Hokuetsu Seppu
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Hokuetsu Seppu (北越雪譜 "Snow stories of North Etsu Province"; translation: Snow Country Tales: Life in the other Japan by Jeffrey Hunter with Rose Lesser, Weatherhill, 1986) is a late Edo-period encyclopedic work of human geography describing life in the Uonuma area of Japan's old Echigo Province, a place known for its long winters and deep snow.
First published in Edo in 1837, Hokuetsu Seppu was written by Suzuki Bokushi (1770–1842), a textile merchant and leading townsman of Shiozawa, a settlement on the old Mikuni Highway. The work, an immediate best seller that eventually encompassed seven chapters when a second volume was published in 1842, covers a wide range of local topics from the shapes of snowflakes and varieties of snow, to the customs, lifestyles, local dialects, industries, and folk tales of Japan's Snow Country. The text covers 123 themes from multiple angles and is also richly illustrated with detailed sketches.
Santō Kyōzan—famous gesaku writer and brother of Santō Kyōden—assisted with publication of the text. He wrote the preface and drew the illustrations, which were based on Bokushi's originals.
[edit] Sources
- (Japanese) Suzuki, Bokushi. Hokuetsu Seppu. Edited and annotated by Okada, Takematsu. Iwanami Shoten. Tokyo, 1936; republished 1978. ISBN 4-00-302261-0
- (Japanese) Yamaoka, Kei. Echigonokuni Yukimonogatari: Suzuki Bokushi to Hokuetsu Seppu (Snow tales of Echigo province: the story of Suzuki Bokushi and his Hokuetsu Seppu). Kobunsha. Tokyo, 1996. ISBN 4-7704-0891-9
- Hunter, Jeffrey and Lesser, Rose, translators. Snow Country Tales: Life in the other Japan. John Weatherhill Inc. Tokyo, 1986. ISBN 0-8348-0210-4
