Prof.
Shoichiro Uemiya visited the Marshall Library Archive on 9 March, 2017 to return a book that
belonged to Alfred Marshall. The book appears to have been in Japan for some
time and possibly since the 1920s.
As Prof. Uemiya explains in his own words:
“I am an
Emeritus Professor of Kobe University in Japan. My major field is the history
of economic thought. I studied for a year (1977-78) as an Honorary Research
Fellow under the late Prof. R.D.C.Black at Queen’s University, Belfast.
Just before
my retirement in March 2012 Mrs. Taeko Minakata, the wife of my supervisor the
late Prof. Kanichi Minakata (1923-1985), asked me to return this book, which is
part of Marshall’s Principles of Economics. The book contains pages with
bound-in pages of written script – possibly in the handwriting of Marshall
himself. Her husband told her that he received this particular book from his
old-time supervisor Prof. Yasaburo Sakamoto (1894-1981). Prof. Minakata’s major
field was Marshall’s Economic Theory. He came to Cambridge for a year (1962-63)
to study and stayed at St. Edmund’s House. However, Mrs. Minakata has no idea
when or where Prof. Sakamoto got the book. He did travel between 1919-1927 in
England, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.”
The book
comprises Book V, Ch. VII pp. 449-610 of
Principles of Economics. Many of the
pages include handwritten insertions in coloured pencils and ink. There is also
a stamp showing 15 Jan. 90, University Press, Cambridge. Clare Trowell,
Marshall Librarian and Simon Frost, Deputy Librarian can confirm that the
inserted pages are in Marshall’s handwriting as the Library Rare Books
collections contain many examples of Marshall’s handwriting and it is clearly
recognisable.
The Marshall
Library Archive contains several photographs, including an intriguing picture
of Mrs Mary Paley Marshall entertaining a Japanese visitor and his wife at her
house, Balliol Croft, in 1928. This visitor is Prof. Tsunao Miyajima
(1884-1965) who translated the Memoirs of Alfred Marshall (1925) into
Japanese. Between 1919-1928 Prof. Miyajima was Prof. at the Kansai University,
Osaka. In 1928 he also visited France. Between 1948-1952 he was Chief Director of
Kansai University. There does not appear to be a link between Prof. Miyajima ,
Prof. Sakamoto and the mysterious annotated book that has just been returned to
the Marshall Library Archives.
We plan to
catalogue the returned book as a Rare Book and make it available to scholars of
Alfred Marshall as soon as possible.
Prof. Uemiya
also kindly donated a copy of his translation of the work:
The Scope and Method of Political
Economy / J.N. Keynes Marshall Library 20 F 18
