Pictorial Chosen and Manchuria.: Compiled in Commemoration of the Decennial of the Bank of Chosen.

Seoul: Bank of Chosen,, 1919. An extensively illustrated celebration of colonial modernity First edition, first impression, of this extensively illustrated photobook gifted to clients and business connections of the official bank of Japanese-occupied Korea. The contents trumpet recent progress in industry, agriculture, finance, education, and justice - expressions of the evolving idea of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The Bank of Chosen was founded in 1910, the same year as Japan annexed Korea to its burgeoning sphere of influence. In January 1918, Bank of Chosen notes became the only legal tender in the Kwantung Leased Territory and the South Manchurian Railway Zone, and shortly afterwards the bank was appointed to handle all Japanese treasury transactions in Manchuria, making it the most powerful financial institution in the region. Quarto. Original tan cloth, spine and front cover lettered in brown, front board with title in blind panel, floral device in blind on rear cover, green endpapers, top edge gilt. With 2 full-page colour maps of Korean Peninsula and Manchuria, photographic half-tones throughout. Cloth lightly worn and soiled, bright internally with hint of toning. A very good copy indeed.