Abstract
I. MR. MURRAY is to be congratulated on being able to bring out simultaneously two such excellent books on a country which for some years has probably attracted more interest than any other country in the world. Although they both treat of the same subject, they differ much in their method of treatment. Indeed the one may be said to be complementary of the other; and any one who reads them both with care will be able to form a very complete idea of the present condition of an unusually interesting country and people. Sir Edward Reed went out practically as the guest of the Japanese Government, and had ample opportunities of seeing the official side of the life of the country, of gaining a knowledge of what is being done to graft the results of Western civilisation on a civilisation centuries older, and which has been developed on totally different lines. From first to last he was in the hands of the leading Government officials of the country, who spared no pains to make his visit as pleasant as it could possibly be. During the whole of his three months' visit to the country, from the beginning of January, 1879, he had seldom an hour to himself, and what time he could subtract from his sleep was given to the writing up of his notes on his day's work, for work it must have been, harder than even an obstruction night in Parliament. From the young Mikâdo down to the most subordinate provincial official, every one was anxious to convince the great English engineer that the enthusiasm with which they received him was genuine, and that they would only be too glad to let him inspect every detail of the great work they were endeavouring to carry out for their country. From beginning to end his visit to the country was a triumphal progress, and, as might have been expected, Sir Edward Reed left the country with a high opinion of its Government, and deeply impressed with the genuineness and thoroughness of its progress. Miss Bird, on the other hand, went to Japan, as she went to the Sandwich Islands and the Rocky Mountains, solely in pursuit of health, which she sought and found by travelling alone in those parts of the country rarely if ever frequented by foreigners, living in common inns and humble houses, and finishing up with a sojourn among that curious people known as the Ainos, the probable aborigines of Japan. She of course had every protection which the influence of Sir Harry Parkes, our representative, could procure her, and her passport was powerful enough to secure a courteous reception wherever she went; indeed she found travelling safer in Japan than it is in some European countries. To some extent it may be said that Sir Edward Reed was shown the outside and the brightest side of Japanese life, while Miss Bird plodded her way through the unfrequented heart of the country, and saw much of the light and shade in the everyday life of the common people. The two travellers had this in common, that no obstacle was put in the way of their seeing all that they desired to see, leaving one with the conviction that the Japanese Government has really nothing to conceal, and that their enthusiasm for progress is, for the present at least, genuine. Thus the two works, as we have said, afford a fairly complete picture of all sides of Japanese life.
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Japan 2 . Nature 22, 610–614 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/022610a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/022610a0