William Eliot Griffis resists temptation in feudal 1871 Japan Today 06:17 am JST Today | 06:17 am JST TOKYO
In 1871, Japan was still being introduced to the United States as a country with an actual civilization. “The population of Japan,” wrote a
Missouri Republican journalist in September 1871, “has been variously estimated from twenty-five to forty million. Hitherto we have had no reliable statistics upon which to base an opinion.” Also, according to scholar Edward R. Beauchamp’s groundbreaking article in
Monumenta Nipponica, there were fewer than an estimated 2,200 Westerners living in the Kanto area at the time. Reports back home in English were either greatly embellished or vague and underwhelming.
William Elliot Griffis resists temptation in feudal 1871 Japan
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Jairam Ramesh pens a magnificent tribute to Edwin Arnold s The Light of Asia
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Lafcadio Hearn: The Dramatically Poetic Japan Enthusiast
Writing about foreign countries is hardly a novel idea, so an interested reader has a vast selection of literature to choose form. One can afford to be fastidious in selecting an author to suit one s personal tastes, but there appear to be several characteristics that draw more people to Lafcadio Hearn than any other commentator on Japan. Perhaps due to his usage of the English language, attention to descriptive detail, and childish glee in describing seemingly fantastic peculiarities in an endearing fashion, he can attract a larger audience than any of his fellow nineteenth century contemporaries.