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  3. Musashino in Tuscany: Japanese Overseas Travel Literature, 1860–1912

Musashino in Tuscany: Japanese Overseas Travel Literature, 1860–1912

Susanna Fessler 2004 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities / Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program
Open Access Open Access
By the late Meiji period Japanese were venturing abroad in great numbers, and some of those who traveled kept diaries and wrote formal travelogues. These travelogues reflected a changing view of the West and changing artistic sensibilities in the long-standing Japanese literary tradition of travel writing (kikoōbungaku). This book shows that overseas Meiji-period travel writers struck out to create a dynamic new type of travel literature, one that had a solid foundation in traditional Japanese kikōbungaku yet also displayed influence from the West.

Musashino in Tuscany specifically examines the poetic imagery and allusion in these travelogues and reveals that when Japanese traveled to the West in the mid-nineteenth century, the images they wrote about tended to be associated not with places initially discovered by the Japanese traveler but with places that already existed in Western fame and lore. And unlike imagery from Japanese traveling in Japan, which was predominantly nature based, Japanese overseas travel imagery was often associated with the manmade world.

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Series
  • Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies
ISBN(s)
  • 978-0-472-90197-5 (open access)
  • 978-0-472-03830-5 (paper)
  • 978-1-929280-29-2 (hardcover)
  • 978-0-472-12801-3 (ebook)
Subject
  • Asian Studies:Japan
Citable Link
  • Table of Contents

  • Stats

  • Cover
  • Series Page
  • Title Page
  • Copyright
  • Contents
  • Illustrations
  • Preface
  • Introduction
  • Chapter One A Brief History of Japanese Travel and Travel Writing
    • Uta Makura
    • Travel East and West
    • The Precedents in Kikōbungaku
  • Chapter Two New Lands: The Early Travelogues, 1860–80
    • Travelogues by Students
      • Nakai Ōshū
      • Nomura Fumio
      • Shibusawa Eiichi
    • Travelogues by Diplomats
      • Muragaki Norimasa
      • Fuchibe Tokuzō
    • Narashima Ryūhoku and Post-Restoration Travelogues
    • Conclusion
  • Chapter Three Transitions: Mid-Meiji Travelogues, 1880–1900
    • Arisugawa no Miya Taruhito
    • Kurihara Ryōichi
    • Yamashita Yūtarō
    • Yano Ryūkei
    • Mori Ōgai
    • Suehiro Tetchō
    • Kamata Eikichi
  • Chapter Four Assimilation: Late Meiji Travelogues, 1900–1912
    • Shimamura Hōgetsu
    • Tokutomi Roka
    • Nagai Kafū
    • Anezaki Chōfū
  • Conclusion
  • Glossary
  • Character List for Proper Nouns
  • Character List for Titles
  • Bibliography
    • Travelogues
    • Secondary Sources
  • Index
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