A history of the Japanese people: from the earliest times to the end of the Meiji era

About this book

This volume is a comprehensive survey of Japan’s civilization from mythic origins through the end of the Meiji era, presented as a single‑volume history intended for Western readers. The authors begin by arguing that a true understanding of any people requires knowledge of their myths, legends, customs and character, and they use that premise to frame the “strange phenomenon” of Japan’s rapid rise from a “people…little raised above barbarism” to a modern nation. The preface explains that the work results from a collaboration between Frank Brinkley, an Englishman who has spent decades in Japan, and Dairoku Kikuchi, a Japanese scholar, and it promises a compact yet intelligible narrative that respects Japanese feeling while being accessible to a foreign audience. The table of contents shows a chronological progression through early historiography, mythic chronicles, the Nara, Heian, Kamakura, Muromachi, Sengoku, Tokugawa and Meiji periods, supplemented by maps and illustrative plates.

Written in the scholarly yet readable style of early‑twentieth‑century academic prose, the book reflects the era’s reverence for primary sources and a desire to reconcile Western historiographical methods with Japanese tradition. Its tone is measured, often explanatory, and it assumes a reader with a serious interest in the cultural and political development of Japan rather than a casual tourist. Students of Asian history, comparative civilization, or anyone seeking a detailed, source‑based overview of Japan’s evolution up to the modern age will find it rewarding, while those preferring narrative fiction or highly condensed introductions may look elsewhere.

Opening lines

It is trite to remark that if you wish to know really any people, it is necessary to have a thorough knowledge of their history, including their mythology, legends and folk-lore: customs, habits and traits of character, which to a superficial observer of a different nationality or race may seem odd and strange, sometimes even utterly subversive of ordinary ideas of morality, but which can be explained and will appear quite reasonable when they are traced back to their origin. The sudden rise of the Japanese nation from an insignificant position to a foremost rank in the comity of nations has startled the world. Except in the case of very few who had studied us intimately, we were a people but little raised above barbarism trying to imitate Western civilisation without any capacity for really assimilating or adapting it. …

Keep reading free · chapter 1 needs no account