Kankai ibun 環海異聞

Size: 7 9/16 x 10 7/16 in.

Translation of title: Extraordinary Accounts from around the Sea, Volumes 10 & 11

The two volumes in the Melikian Collection are part of a manuscript set that narrates the story of a group of shipwrecked Japanese sailors and their journey around the world. These two particular volumes, 10 and 11, focus on the sailors’ time spent in St. Petersburg. During their stay, the Japanese sailors participated in a number of cultural activities, such as attending a theater show at the Imperial court and observing the launching of an aerial balloon. These activities are illustrated in the volumes, along with portraits of the Czar and possibly his son. With the help of Russian circumnavigator Captain Krusenstern, the Japanese sailors made their way back to Nagasaki. Shortly thereafter, scholars Ōtsuki Gentaku and Shimura Hiroatsu wrote the sailors’ accounts in manuscript form. When the manuscript was produced, at the end of the Edo period, the Japanese considered the Russians to be violent ‘red barbarians’ and a military enemy.(1), opens in a new window Japanese shipwrecked sailors who directly encountered Russians and observed their culture and behavior contributed to the cultural exchange between Russia and Japan and helped transform the Japanese misconception of the ‘red barbarians.’, opens in a new window The volumes are an example of the flourishing 19th-century Japanese literature about foreign countries and their relationship with modern Japan. Researcher: Amelia Miholca 1 Michiko Ikuta, “Changing Japanese-Russian Images in the Edo Period,” Japan and Russia: Three Centuries of Mutual Images,2008, Web, 14 October, 2012, 15. Other information (library catalogue, links to websites etc.):, opens in a new window University of Kyushu, Digital Archive http://record.museum.kyushuu.ac.jp/kankai/frame_top.html, opens in a new window