Green Willow and other Japanese Fairy Tales. With Forty Illustrations in Colour by Warwick Goble. London: Macmillan, 1910. First Edition. Pp, 281. A nice bright  copy in blue cloth covers, with gilt decoration to front cover.

Golden Age artist Warwick Goble’s watercolours at their very best, featuring 40 tipped-in lithograph plates on dark brown mounts, under captioned tissues. The plates are in the style of Japanese woodblocks.

Grace James was the daughter of a British Naval officer born in Tokyo while her father was stationed there. In the introductory note, James explains that many of the tales in this book are “relics of childish days, originally heard from the lips of a school-fellow or a nurse.” James also drew on traditional sources like the Kojiki, a central work for ancient Japanese mythology.