The first European description of Japan, 1585 : a critical English-language edition of striking contrasts in the customs of Europe and Japan by Luis Frois, S.J.
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The first European description of Japan, 1585 : a critical English-language edition of striking contrasts in the customs of Europe and Japan by Luis Frois, S.J.
(Japan anthropology workshop series : (JAWS))
Routledge, 2014
- : hbk
- Other Title
-
Tratado em que se contêm muito susinta- e abreviadamente algumas contradições e diferenças de custumes entre a gente de Europa e esta provincía de Japão
Available at 21 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [273]-292) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
In 1585, at the height of Jesuit missionary activity in Japan, which was begun by Francis Xavier in 1549, Luis Frois, a long-time missionary in Japan, drafted the earliest systematic comparison of Western and Japanese cultures. This book constitutes the first critical English-language edition of the 1585 work, the original of which was discovered in the Royal Academy of History in Madrid after the Second World War. The book provides a translation of the text, which is not a continuous narrative, but rather more than 600 distichs or brief couplets on subjects such as gender, child rearing, religion, medicine, eating, horses, writing, ships and seafaring, architecture, and music and drama. In addition, the book includes a substantive introduction and other editorial material to explain the background and also to make comparisons with present-day Japanese life. Overall, the book represents an important primary source for understanding a particularly challenging period of history and its connection to contemporary Europe and Japan.
Table of Contents
Critical Introduction Daniel T. Reff The Tratado 1. Men, their Persons, and their Clothing 2. Women, their Persons and Customs 3. Children and their Customs 4. The Bonzes and their Customs 5. Temples, Images, and Things Pertaining to Worship and Religion 6. The Japanese Way of Eating and Drinking 7. Japanese Offensive and Defensive Weapons and Warfare 8. Horses 9. Diseases, Doctors, and Medicines 10. Japanese Writing and their Books, Paper, Ink and Letters 11. Houses, Construction, Gardens and Fruits 12. Ships, Seafaring and Dogus 13. Japanese Plays, Farces, Dances, Singing, and Musical Instruments 14. Other Various and Extraordinary Things that could not be Assigned to the Previous Chapters
by "Nielsen BookData"