Tōkyō kangyō hakurankai jimu hōkoku jōkan [Tokyo Industrial Exposition Report, Vol. 1] by Tokyo Prefecture (Tōkyōfu)

331 pp. volume representing the first part of a two-part govermental report on the 1907 Tokyo Industrial Exposition, covering the overall operations and organization of the exposition including maps and plans for the arrangement of the pavilions within Ueno Park, and interior plans describing the use of the pavilions and displays within. Profusely illustrated throughout with black and white reproductions from photographs of the exposition, architectural and engineering plans, site plans, floor plans, and pavilion elevations, some in color, including approximately 30 folding plates. Some light toning and foxing scattered throughout. 4to. Original embossed wrpps. with title printed to cover, some sunning and foxing, minor scuffing. Tokyo (Tōkyōfu/Meiji 42) n.d. (1909). This volume includes many photographs and architectural plans of the pavilions which made up the Industrial Exposition, as well as the configuration of the exhibition. Through the exhibition, the organizers had a goal to visually communicate a narrative about modern, industrial Japan in a period of colonial expansion just after the Russo-Japanese War. The exhibition was also hoped to help Japan to increase consumption in a time of post-war economic depression. This was the 6th industrial exhibition to take place at Ueno Park, and was the grandest. Many of the main exhibition buildings were western in style, which differed greatly from Japanese pavilions in previous international expositions, where a greater focus was placed on traditional Japanese artistic styles and crafts. The features of the exposition itself included Japan's second Ferris Wheel, foreign products and processes, and a Crystal Pavilion which became the target of Korean protests and was eventually removed. An estimated 35,000 light bulbs, or 4% of all of the light bulbs availble in Japan at the time, were used at the fair. "The main buildings, Gothic, in the park proper, were built around a huge foundain, on six levels, surmounted by Bacchus and bathed in lights of red, blue, and purple. A water chute led down to the lower level, on Shinobazu Pond, where special exhibitions told of foreign lands and a growing empire." (Seidensticker, 2011) Scarce; as of September 2019, WorldCat does not locate a single holding of this volume in North America.