•This e-book is illustrated as per first publication. •It contains all 15 original plates.•The images have been re-sized, digitally enhanced and optimized for a Kindle.•A new table of contents with working links has been included by a publisher.A happy experiment is the appearance in English of a number of Japanese Treasure Tales, with very well-chosen and artistic illustrations taken from Japanese ivories, bronzes, iron sword-guards, pouch mountings, wooden netsukés. The author clearly describes these stories as "explanations of the incidents which occur so frequently in the art treasures of Japan." Apart from valid artistic reasons, it is important that true knowledge of Japan should be disseminated in England. From the story of Ono-No-Komachi (9th century, A.D.), who left hundreds of poems, we may extract the following verses from page 93:"While I was revellingIn the thought of my beauty,The bloom of my youthHas faded away.""She is as lovely as Komachi," is the highest expression of admiration for a beautiful woman, even at the present day — and the lesson is surely not worn out with the centuries. The Westminster Review, Volume 166 [1906]