Masterpieces on Japan by Foreign Authors : From Goncharov to Pinguet / edited by Shōichi Saeki, Tōru Haga

• HerausgeberIn: Saeki, Shōichi; Haga, Tōru
• Place / Publishing House: Singapore : Springer Nature Singapore, Imprint: Springer, 2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Edition: 1st ed. 2023
• Language: English
• Classification: 17.70 - Literaturwissenschaft: Allgemeines
• Physical Description: 1 Online-Ressource (XI, 246 Seiten); 1 Illustrationen

This open access book includes forty-one chapters about foreign observers’ discourses on Japan. These include a wide range of perspectives from the travelogues of curious visitors to academic theses by scholars, which offer us a broad spectrum of contents, reflecting a variety of attitudes toward Japan. The works were written during the period from the 1850s to the 1980s, a timespan during which Japan became, in stages, more open to the outside world after a long isolation under the Tokugawa shogunate. From the perspective of “Japanology,” one can discern three distinct periods of rising interest in the country from abroad. The first tide of such interest came shortly after the opening of Japan, when various foreign travelers, including those who could not be included in this book, came over and wrote down their impressions of the country—which was, for them, a land of mystery and mystique, which had just opened its doors to them. The second wave arose at the beginning of the twentieth century, just after the Russo-Japanese War, when Japan again generated a remarkable surge of interest as a “miracle” in Asia that had pulled off the wondrous feat of defeating a white superpower. The third wave was more recent, which took place from the late 1960s to the 1980s, a period of high economic growth when the “miracle” of Japan’s remarkable economic recovery from the defeat of World War II attracted enthusiastic and curious attention from the outside world once again. It is not the intention of this book to directly highlight such historical transitions, but these forty-two brilliant mirrors (forty-one chapters, including forty-two discourses), even when looked in casually, provide us with unexpected insights and various perspectives. Shōichi Saeki (1922–2016) was Professor Emeritus, the University of Tokyo. Tōru Haga (1931–2020) was Professor Emeritus, International Research Center for Japanese Studies.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov, The Frigate Pallada -- Chapter 2. Sir Rutherford Alcock, The Capital of the Tycoon: A Narrative of a Three Years’ Residence in Japan -- Chapter 3. Ernest Mason Satow, A Diplomat in Japan -- Chapter 4. William Elliot Griffis, The Mikado’s Empire -- Chapter 5. Emile Etienne Guimet, Promenades Japonaises Tokio-Nikko, Félix Régamey, Japon -- Chapter 6. Huang Zunxian, Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects from Japan -- Chapter 7. Isabella Lucy Bird Bishop, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan -- Chapter 8. Percival Lowell, The Soul of the Far East -- Chapter 9. Pierre Loti, Japoneries d’automne -- Chapter 10. Basil Hall Chamberlain, Things Japanese -- Chapter 10. Lafcadio Hearn, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan -- Chapter 11. Lady Fraser, A Diplomatist’s Wife in Japan – Letters from Home to Home -- Chapter 12. Ludwig Riess, Allerlei aus Japan -- Chapter 13. Erwin von Bälz (Baelz), Erwin von Bälz. Das Leben eines deutschen Arztes im erwachenden Japan -- Chapter 14. Muṣṭafā Kāmil Pasha, Al-Shams al-Mushriqa (Rising Sun) -- Chapter 15. Ernest Francisco Fenollosa, Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art: An Outline History of East Asiatic Design -- Chapter 16. Edward Sylvester Morse, Japan Day by Day 1877, 1878-79, 1882-83 -- Chapter 17. Rabindranath Tagore, Nationalism -- Chapter 18. Wenceslau de Moraes, Ó-Yoné e Ko-Haru -- Chapter 19. Paul Claudel, L’Oiseau noir dans le Soleil levant -- Chapter 20. Dai Jitao, Theory of Japan -- Chapter 21. Zhou Zuoren, A Personal View of Japan -- Chapter 22. Lady Sansom, Living in Tokyo -- Chapter 23. Bruno Taut, Das japanische Haus und sein Leben -- Chapter 24. Joseph Clark Grew, Ten Years in Japan: A Contemporary Record Drawn from the Diaries and Private and Official Papers of Joseph C. Grew, United States Ambassador to Japan, 1932–1942 -- Chapter 25. Ruth Benedict, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture -- Chapter 26. Leocadio de Asis, From Bataan to Tokyo, Diary of a Filipino Student in Wartime Japan 1943–1944 -- Chapter 27. Reginald Horace Blyth, Haiku -- Chapter 28. Sir George Bailey Sansom, The Western World and Japan – A Study in the Interaction of European and Asiatic Culture -- Chapter 29. Ronald Philip Dore, City Life in Japan – A Study of Tokyo Ward -- Chapter 30. Donald Keene, The Japanese Discovery of Europe – Honda Toshiaki and Other Discoverers 1720 –1830 -- Chapter 31. Earl Miner, The Japanese Tradition in British and American Literature -- Chapter 32. Marius B. Jansen, Sakamoto Ryoma and the Meiji Restoration -- Chapter 33. Roland Barthes, L’empire des signes -- Chapter 34. Edwin Oldfather Reischauer, The Japanese -- Chapter 35. Kim So-un, Ten no hate ni ikuru to mo (Even though I Live at the End of the Skies) -- Chapter 36. Lee O-young, The Compact Culture: The Japanese tradition of “smaller is better” -- Chapter 37. Edward Seidensticker, Low City, High City – Tokyo from Edo to the Earthquake -- Chapter 38. Maurice Pinguet, La mort volontaire au Japon