Westerners have long complained about the enigmas of Japanese
culture. Now comes proof that the puzzlement cuts both ways. Noted
Japanoiogist Keene (On Familiar Terms, 1993, etc.) here interprets
30 Japanese diaries dating from 1860 to 1920, around the time of
the Meiji Restoration of 1868, when for the first time in over two
centuries the West affected Japanese society on a large scale. At
that time, he writes, "it was as natural for those people to keep
diaries as it is for Japanese today to take group photographs as
souvenirs of an occasion," and from these rich accounts Keene shows
that Japanese attitudes toward Western culture ranged from intense
curiosity and excitement to complete disdain. Some early travelers
found foreign lands to be utterly perplexing, even inscrutable.
Complaining of his English hosts' constant attempts to convert him
to Christianity, Natsume Sooseki writes: "I wonder who could have
invented such a straitlaced society." (Keene notes that the
Japanese who were most successful abroad were those who had already
converted or who did so later.) Provincial governor Muragaki
Norimasa, traveling aboard the American warship Powhattan on a
goodwill tour of the United States, confesses his hatred for sea
chanties and is appalled at the sight of plebeian-looking President
James Buchanan: "He wears no decoration whatsoever...not even a
sword." Other Japanese found that they hardly recognized their own
country after the Meiji Restoration. Keene excavates the plaintive
diary of a bedridden young man named Masaoka Shiki, who yearns to
see wonderful things that he has only read about in the newspapers:
"lions and ostriches in the zoo" and "automatic telephones and red
postboxes." The diary of Higuchi Ichiy?? a learned woman, reveals
sadness that in the face of such changes, the women of the upper
class still expect her "to pretend to rejoice over things that do
not please me." These are the luminous details - not curiosities,
thanks to Keene's careful analysis, but real finds - of which the
best histories are made. (Kirkus Reviews)
This is a collection of journals written by Japanese men and
women--from samurai and other government officials to novelists and
poets--who journeyed to America, Europe, and China between 1860 and
1920. The diaries faithfully record personal views of the countries
and their cultures and sentiments that range from delight to
disillusionment. At once an intimate account of the travellers'
lives and a testimony to the greater struggles and advances of
their cultures, Donald Keene's eloquent translation and commentary
invites the reader to partake in the world as each person
experienced it.
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