About This Print

One of 118 prints in the series Dai Nippon Bussan Zue (Products of Greater Japan), issued in August 1877 to coincide with the opening of Japan’s first National Industrial Exposition (Naikoku Kangyō Hakurankai) held in Tokyo’s Ueno Park. It depicts workers refining white sugar in Sanuki province.  Sanuki (讃岐国,) was an old province of Japan on the island of Shikoku, with the same boundaries as modern Kagawa Prefecture. It faced the Inland Sea and bordered on Awa and Iyo Provinces. Across Naruto strait it bordered Awaji Province too.  Basil Hall Chamberlin, British Japanologist, in his 1907 Handbook for Travellers in Japan, notes that "The chief production of this province of Sanuki are popularly known as ‘the three white things’ (sam-paku), viz, salt, sugar, and cotton.  The sugar industry is modern, having been introduced from Satsuma only half a century ago."¹  But he also describes scenes more like the one pictured above, to wit:

Transcription of Scroll

Source: with thanks to Yajifun http://yajifun.tumblr.com/

White Sugar Production in Sanuki Province 讃岐國白糖製造ノ図

“夫甘蔗を培養する地ハ伊勢尾張駿河紀伊阿波土佐肥前讃岐薩广朩也 就中さぬきの白 薩广の黒糖ハ國中第一とす 甘蔗ハ蜀黍に似てその長サ一丈余あり 立冬乃ころ種蔗をふせて春日移植シ冬至る折採り牛に引せて石車にて搾る 甘蔗二百五十目一日搾るを二人の業とす” 

 ※夫=それ 朩=等 广=摩

Multiple Editions (Variant Printings)

At least three variant printings (editions) were made of this series.  Each variant printing uses a different colored cartouche containing the series' title, either red, green or rainbow-colored.  Different colored borders were also used and variances in the use of colors and shading are present in the three editions. 

¹  Handbook for Travellers in Japan Including the Whole Empire from Saghalien to Formosa, Basil Hall Chamberlain and W. B. Mason, John Murray, London, 1907, p. 432.
² Ibid.