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402 the present time in the way of re-editing and annotating the monuments of the older literature.

The Hakubunkan publishing house of Tokio have reprinted most of the fiction and drama of the Yedo period under the description Teikoku Bunko or "Imperial Library." As an illustration of the cheapness of books in Japan, it may be mentioned that each volume of this series contains about one thousand octavo pages of reasonably good print, on tolerable paper, in neat binding, and is sold for the equivalent of about one shilling of our money.