Discovery Of Japan
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Few nations have captivated the Western imagination quite like Japan — a civilization at once ancient and startlingly modern, shrouded in beauty, ritual, and paradox. Discovery of Japan by Michael Hardwick chronicles the Western world's gradual and often astonishing encounter with this island empire, tracing the arc from the first tentative contacts of Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries in the sixteenth century through to the dramatic forced opening of Japan's ports by Commodore Perry's Black Ships in 1853. Set against a backdrop of feudal shoguns, imperial courts, and a society fiercely protective of its own traditions, the narrative presents a rich tapestry of cultural collision, mutual fascination, and profound misunderstanding. Hardwick writes with the accessibility of a skilled popular historian, grounding sweeping geopolitical shifts in vivid human stories and colourful detail that bring Japan's past to life for the general reader. The text illuminates the deep tensions between Japan's fierce isolationism and the relentless pressure of an expansionist Western world, illustrating how this encounter ultimately forged the foundations of modern Japan. Rich in cultural observation and historical insight, Discovery of Japan leaves the reader wondering whether the West ever truly understood the extraordinary civilisation it so urgently sought to open — or whether Japan's greatest mysteries remain, as ever, its own.
Author: Michael Hardwick
Format: Paperback
Genre: Asian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Few nations have captivated the Western imagination quite like Japan — a civilization at once ancient and startlingly modern, shrouded in beauty, ritual, and paradox. Discovery of Japan by Michael Hardwick chronicles the Western world's gradual and often astonishing encounter with this island empire, tracing the arc from the first tentative contacts of Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries in the sixteenth century through to the dramatic forced opening of Japan's ports by Commodore Perry's Black Ships in 1853. Set against a backdrop of feudal shoguns, imperial courts, and a society fiercely protective of its own traditions, the narrative presents a rich tapestry of cultural collision, mutual fascination, and profound misunderstanding. Hardwick writes with the accessibility of a skilled popular historian, grounding sweeping geopolitical shifts in vivid human stories and colourful detail that bring Japan's past to life for the general reader. The text illuminates the deep tensions between Japan's fierce isolationism and the relentless pressure of an expansionist Western world, illustrating how this encounter ultimately forged the foundations of modern Japan. Rich in cultural observation and historical insight, Discovery of Japan leaves the reader wondering whether the West ever truly understood the extraordinary civilisation it so urgently sought to open — or whether Japan's greatest mysteries remain, as ever, its own.