Fauna Japonica

Fauna Japonica
An illustration of a russet sparrow pair from the Fauna Japonica
Publication date
1833

Fauna Japonica is a series of monographs on the zoology of Japan.[1] It was the first book written in a European language (French) on the Japanese fauna,[2] and published serially in five volumes between 1833 and 1850.[3]

The full title is Fauna Japonica sive Descriptio animalium, quae in itinere per Japoniam, jussu et auspiciis superiorum, qui summum in India Batava imperium tenent, suscepto, annis 1825 - 1830 collegit, notis, observationibus et adumbrationibus illustravit Ph. Fr. de Siebold. Conjunctis studiis C. J. Temminck et H. Schlegel pro vertebratis atque W. de Haan pro invertebratis elaborata.

Based on the collections made by Philipp Franz von Siebold (who edited the text) and his successor Heinrich Bürger in Japan, Fauna Japonica's vertebrate volumes were authored by the Leyden Museum naturalists Coenraad Jacob Temminck and Hermann Schlegel. Wilhem de Haan, also at the Leyden museum wrote the invertebrate volumes assisted by the Japanese artist naturalists Keiga Kawahara, Kurimoto Masayoshi and others. The volumes were a rare chance for European naturalists to learn about the wildlife in isolationist Japan.[3]

Contents of Fauna Japonica
Volume Title
I Crustacea
II Pisces
I

I

Reptilia
IV Aves
V Mamalia
  1. ^ Archives of Natural History. Society for the Bibliography of Natural History. 1982.
  2. ^ Charlotte Sleigh (8 March 2017). The Paper Zoo: 500 Years of Animals in Art. University of Chicago Press. pp. 63–. ISBN 978-0-226-44712-4.
  3. ^ a b L. B. Holthuis; Tsune Sakai (1970). Ph. F. von Siebold and Fauna japonica: a history of early Japanese zoology. Academic Press of Japan.