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Despite his determination to be of extreme magnitude in the perspective, Kirkland soon falls head-over heel for Japan's irresistible charm, surprising us with his evocative, unprejudiced observations-of a group of men in conversation, of a whistful girl at a barber shop dreaming of another life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith Kirthland we discover a Japan that has by now all but disappeared, a rural and mystical landscape occupied by abandoned temples, thatched cottages, old inns that once hosted feudal lords on their way to the capital. It is a landscape inhabited by quintessentially Japanese characters-a white-bearded pilgrim leaning on his staff, a fairy-like girl carrying a barrel-sized basket on her back, her eyes fixed on some wild flowers in her hand. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs to every visitor, past and present, Japan to Kirtland proves a country full of wonderful contradictions. 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More importantly, unlike his many successors, Humbert did so just before the fall of the shogunate-during the twilight years of the Bakufu, or bakumatsu in Japanese.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePerhaps the most fascinating part of Humbert's account are his many forays around feudal Edo: to the Daimyōkōji, the Warlord Aly, with its grand mansions of Japan's feudal lords; to the bustling mercantile district of Nihonbashi; to the temple district of Asakusa; and to Shin-Yoshiwara, the newly-erected licenced quarters on the city's northern outskirts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWritten on the eve of Japan's forceful opening up to the West and its period of dizzying modernization, Humber's account is one of a vanishing word-a unique and mesmerizing world that had been at peace with itself for more than two and a half centuries.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51066814103825,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51066817249553,"sku":"NIN9789492722201","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9492722208.jpg?v=1751129342"},{"product_id":"hearn-s-japan-book-lafcadio-hearn-9789492722089","title":"Hearn's Japan","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51067495285009,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51067497021713,"sku":"NIN9789492722089","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52127756976401,"sku":"NLS9789492722089","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9492722089.jpg?v=1750936597"},{"product_id":"japan-s-critical-years-book-ernest-mason-satow-sir-9789492722065","title":"Japan's Critical Years","description":"\u003cp\u003eErnest Mason Satow (1843-1929), a British scholar, diplomat and Japanologist, spent his young years as a translator and interpreter at the British Japan Consular Service between 1862 and 1883. 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We learn of the people and traditions that produced these sites that still draw millions to Japan. With him we marvel at the ingenuity of the architecture, the exquisite detail of the sculptures, the refreshing simplicity of attitude as expressed in the paintings.\u003cbr\u003e Coming face to face with a profoundly different culture, La Farge is at times perplexed, bewildered, even frustrated, but he is always admiring--of its ingenuity, of its tenacity, of its close relationship with nature as expressed in all its manifestations.\u003cbr\u003e An Artist's Letters from Japan is full of sensitive descriptions, of the pleasant domesticity of city life, of the hustle and bustle on Japan's great thoroughfares, of everyday people going about their everyday lives. It is a marvelous panoramic view of a Japan still firmly rooted in its traditions, but already in the thrall of Westernization. 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