Aesop's Fables

This six-volume set is a Japanese translation of Aesop's Fables, published in 1875 with woodblock-printed black-and-white illustrations. Scenes from Aesop’s Fables that are found in this set include Androcles, the bear and two travelers, city mouse and country mouse, the farmer and the viper, and the wild boar and fox. The original English version was Thomas James (English, 1809-1863), Aesop's Fables: A New Version, Chiefly from Original Sources, published in 1848. The edition of Aesop’s Fables which Watanabe On owned and used for this translation was published in 1863. The illustrations in James's book were by John Tenniel (English, 1820-1914), Joseph Wolf (German, 1820-1899), and Josiah Wood Whymper (English, 1813-1903)–the illustrations were revised in the 1858 edition; the illustrations of the 1863 edition were unchanged from 1858. Among the 23 illustrations by Kawanabe Gyōsai, 19 relate to the original illustrations in James's book, but the rest are all Gyōsai’s own designs.

Aesop’s Fables had appeared before in Japanese translations, but the interest of this particular edition lies in Gyōsai’s illustrations which are based very closely on the 1848 edition, but succeed in being very much more than simply pastiche. First printed in 1593 by the Jesuit priests who brought these moralistic tales to the Japanese people, Aesop’s Fables (Fabulas do Esopo) was the first Western text to be translated in Japan; it became popular with all levels of society. Kirishitan (Japanese term for “Christian) is used in Japanese texts as a historiographic term for Catholics in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. Christianity and Kirishitan-related publications were banned in 1614, but the universal themes and innocuous animals of Aesop’s Fables slipped past the censors – in fact, it was the only work brought by Christian missionaries to do so. This particular edition of Aesop’s Fables was printed in 1875, two years after the ban on Christianity was lifted.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Lionel Katzoff, Baltimore, MD [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 2023, by bequest.