Key to the study of ancient Japanese place names / アイヌ語より觀たる日本地名研究 / Ainugo yori mitaru Nihon chimei kenkyū

Tokyo : Bunrokusha, Showa 4 (1929). Octavo, gilt lettered cloth, early Japanese inscription to endpaper, title pages in English and Japanese, pp. xii; 74; (3), light scattered foxing, text mostly in Japanese. House in the publisher’s lettered card slipcase, with a title inscribed in Esperanto.

Englishman Rev. John Batchelor (1855-1944), of the Church Missionary Society, arrived in Hokkaido in 1877 and lived among the indigenous Ainu communities for more than sixty years. He was the first to develop a writing system for the Ainu language. This volume argues that many ancient Japanese place names are derived from the Ainu language.

Rare.