts), due to the misplanting of the spine text, there are three additional bindings: 1, the misplanted version of the "EX LIBLIS" version; 2, after discovering the misplanting, use Su Feng to write "Words of the Book Ticket" (蔵書票の話) plus the box of the gilded lambskin strip to remedy the sticker (in this way to remedy most of the misplanted version, but not all); 3, the "EX LIBRIS" version after the misplanting correction. Another detail is the letter sleeve, which is also divided into two types: the "Book Ticket Words" (蔵書票の話) version and the wordless version. Which letter set is matched with which version of the book should be random and there is no rule.
It can be seen from this that the issue of the type of binding and the number of prints in the first edition is really a confusing account, and I guess even Saito himself has not been able to fully understand it, which is probably the reason why most publication history and book collection history works are reluctant to investigate deeply, or even go around. The book "Japan Book Collection Ticket" (日本の書票, Hiroshi Ueno/Kazutoshi Sakamoto/クリフ パーフィット co-authored by the Japan Book Ticket Association, edited by the Japan Book Ticket Association, first edition by the Bureau of Culture and Publications in May 1982), is an authoritative work on the history of Japanese book collection tickets, and when talking about "The Story of Book Tickets", he wrote:
In 1929, Shozo Saito's "Words of The Book Ticket" was published by the Literary Market Agency. Four or six times the whole lambskin package of five hundred limited editions, beautiful to no good, inspired by this book to book ticket writers, love (book) ticket writers can be described as many. The following year, a revised edition was introduced, which was changed to a 500-part back leather edition (book spine sheepskin suit) of the Kikuban (Japanese edition specification, equivalent to the thirty-two kai), which was published by the Book Prospect Agency. As the enlightenment book of Japanese book tickets, "The Story of Book Tickets" is still cherished by many book lovers and ticket lovers.
Basically, it is point-to-point, and the language is vague to the point of insufficient information. However, since the article mentions "revision", it may be better to expand it slightly.
Japanese Calligraphy, Hiroshi Umino / Kazutoshi Sakamoto / Cliff Parfitt Co-Author, Japan Shosho Kyokai ed., Bunka Press, May 1982 First Edition
The so-called "revision", that is, the reprint. In the preface to the first edition, Saito "expressed his heartfelt thanks to Mr. Umehara Kitaaki for his self-sacrificing enthusiasm for publishing and wished him good health", which is not all polite. First of all, Umehara is indeed working with illness; secondly, the first version of Fu Zi is indeed the result of the strong crossbow of the "deficit project". Unexpectedly, the first version sold surprisingly well, and the high cost of materials was quickly recovered, and only the cost of the printer had to be filled, but it was not a big problem. Saito felt that since the first version was so popular, why not reprint it? He persuaded Umehara to accept the latter's approval. As a result, in April of the fifth year of Showa (1930), a revised supplement was published. Due to the closure of the Literary marketing club at the time of the first edition, the revised edition was published by the Book Prospect Society.
However, at that time, it was already a year before the "Manchurian Incident" (that is, the "September 18" Incident), and the war became more and more intense, and paper was strictly controlled as a strategic material. Therefore, the revised edition no longer has the "willfulness" of the first edition: the sixteen-folio version has become thirty-two open, the two-color printing has changed to monochrome printing, from the full sheepskin rubbing hardcover to the leather spine Dutch plate hardcover, from the limited five hundred full numbered books to the five hundred unnumbered books, "neither paper nor binding is as good as the first version" (Chen Zishan). However, despite this, Japan's unique woodblock collection ticket is selected from the Fujilang Yinzhuang Weng engraving, and there are additions, the printing process is more elaborate, the letter sleeve is more full of design, etc., the revised version can still be described as tasteful, "interesting and unique", such as in Saito's own words: "If you only talk about the woodblock stamp, the quality of the revised version is far better than the first edition... Therefore, if you compare the two pages of the woodblock content, it is really ideal. (Idle Edition of the Book of The Rites of the Nation, pp. 154-155)
Shozo Saito, "Idle Edition Shukoku Tour", Ordinary Society, Toyo Bunko, August 1998 edition
As soon as the revised version was launched, the praise was overwhelming, and within a few days, it sold three hundred copies, and even the Neishan Bookstore in Shanghai sent a mail order. Saito was also very righteous, as the author, he paid part of the printing fee arrears for the publisher, but Umehara fell ill again. However, at this time, something happened again: more than 100 books were bound in the house, and the books that were packed were temporarily managed by the house. Unexpectedly, due to the fire next door, the main house was damaged by pond fish - when the fire was put out, the books in escrow were blistered. This was an accident, but the fire was a force majeure, and the publisher had to admit that it was unlucky. But after some days, the people of the publishing house accidentally noticed that the nearby ancient bookstore surprised the "Words of the Book Ticket", and each time it was sold, there were five to ten copies, and it was served no less than three times. Looking closely at the books, I found that they were water-stained books, and the degree of damage was different, but they were obviously repaired. Only then did the publisher realize that it had been killed by the main house. After reporting the case, although the profiteer entered the bureau, he was only educated once and released. In order to safeguard the rights and interests of genuine buyers, Saito, in the name of the publisher, published a revelation in the magazine "Book Prospect", solemnly declaring that the version sold cheaply by the antique bookstore was "not authentic". Within a year, two editions of such a rare book have been published, which is not only lamentable, but also objectively strengthens the color of the "Book of Legends".
