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The Mikado's Empire: A History of Japan from the Age of Gods to the Meiji Era (660 BC - AD 1872)
by
In its day the most popular book on the then-mysterious nation of Japan, this volume covers the history and culture of Japan from the earliest times to the Meiji Restoration of 1868.
William Elliot Griffis (1843–1928) was an educator and writer and a respected authority on Japanese culture.
William Elliot Griffis (1843–1928) was an educator and writer and a respected authority on Japanese culture.
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Paperback, 512 pages
Published
April 1st 2007
by Stone Bridge Press
(first published June 1876)
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Start your review of The Mikado's Empire: A History of Japan from the Age of Gods to the Meiji Era (660 BC - AD 1872)
Written in 1875 and as interesting as a picture of American scholarship at that time as it is as a discussion of Japanese history. Full of archaic terminology and spellings, weird punctuation (some of which are clearly errors in the Kindle transfer, but goodness, there are a ton of commas in this), and some cringe-worthy language (my favorite is when the author refers to the Ainu as being obsessed with their rice wine 'which they crave as the Indians do "fire-water,"'(?!?)). It'll need a couple
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If Edward Gibbon wrote a history of Japan, it would read something like The Mikado's Empire. The fact that this book was written by a 19th century American scholar is both its greatest strength and greatest weakness.
On the one hand William Elliot Griffis writes with the flair and wit that's of typical 19th century historians, unbound by today's strict academic rules of scholarship, and the fact that the author lived and worked in Japan during the years immediately after the Meiji Restoration me ...more
On the one hand William Elliot Griffis writes with the flair and wit that's of typical 19th century historians, unbound by today's strict academic rules of scholarship, and the fact that the author lived and worked in Japan during the years immediately after the Meiji Restoration me ...more
Hmmm. Histories can be very interesting, especially when they are written by a person that has a flair for language and a true passion for the topic. Griffis is such a person. I don't know who he was but he manages to relate an entertaining history of Japan with a keen eye that focuses heavily on the mikado.
Is it non-biased? No. But not any more than any other history I have read. It does paint a comprehensive picture of the early history of Japan that isn't fractured by the happenings in the 2 ...more
Is it non-biased? No. But not any more than any other history I have read. It does paint a comprehensive picture of the early history of Japan that isn't fractured by the happenings in the 2 ...more
I was at BookPeople and decided I wanted to learn more about Japanese history. This seemed like a pretty good book, I didn't bother to read any of the pages or summary. It turns out the book was written in 1875 and the writing shows it. Since I know nothing of the history of Japan I can not judge it's accuracy, but I am sure it will show what Japan looked like to the west in the 1800's once I find a better book to read. There have been changes in the field of histroy-graphy that are very obvious
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