This is an account of the growth and uses of Western learning in Japan from 1720 to 1830. These are the dates of the beginning of official interest in Western learning and of the expulsion of Siebold from the country, the first stage of a crisis that could be resolved only by the opening of the country of the West. The century and more included by the two dates was a most important period in Japanese history, when intellectuals, rebelling at the isolation of their country, desperately sought knowledge from abroad. The amazing energy and enthusiasm of men like Honda Toshiaki made possible the spectacular changes in Japan, which are all too often credited to the arrival of Commodore Perry. The author chose Honda Toshiaki (1744-1821) as his central figure. A page from any one of Honda's writings suffices to show that with him one has entered a new age, that of modern Japan. One finds in his books a new spirit, restless, curious and receptive. There is in him the wonder at new discoveries, the delight in widening horizons. Honda took a kind of pleasure even in revealing that Japan, after all, was only a small island in a large world. To the Japanese who had thought of Chinese civilization as being immemorial antiquity, he declared that Egypt's was thousands of years older and far superior. The world, he discovered, was full of wonderful things, and he insisted that Japan take advantage of them. Honda looked at Japan as he thought a Westerner might, and saw things that had to be changed, terrible drains on the country's moral and physical strength. Within him sprang the conviction that Japan must become one of the great nations of the world.

Japanese investment in Europe has been growing by leaps and bounds and this book charts the course of this phenomenon, looking both at the Japanese experience of Europe and the European experience of the Japanese, and social, cultural and economic consequences of this encounter. This contemporary snap-shot is based upon a wealth of interviews and fully-illustrated by photographs, maps and diagrams. First published in 1996, this title is part of the Bloomsbury Academic Collections series.

"Following the pioneering work of Francis Xavier in establishing Christianity in Japan, his successor Alessandro Valignano, decided to send a legation to Europe representing the three Christian daimyo of Kyushu, southern Japan. It consisted of two Christian samurai boys who were chosen as legates, together with two teenage companions. They set sail from Nagasaki in February 1582 and were to be away for eight years." "This is the first book-length study in English of the mission and provides important new insights into the work of the Jesuits in Japan and the nature of the legation's impact on late-sixteenth-century European perceptions of Japan."--BOOK JACKET.

Not another 'misunderstandings and misconceptions' volume, but a wide-ranging review of intellectual traditions, mutual and alternative images, and case studies of people and events that mirror the focus of this book.

The year 1543 marked the beginning of a new global consciousness in Japan with the arrival of shipwrecked Portuguese merchants on Tanegashima Island in southern Japan. Other Portuguese soon followed and Japan became aware of a world beyond India. After the merchants came the first missionary Francis Xavier in 1549, beginning the Christian century in Japan. This is not a new story, but it is the first time that Japanese, Portuguese and other European accounts have been brought together and presented in English. Their arrival was recorded by the Japanese in Tanegashima kafu, the Teppoki and the Kunitomo teppoki, here translated and presented together with European reports. Includes maps, and Portuguese and Japanese illustrations.

The year 1543 marked the beginning of a new global consciousness in Japan with the arrival of shipwrecked Portuguese merchants on Tanegashima Island in southern Japan. Other Portuguese soon followed and Japan became aware of a world beyond India. After the merchants came the first missionary Francis Xavier in 1549, beginning the Christian century in Japan. This is not a new story, but it is the first time that Japanese, Portuguese and other European accounts have been brought together and presented in English. Their arrival was recorded by the Japanese in Tanegashima kafu, the Teppoki and the Kunitomo teppoki, here translated and presented together with European reports. Includes maps, and Portuguese and Japanese illustrations.

From an April 1996 colloquium, The American Cultural Impact on Germany, France, Italy, and Japan, 1945-1995: An International Comparison, 11 essays examine the reception and impact of American products and images. Most of the contributors are historians, but others from fields such as architecture and literature. They move beyond the standard model of cultural colonialism and democratic modernization, while never loosing sight of the asymmetry in power relations between the countries and the US. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR