This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/18/2025
SHIRASE, Nobu (1861-1946). Tanken Monogatari: Nankyoku to Hokkyoku [Exploration to the North Pole and South Pole]. Tokyo: Shunkichi Endo, Echigoya Shobo, First Edition, First Printing, 15 January 1944. Small 8vo. (4), 190 text, [1], 3. Color title page using blue and red ink with illustration, one full-page with 2 black-and- white photographs, one full-page with two maps illustrating north polar and south polar regions, 10 full-page drawing illustrations, 15 drawing illustrations in text. Prior owner's initials on rear end leaf and in kanji on second blank rear flyleaf. Text in Japanese. A complete copy in Near Fine condition. Scarce. Ross 2.5.1 Stiff paper cover with dust jacket. Front cover and spine with lettering in black and color images. Water-color image on front cover of the “Kainan Maru" in ice-filled waters. One of three books written by Nobu Shirase, and this written two years before his death in 1946. This book was written for a juvenile audience and presents an overview of exploration encompassing both the north polar and south polar regions. Shirase was one of the few explorers during the heroic era of exploration to have ventured both into both north and south polar regions. He explored the Alaskan Arctic for one year during the Chishima – Kuril Island Expedition in late 1800's and into the Antarctic regions during the Japanese Antarctic Expedition 1910-12. From the personal collection of Shirase's bibliographer, Chet Ross.