"The rapid development of Japan, an Asian nation, at the turn of the twentieth century, including the defeat of Russia in 1904-5, both intrigued the Great Powers in the West, as well as arousing reactions of concern and suspicion. Britain was the most important of the Powers upo…
The investigations undertaken in the pursuit of knowledge by the first overseas Japanese travellers during the 1860s and 70s have left a unique record of life in the then unknown west. Leaving behind a homeland culturally isolated for more than 200 years, these samurai traveller…