SHIRASE, Nobu (1861?1946). Tanken Monogatari: Nankyoku to Hokkyoku [English translation: Exploration to the North Pole and South Pole]. Tokyo: Shunkichi Endo and Echigoya Shobo, 1944. 8vo. Title?page printed in red and blue, two plates after photographs and maps, numerous in text illustrations after drawings. Original pictorial stiff paper boards (some spotting to covers); original color pictorial dust jacket depicting the Kainan?Maru in ice filled waters (some spotting). FIRST EDITION, one of only three books written by Shirase, this being written two years before his death. ?Shirase was one of few explorers during the Heroic Era of exploration of the polar regions to have ventured both into the Arctic during the Chishima Expedition and into the Antarctic regions during the Japanese Antarctic Expedition? (Ross). Ross 2.5.1.