This is a complete catalogue, in Japanese with a parallel Japanese/English introduction, of early books acquired by the diplomats W. G. Aston, Ernest Satow, and Heinrich von Siebold in Japan, mostly in the 1860s and 1870s. Of the 2,500 items, some are manuscripts and some movable-type books from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; the bulk, however, are wood-block printed books of the Edo period (1600–1868). The editors' introduction outlines the history of the collection, identifying some of the more important items and explaining the bibliographical principles on which the catalogue has been compiled. The entries that follow give title, author/editor/illustrator, date of publication and/or printing, all participating publishers, and the seals of previous owners.
