The South Pole Expedition and the Enshrinement of Kotaijingu, a rare narrative of the Japanese Antarctic Expedition told by Yoshitake Shima, $30,000 (£22,950) at Potter & Potter.
Pulling information from myriad sources, in 2010 the travel and exploration specialist published what is considered to be the definitive account of the expedition, which was the first of its kind by a non-Western nation.
Many of the books published about the JAE in the first half of the 20th century are much rarer than those issued after the heroism of Franklin, Shackleton and Scott.
The South Pole Expedition and the Enshrinement of Kotaijingu, a rare narrative of the Japanese Antarctic Expedition told by Yoshitake Shima, $30,000 (£22,950) at Potter & Potter.
First-person accounts
Some of the first-person narratives, printed in tiny numbers, brought muscular sums when Ross sold the artefacts, books and accounts he had accumulated during his study at Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium) in Chicago on October 12.
A Shinto priest, Yoshitake Shima had served as purser aboard the JAE ship the Kainan Maru and was a clerk for both seasons of the exhibition. His narrative titled Nankyoku Tanken to Kotaijingu no Hosai (South Pole Expedition and the Enshrinement of Kotaijingu) was published in 1930 complete with six full-page photographic plates, woodcut illustrations in the text and a colour fold-out map. The copy here in the original white cloth was estimated at $10,000-15,000 but sold at $30,000 (£22,950).
One of only 15 printed copies of the first biography on exhibition commander Lt Nobu Shirase published in Tokyo in 1940 took $28,000 (£22,350). Co-authors Zenya Taniguchi and Yoshimasa Kimura became acquainted with Shirase when they were students at Takushoku University and worked together to establish the Nippon Polar Research Institute in 1933.
What amounts to the official account of the expedition, published in 1913 by the Japanese Antarctic Expedition Support Committee, was based on the journals and logs of Shirase and other expedition members. It features 39 plates including four in colour, numerous photographs and drawings in the text.
The first edition in the Ross collection had the signature of General Maresuke Nogi, hero of the Russian-Japanese war, with his note translated as ‘congratulations on a heroic attempt’ and contained a red seal on the title page, indicating it had been read by the Emperor of Japan.
It sold for $14,000 (£11,150) against a guide of $6000-8000.
