Committee of the Itchi and Kumiai Japanese Churches. Hymns of Songs and Praise. Prepared by a Committee, 1888. Revised 1890 / Shinseii Sambika. Tokyo and Osaka: Committee of the Itchi (United) and Kumiai (Congregational) Churches, 1890. Printed by The Seishi Bunsha, Yokohama. [1973]
Full leather binding, scuffed, 8 1/2 x 6 inches, Japanese characters on spine. Bound in Oriental style from back to front, with the back cover stamped "Shinseii Sambica" with Japanese characters in gilt and decorative tooling. Title page, (14) appx 290 pp. with 289 selections, each with musical score, tune titles in English with hymnal texts in Japanese. Then from front to back, (1) Title page in English, Preface, Contents, Index of Subjects, Index of Tunes, Metrical Index, Index of First Lines, all in English; XIV. pp. total. Occasional marginalia in blue or gray pencil. "Lowry Davis" in pencil on ffep; "Kana Kanzen San, 6 regiment(?)" in pencil on fep. Tp with pull started, some splits to tp hinge with string exposed beneath. Good.
Inspired by the Japanese Evangelical Alliance held in Tokyo in May, 1897, a Committee was appointed to prepare and publish a hymnal for use by the Evangelical Churches in Japan.
This copy owned by Rev. George Lowry Davis (1881-1962), American Southern Presbyterian educational missionary who served in Kashing [Jiaxing], China. In 1907 he was appointed to work among the Chinese students who attended the the college and schools in Tokyo, Japan. He returned to Kashing in 1910 and served there until 1949.