may term the
catholicity of art in Japan. I have also dealt with the question how
far art has been affected by the Europeanising of the nation which has
taken place of recent years, and the effect thereof.

The religion of the Japanese, the Constitution, the home life of the
people, the Army and Navy, the financial position of the country are
all subjects treated as fully as possible, inasmuch as they are
matters essential to be understood in order to realise the Japan of
to-day. The Japan of the future I have attempted to forecast in two
final chapters.

But the Japan of to-day and the Japan of the future can neither be
understood nor realised unless the reader have in his mind some idea
as to the Japan of the past--not the barbaric or uncivilised Japan
brought into contact with civilisation and suddenly discarding its
barbarism, which is, I fear, the conception many persons still have,
but, as I have sought to show, a highly civilised country holding
itself aloof from European influences and excluding, so long as
possible, the European invasion of its shores just because it had
convinced itself by painful experience that European ideas and manners
and methods were undesirable and unsuitable for a great island nation
which possessed and cherished a civilisation of its own, had high
artistic ideas and ideals, had its own code of morals, its own
conception of chivalry, and was, on the whole, undoubtedly happy,
contented, and prosperous. I trust the chapter I have written on this
subject will tend to dispel many erroneous ideas.

The book is the result of my own investigations, and the opinions
expressed therein are entirely my own. I have, however, read nearly
every work on Japan that has appeared in recent years, and when the
views put forward in any of these have not coincided with my own I
have endeavoured, by impartial investigation and inquiry, to arrive at
a correct conclusion in the matter. No doubt some of my views and
opinions will be questioned and criticised, but I claim to have
written this book with a mind free from prejudices of any kind. I have
sought to depict Japan as it really is, not the Japan seen through
glasses of various colours, of which, I think, the public has had
enough.

H. B. M.

CONTENTS

PAGE
PREFACE