Japan Encounters the Barbarian
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Japanese Travellers in America and Europe
W. G. Beasley
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Format: ClothPrice: $59.00
Beasley examines the origins of the decision to initiate direct study of the West, at a time when western countries counted as "barbarian" by Confucian standards. Next, drawing on many colorful letters, diaries, memoirs, and reports, he describes the missions sent overseas in 1860 and 1862, in 1865-1867, and in the years after 1868, in particular the prestigious embassy led by Iwakura in 1871-1873. He also tells the story of the several hundred students who went abroad in this period. He concludes by assessing the impact of the encounters on the subsequent development of Japan, first by examining the later careers of the travelers and the influence they exercised (they included no fewer than six prime ministers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries), and then by considering the nature of the ideas they brought home.
"Professor Beasley's new book is a scholarly, interesting and well written survey of Japanese missions to America and Europe and of the Japanese who went to study in the West during the early Meiji period. . . . This is a book which all students of modern Japanese history should read and will enjoy."—Hugh Cortazzi, The Japan Society Proceedings
"Japan Encounters the Barbarian makes enjoyable reading, and is recommended for those with some background in Japanese studies. . . . For readers interested in Japanese contact with the West or in bakumatsu-Jeiji history, this is another text to add to the reading list."—Roy S. Hanashiro, Monumenta Nipponica
"This is an erudite and enjoyable book about the Japanese who encountered 'the barbarian', i.e. the westerner, in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. . . . Free from Eurocentric, and even more from Anglocentric views of the nineteenth century, Beasley presents a well-balanced account of Japan's vision of the west and its reaction during the most crucial decades of the country's history. The book is enthralling."—Kazuhiko Kondo, Economic History Review
"To date, however, few studies have concentrated entirely on these Japanese, their experiences, and the direct and indirect results of their activities after their return to Japan. Now we have such a study, and we are doubly fortunate that it is from the pen of one of the acknowledged masters of Japanese history in the vital period of transition from the early modern world of the Tokugawa to the modernizing regime of the Meiji. . . .As usual, Beasley has produced a study that presents a good balance of detailed narrative and probing analysis, and he has done so magisterially and gracefully, in a fashion that further enhances our grasp of the early decades of Japan's modern history. The book will become a standard work on its topic and should be consulted by anyone who is interested in learning more about the complex process of Japan's transformation from Tokugawa to Meiji."—Charles Yates, The Historian
"A study that presents a good balance of detailed narrative and probing analysis, and he has done so magisterially and gracefully, in a fashion that further enhances our grasp of the early decades of Japan's modern history. The book will become a standard work on its topic and should be consulted by anyone who is interested in learning more about the complex process of Japan's transformation from Tokugawa to Meiji."—Charles Yates, The Historian
Publication Date: September 27, 1995
10 b/w illus.
