Frank Rinder

This book has been considered by academicians and scholars of great significance and value to literature. This forms a part of the knowledge base for future generations. So that the book is never forgotten we have represented this book in a print format as the same form as it was originally first published. Hence any marks or annotations seen are left intentionally to preserve its true nature.

Old-world Japan - Legends of the land of the gods is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1895. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres. As a publisher we focus on the preservation of historical literature. Many works of historical writers and scientists are available today as antiques only. Hansebooks newly publishes these books and contributes to the preservation of literature which has become rare and historical knowledge for the future.

A partir de 1854 las puertas del Imperio del Sol Naciente se abren de par en par, para lo bueno y para lo malo. Guerras civiles, epidemias, hambrunas, devaluaciones de moneda y una creciente militarizaci n de la sociedad; algo que choca con el desmedido inter s de algunos eruditos occidentales por conocer todos los recovecos antropol gicos de una cultura pr cticamente aislada del mundo exterior, pero altamente sofisticada. Entre ellos se encontraba Frank Rinder, el autor de Old-World Japan, obra datada en 1895 y que le ofrecemos por primera vez en idioma castellano, guardando la mayor fidelidad posible al texto original. Rinder recoge veinte relatos que describen a la perfecci n el alma nipona y su mitolog a ntimamente ligada a la Naturaleza; relatos en los que habr cabida para la creaci n del mundo y las aventuras de dioses y peque os seres fant sticos que cautivar n por su sencillez y belleza.

Frank Rinder (1863-1937) was the art correspondent of the Glasgow Herald and adviser to the National Gallery in Melbourne, Australia. He had the luck of a substantial bequest to the gallery, which enabled him to be aggressive as its agent. His other books included a history of the Royal Scottish Academy and a study of the etchings of D. Y. Cameron. He selected Thomas Heath Robins (1869-1953) to do the illustrations for his Japan book. Dr Hilary Taylor writes: "...this book is a gem. Clearly, it reveals contemporary enthusiasm for things Japanese - a taste which had burgeoned since the 1860s and the reopening of Japan to the West - and also Robinson's remarkable talent and agility as an illustrator. ... It is also interesting to compare Robinson's illustrations with those produced, in the same year, by the young Aubrey Beardsley for Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur. Beardsley, of course, had learned much from Japanese prints... In contrast, Thomas Heath Robinson's illustrations for Rinder's book on Japan do not have the same static figures, tense with eroticism, that we find in Beardsley, but they do reveal a vivid exploration of the power of black and white in illustrations that are at once full of sinuous, Art Nouveau movement and rich with exoticism. Robinson and Beardsley must have been well aware of one another's work."