[De Becker, J. E.] The Nightless City or the “History of the Yoshiwara Yukwaku” by an English Student of Sociology ****** with Numerous Illustrations. — Yokohama: Z. P. Maruya & Co., L'd., 1899.

Title-page (red and black): THE | NIGHTLESS CITY | Or the “HISTORY OF | THE YOSHIWARA YŪKWAKU” | BY AN ENGLISH STUDENT OF | SOCIOLOGY * * * * * * | — | WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. | {publisher's device of knotted bird} | YOKOHAMA | Z. P. MARUYA & CO., L’D. | MDCCCXCIX. ||

Imprint: Copyright 1899 | By the Author.| All rights reserved. | Printed by | The Yokohama Bunsha, Yokohama, Japan.

Description:  Hardcover, 210 × 150 mm; original grey cloth, bevelled boards with blind-ruled border, decorated and lettered in black, gilt and blind to front, back, and spine; front cover lettered 不夜城 (Fuyajō, “The Nightless City”) and decorated with a geisha and her attendant; back cover with vertical kanbun-style inscriptions (see below); black endpapers;  outer and bottom margins untrimmed, many pages uncut; pencil inscription to front flyleaf “Joseph Ernest de Becker” (identifying the author of this anonymously published work); unidentified bookplate by Stern Gr[aveur] on front pastedown; first edition.

Back cover (right column, right-to-left): 替夢正讃廓櫻雲
Yume ni kawaru / shōsan / kuruwa sakura-gumo — poetic phrase, roughly: “Dreams transformed; praise of the pleasure quarter amid clouds of cherry blossoms”.

Back cover (left column, right-to-left): 秋倍先通両行燈影
Aki masu / sen-tsū / ryō-andon kage — poetic phrase, roughly: “Autumn deepens; twin lantern lights casting shadows along the passage”.

Pagination: [2] blank, [2] title-page / imprint; [4] author’s foreword; [i] ii–iv contents; [2] list of illustrations; [1] 2–441; [3]; i–xx [8]; 20 plates of illustrations (b/w photographic and chromolithographic), some folding.