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Japan Day by Day
928 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1990
About the author
Edward S. Morse
69 books6 followersEdward Sylvester Morse was an American zoologist and orientalist.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 25, 2019
I finally had to return this charming book so I could get to reading the stack of things behind it. Fortunately, it’s been digitized and is available in the Internet Archive so I can dip into its two volumes (close to 1000 pages) any time.
Edward Morse, a New Englander, goes to Japan at the end of the 19th century to study marine creatures. He records his experiences daily, adding pen and ink sketches of all he sees - people at work, temples, the spigots on buckets, mothers nursing infants. A hundred-plus years ago, travel in Japan was by jinrikisha, and most of society were fishermen or craftspeople. The contrast between the Japan of then and today is astonishing.
Fortunately, one of Morse’s friends convinces him tho leave the study of sea creatures to others; instead he should publish his invaluable detailed observations of the people of Japan. The book is a travelogue, mainly - the topics are as he finds them. Either he or his editor added a catch phrase at the top of every other page that provides a sort of index entry for the subject matter covered. You can easily go from ‘shovels and spades’ to ‘grasshoppers as food’ in facing pages.
From time to time he contrasts Japanese and American scenery and customs - usually pointing out the superiority of the Japanese idea. For instance, “... we passed large lumber yards. The boards, instead of being in promiscuous piles as with us, were tied together just as the tree was sawed up, so that in building the carpenter was sure to get the same color and grain of wood.” He describes Japanese children at play, and contrasts them to the gangs of boys in his native Salem, MA who were in the habit, at that time, of stoning stray dogs and cats on the street.
For anyone interested in modern or historical Japan, this book is a treasure trove.
Edward Morse, a New Englander, goes to Japan at the end of the 19th century to study marine creatures. He records his experiences daily, adding pen and ink sketches of all he sees - people at work, temples, the spigots on buckets, mothers nursing infants. A hundred-plus years ago, travel in Japan was by jinrikisha, and most of society were fishermen or craftspeople. The contrast between the Japan of then and today is astonishing.
Fortunately, one of Morse’s friends convinces him tho leave the study of sea creatures to others; instead he should publish his invaluable detailed observations of the people of Japan. The book is a travelogue, mainly - the topics are as he finds them. Either he or his editor added a catch phrase at the top of every other page that provides a sort of index entry for the subject matter covered. You can easily go from ‘shovels and spades’ to ‘grasshoppers as food’ in facing pages.
From time to time he contrasts Japanese and American scenery and customs - usually pointing out the superiority of the Japanese idea. For instance, “... we passed large lumber yards. The boards, instead of being in promiscuous piles as with us, were tied together just as the tree was sawed up, so that in building the carpenter was sure to get the same color and grain of wood.” He describes Japanese children at play, and contrasts them to the gangs of boys in his native Salem, MA who were in the habit, at that time, of stoning stray dogs and cats on the street.
For anyone interested in modern or historical Japan, this book is a treasure trove.
October 17, 2013
This book is charming and fascinating, and the sketches are just the icing on the cake. And you can read it for free from google books! You should read this book if you like any or all of the following: a) history, b) Japan, c) travelogues, d) Connie Willis' Doomsday Book, e) old-school nerdy naturalists (Darwin, etc), f) architecture, g) steampunk, h) Samurai Champloo, i) Beatrix Potter's Letters.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews