Gwern's Reviews > Modern Japanese Diaries: The Japanese at Home and Abroad as Revealed Through Their Diaries

Modern Japanese Diaries by Donald Keene
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Sep 23, 2016

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Read in January, 2006 , read count: 2

A followup to Keene's Travelers of 100 Ages, this takes the same format of a series of essays (originally published in newspapers/magazines) where he gives the historical context and summarizes the events in the diaries with occasional quotes while editorializing. Travelers benefited from the sheer exoticism and unfamiliarity of Japanese life pre-Meiji which made all the literary diaries interesting, and also from the wide availability of translations of those diaries (or at least, potentially of works written by the author - I am not sure if Murasaki Shikibu's diary has ever been translated into English but her Tale of Genji certainly has, and likewise the Pillow book of Sei Shonagon is available), which is not something that, aside from Natsume Soseki and Mori Ogai, can be guaranteed for any of the diarists (eg Tokutomi Roka). The most interesting diaries are definitely the first three sections, covering diaries written by Japanese going abroad to the West (usually the USA, France, Germany, and UK, as the primary industrial & scientific powers that the Japanese government was determined to learn as much from as possible) during the opening up of the country pre-Meiji, Japanese traveling in Asia (typically appalled or shell-shocked at the reality of China compared to their imaginings gleaned from a Confucian or literary education unsullied by any meaningful contact with China since the end of the missions during the Heian era, a little like 'Paris syndrome' these days), and those living abroad for a while (overlapping with the first section). It is always fascinating to read the reactions of foreigners to a country one knows reasonably well, especially when the reactions are so fresh and unmediated, and equally so when they are comparing 1800s America to 1800s Japan and one is comparing their comparisons to a comparison of 2000s America & 2000s Japan. The remaining sections are of less interest - as Japan modernizes, the writers and events become more familiar and less interesting. One's enjoyment will depend on how much one likes Keene's editorializing and voice, since less than a tenth of the text is quotation/translation.
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