Sign-In
Cart
Bakumatsu Japan: Travels through a Vanishing World
Paperback
Series: Toyo Reference
International RelationsJapanJapanese History
ISBN13: 9789492722201
Publisher: Toyo Press
Published: Dec 6 2019
Pages: 172
Weight: 0.57
Height: 0.40 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Aimé Humbert (1819-1900), Swiss politician, traveler, and educator, arrived in Japan in 1863 as envoy plenipotentiary of the Swiss federal government to conclude a treaty of trade and amity with the shogunate.
Though he was to spend less than a year in Japan, Humber's informed impressions are, in hindsight, of great historical value. Unlike his few predecessors (who were required to stick to the same route to visit Edo and pay homage to the shōgun), Humbert was one of the first foreigners to freely travel around the country with his entourage and record his observations. 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.
Perhaps 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.
Written 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.
Also in
Japanese History
Zen Master Tales: Stories from the Lives of Taigu, Sengai, Hakuin, and Ryokan
Haskel, Peter
Paperback
The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb
Graff, Garrett M.
Hardcover
A Brief History of Japan: Samurai, Shogun and Zen: The Extraordinary Story of the Land of the Rising Sun
Clements, Jonathan
Paperback
The Book of Yokai, Expanded Second Edition: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore
Foster, Michael Dylan
Paperback
Manga's First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905-1989
Horbinski, Andrea
Paperback
The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture
Ikeno, Osamu
Davies, Roger J.
Paperback
In the Japanese Ballpark: Behind the Scenes of Nippon Professional Baseball
Fitts, Robert K.
Hardcover
Kojiki: Fully Revised Edition: Records of Ancient Matters (Revised and with a New Foreword)
Yasumaro, O. No
Paperback
Japan's Infamous Unit 731: First-Hand Accounts of Japan's Wartime Human Experimentation Program
Gold, Hal
Paperback
The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War
Yellen, Jeremy A.
Paperback
The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb (Large Print Edition)
Graff, Garrett M.
Hardcover
Japan, Beyond the Genkan: An Insider's Guide to the Soft Power, Strong Market, and Social Harmony of America's Asian Partner
Walker Phd, Joshua W.
Hardcover
Sacred Journeys and Institutional Rivalries: Pilgrimage Mandalas and the Art of Fundraising in Medieval Japan
Andrei, Talia
Hardcover
Japan's Amazing Bullet Trains: The History and Technology of the World's First High-Speed Rail Network
Railways Graphic
Hardcover
African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan
Girard, Geoffrey
Lockley, Thomas
Paperback
The Book of Yokai, Expanded Second Edition: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore
Foster, Michael Dylan
Hardcover
Nation-Empire: Ideology and Rural Youth Mobilization in Japan and Its Colonies
Chatani, Sayaka
Hardcover
Bushido: The Samurai Code of Japan: With an Extensive Introduction and Notes by Alexander Bennett
Nitobe, Inazo
Hardcover
The Japanese Yokai Handbook: A Guide to the Spookiest Ghosts, Demons, Monsters and Evil Creatures from Japanese Folklore
Kinoshita, Masami
Paperback
Hokusai's Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji: From the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Scantamburlo, Elisabetta
Paperback
A Plague Upon Humanity: The Hidden History of Japan's Biological Warfare Program
Barenblatt, Daniel
Paperback
A Geek in Japan: Discovering the Land of Manga, Anime, Zen, and the Tea Ceremony (Revised and Expanded with New Topics)
Garcia, Hector
Paperback
Japanese Kabuki Stories: Tales of Love and Death from the Japanese Theater
Civardi, Ornella
Hardcover
Killing the Rising Sun: How America Vanquished World War II Japan
O'Reilly, Bill
Dugard, Martin
Paperback
Miti and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925-1975
Johnson, Chalmers
Paperback
Samurai!: The Autobiography of Japan's World War II Flying Ace
Saito, Fred
Sakai, Saburo
Caidin, Martin
Paperback
Japanese Legends: Samurai, Spirits, Myths & the Sacred Stories of Japan
Alive, History Brought
Hardcover
Brokering a Race War: Japanese Americans in the Pacific War and the Occupation of Japan
Azuma, Eiichiro
Paperback
Japanese Legends and Folklore: Samurai Tales, Ghost Stories, Legends, Fairy Tales and Historical Accounts
Mitford, A. B.
Paperback
Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941
Evans, David C.
Peattie, David
Paperback
An Illustrated Guide to Samurai History and Culture: From the Age of Musashi to Contemporary Pop Culture
Blair, Gavin
Hardcover
Black Snow: Curtis Lemay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb
Scott, James M.
Paperback
The Pacific War, 1931-1945: A Critical Perspective on Japan's Role in World War II
Ienaga, Saburo
Paperback
State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu
Toby, Ronald P.
Paperback
Comfort Women: Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War
Hicks, George
Paperback
Manufacturing Modern Japanese Literature: Publishing, Prizes, and the Ascription of Literary Value
Mack, Edward
Paperback
Cherry Blossoms in Twilight: Memories of a Japanese Girl
Weldon, Yaeko Sugama
Sugama-Weldon, Yaeko
Austin, Linda E.
Paperback
The Lineage of the Arisaka: Facts and Circumstance in the History of the Arisaka Family of Rifles
Faust, Frederic
Paperback
Japanese Swords and Armor: Masterpieces from Thirty of Japan's Most Famous Samurai Warriors
Martin, Paul
Hardcover
And the River Flowed as a Raft of Corpses: The Poetry of Yamaguchi Tsutomu, Survivor of Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Diehl, Chad
Yamaguchi, Tsutomu
Paperback
Memoirs of a Kamikaze: A World War II Pilot's Inspiring Story of Survival, Honor and Reconciliation
Odachi, Kazuo
Ohta, Shigeru
Hardcover
Manga's First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905-1989
Horbinski, Andrea
Hardcover
The Book of Ninja: The Bansenshukai - Japan's Premier Ninja Manual
Minami, Yoshie
Cummins, Antony
Hardcover
In This Body, in This Lifetime: Awakening Stories of Japanese Soto Zen Women
Roshi, Sozen Nagasawa
Paperback
The Great Wave: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan
Benfey, Christopher
Paperback
Tokyo: A Biography: Disasters, Destruction and Renewal: The Story of an Indomitable City
Mansfield, Stephen
Paperback
Hiroshige's Japan: On the Trail of the Great Woodblock Print Master - A Modern-Day Artist's Journey on the Old Tokaido Road
Delord, Philippe
Hardcover
Colors in Japanese Art: The Use of Color in Japan's Fine and Decorative Arts
Hamada, Nobuyoshi
Hardcover
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan: Victorian Travelogue Series (Illustrated & Annotated)
Bird, Isabella Lucy
Paperback