¡°Japanese Things,¡± originally titled ¡°Things Japanese¡± when it was published in 1890, is the book that launched a branch of publishing: explaining Japan and the Japanese to everyone, including themselves. You could draw a line connecting Alice Gordenker¡¯s excellent ¡°So, What the Heck is That?¡± column in this paper right back to Basil Hall Chamberlain¡¯s investigations and explanations of all things Japanese written during the Meiji Era (1868-1912).
Chamberlain¡¯s range is magisterial, his tone brisk and his style unimpeachable. He mostly prefers the royal ¡°we¡°; here he is ostensibly talking about ¡°Railways¡± but he sidetracks for a wonderful vignette about social mores: ¡°We have seen a man ¡ª he was a military officer, and his dutiful spouse assisted him ¡ª change all his clothes in the car, though to be sure he availed himself of a friendly tunnel for the more adventurous portion of the enterprise.¡±
The book is organized similar to an encyclopedia and each ¡°thing¡± ends with references, for further reading. Some of Chamberlain¡¯s choices are odd ¡ª polo, being one ¡ª and the language is sometimes dated, but, equally, many treatments of other subjects still ring true to this day. Ad infinitum, I might add. It¡¯s no wonder the book is still read today for Chamberlain managed to see Japan up close, while maintaining an independence of thought and a sense of humor. Basil Hall Chamberlain, we are impressed.
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