For reasons of print volume, price, geography, war and other reasons, the mainland collectors of this "Book of Legends" are extremely limited. As mentioned above, before the second week of his life, he had started an unnumbered version, which is now hidden in Beijing Lubo and Guotu. Huang Jundong's original Tibetan version was accidentally lost by Mr. Wu Xingwen, and Mr. Wu later re-purchased a copy of "Complete Bi Gui Zhao" from Tokyo, and Mr. Wu himself also entered a copy of the same version. The first edition of Ye Lingfeng, which was donated to Shozo Saito in the 1930s and later transferred to Mr. Fan Yong, is now in the Shanghai Press and Publication Museum. It is said that the copy was "dark green sheepskin" (Wu Xingwen), and if Mr. Wu's account is correct, it should have been what Saito himself called "olive fully kneaded leather book", only twenty copies were printed, which is a very precious volume in the first edition, but the number is unknown; the glass radio said that "this han zhai also has a volume, number 463" - about this edition, I only know these two collectors. In 1997, Mr. Chen Zishan entered a first edition, number 113, which, according to Glass Radio, was "terracotta lambskin binding ... Spine hot stamp 'EX LIBLIS'". From this, it can be inferred that Mr. Chen's collection should be a corrected version of the title of the spine after the wrong planting of the book ridge in the basic model of the tea color mentioned by Saito. In the same basic paragraph, Mr. Xie Qizhang also has a copy, which was purchased for him by Mr. Shinan when he was traveling in Japan, and the number is 485. The author himself also put into the collection of a basic model of tea color, the spine of the book is a mistaken planting version, and then hand-pasted with Defu Sufeng waving the "Words of the Book Ticket" (蔵書票の話) plus a square box gilded sheepskin print, number 431. According to Mr. Shinan in the "Travel Diary", in September 2016, he purchased a white-leather super special edition from Hongo Morii Bookstore, numbered 8, which is the only collector of this edition that I know. In view of the fact that after the original edition was released, the author (Saito Shozo) kept one (No. 1) by himself, was taken away by plainclothes police, and perhaps returned to the publisher (Umehara Kitaaki), and only seven copies were actually circulated, and the value of its edition needless to say.
Over the past ninety-three years, as a classic case, "The Story of Book Collection Tickets" has been constantly discussed by various publishing histories, book collection ticket histories and book binding histories, but most of them are generalized, and there are not many valuable arguments. According to the author's limited attention, the preface to the Chinese edition of Mr. Chen Zishan (later published in the October 13, 2021 issue of Literature and Art Daily under the title of "Book Tickets, Books and Long Objects") is the most informative and reliable text, discussing the content and academic value of this book, its acceptance process and influence in China, including the introduction of Saito Masazo and his learning, and other aspects. I would like to add a few or two points not covered in Mr. Chen's commentary, so that Chinese readers can understand this outstanding masterpiece in the history of publication in a more three-dimensional and detailed way:
Behind the ring lining of the basic brown model held by the author, there are two pages of title pages. The third page of the title is printed with a private book ticket of Shozo Saito, and the right page (the back of the second page) has a brush inscription: "This book is the second of the three works of the library ticket literature." "(本書は蔵書票文三部作の中、第二部に当るものである。 The fall is "Author Shaoyu 叟しるす". Next to the "しるす" (i.e. the "record" of the Chinese), there is a Zhu Wen seal: Rain-viewing Grass House. It should be a party idle chapter of Shaoyuzhuang (Shaoyu Shu Saito's Shosai number). Because the special paper on the title page is thick and non-reflective, and this article is also a two-color printing, whether the language is inscribed by Saito after printing, or printed, the author can not judge for the time being.
In the first edition of "The Words of the Book Ticket", the author's inscription (title two pages) and Shao Yu Shuo's private book collection ticket (three pages)
Judging from the words of "three works of library ticket literature" in the language, Saito seems to have a trilogy-like structure, ready to be launched one after another, but in fact, "The Story of the Book Ticket" is the first bullet, and it is also a groundbreaking work in the history of Japanese book tickets. The second of the three works, YunYun, apparently refers to the order in which he wrote himself, not the time of publication. Because in addition to the "Words of the Book Ticket" and the English version of "Japan's Book Ticket", the publication of two other book collection ticket works, "Japan's Ancient Book Ticket" (日本の古蔵票) and "The History of Japan's Lustful Tibetan Tickets", was already a post-war event: the former, published by the Book Prospect Agency in 1946 in Showa 21 (1946), and the latter in showa 22 (1947), paid by Qingyuanzhuang.
On the last page of Zhiyu, there is an inscription by Shuo Ru and the great bibliophile Defu Sufeng: "The husband has ten thousand books, and he pretends to be a hundred cities in the south." The drop is "Su Feng Chen Ren", and the following are the two party seals. The phrase comes from the "Biography of Wei Shu Li Mi", which means that if a person sits in the book city, why should he rely on being an official of the hundred cities to testify to himself? The cultural self-confidence of the reader should also be a portrait of the person who is less rainy.
The inscription of Defu Sufeng in the "Words of the Book Ticket" reads: "The husband has ten thousand volumes of books, and he pretends to be a hundred cities in the south." ”