Read Japan An Attempt at Interpretation Classic Reprint Lafcadio Hearn 9781440085475 Books

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Read Japan An Attempt at Interpretation Classic Reprint Lafcadio Hearn 9781440085475 Books

"Again, after "Glimpses on unfamiliar Japan" and "Out of the East" Lafcadio Hearn does his best for the comprehension of Japan. His love for Japan is infectious. It is impossible do not love Japan after any Hearn reading. Besides, he is very clear, sometimes elegant, always sober and intelligent. A side remark: I am interested, after "Japan, an attempt..." in reading Mr. Herbert Spencer!"

Product details Paperback 560 pages Publisher Forgotten Books (June 24, 2012) Language English ISBN-10 1440085471

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Japan An Attempt at Interpretation Classic Reprint Lafcadio Hearn 9781440085475 Books Reviews :

Japan An Attempt at Interpretation Classic Reprint Lafcadio Hearn 9781440085475 Books Reviews

• Having been recently in Japan, I read this book while on my trip and after it and I found a lot of truth in Hearn's study of Japanese society.
  
  The author relies on the famous Herbert Spencer to explain the sociological aspect of the Japanese and gives a sincere and knowledgeable interpretation of the religious, social, political, and economic reality of these amazing islanders.
  
  The most surprising thing is that this book was written at the beginning of the 20th century and yet you still see the same wonderful traits in Japanese society today.
  
  There is an extremely interesting letter in the Appendix of this book; a letter written by Herbert Spencer to a policy maker in Japan, where Spencer strongly advices against the Japanese mixing with other races (and, meanwhile, venting his own adamant opposition to interracial relationships in general). Spencer even adds at the end a caution against these views of him ever getting out. You won't want to miss it.
  
  I have read other works by Lafcadio Hearn on Japan but I think this one comes closest to explaining the Japanese.
• He's a bit of an unapologetic racist and the addendum including a letter from Herbert Spencer, the father of Sociology, to the Japanese government should put to rest any debate about his support of Eugenics.
  
  Regarding interracial marriage Spencer makes it clear he considers Asians and Caucasians not just different races but different species
  "if you mix the constitution of two widely divergent varieties which have severally become adapted to widely divergent modes of life, you get a constitution which is adapted to the mode of life of neither—a constitution which will not work properly"
  
  Otherwise, he does have some remarkable insights about the form and nature in which Japanese subscribed to Shinto and Buddhism. At times he's almost prophetically predicting WWII.
  Unlike even most modern scholars, he's also intelligent enough to notice that Shinto is much broader than the minority elements dedicated to the imperial line.
  I can't decide if his latent racism is a product of the times or an internal desire to not come off as too appreciative of Japanese culture by juxtaposing his obvious obsession with consistently xenophobic remarks. After the first few chapters one may start to feel that Lafcadio doth protest the superiority of Europeans too much.
• Lafcadio Hearn says that Japanese culture is like a Bonsai tree, meticulously sculpted and trimmed and controlled for thousands of years. Even during his time (1890-1904) the rules were changing and the gardner was putting away his shears, and chaos was beginning to reclaim the tree.
  However, to understand this strange plant, with the roots and bends and twists of Bonsai sculpting, one must look at its past, and the methods of shaping. From Hearn's point of view, this shaping is religion, specifically Ancestor worship and the "rule of the dead." Without insight into Japanese religious history and practices, Hearn says, you cannot understand Japan, its history or its people.
  "Japan An attempt at interpretation" is incredibly insightful and thorough, offering a history of the various forms of Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism and other folk-practices that shaped the national character. I am currently working on my MA in Japanese Religion, and I can verify that his research is correct, and his conclusions still hold. It is the longest of Hearn's books, and obviously a great deal of work went into it.
  All though time has passed him by, "Japan An Attempt at Interpretation" is still a valid, interesting book, both well-written and accurate. It DOES help explain Japanese interactions and culture. Most interesting are his speculations of Japanese culture, and where it would go in his pre-WWII era. Unfortunately, some of his worst fears were realized.
• I was browsing gutenberg.org and wanted to find a few books about Japan to read. I found three excellent titles of which Lafcadio Hearn's "Japan An attempt at interpretation" was one (the other books where Tales of Japan and Bushido).
  
  This book really surprised me, I thought it would be the most tedious of the three but it turned out to be the best and most insightful. In my opinion Lafcadio was a very modern thinker and understood the Japan of a century ago like no other (of course viewed from a western perspective).
  
  Highly recommended.
• The first half is a detailed look at the religion of Japan as originally developed. The later, more interesting, half shows how it interplays with the Meiji Restoration and contacts with the West, up to 1904. Hearn forecasts in broad brush the next half century of Japanese culture. I'm happy I read it, though it took half the book before I got into it.
• Again, after "Glimpses on unfamiliar Japan" and "Out of the East" Lafcadio Hearn does his best for the comprehension of Japan. His love for Japan is infectious. It is impossible do not love Japan after any Hearn reading. Besides, he is very clear, sometimes elegant, always sober and intelligent. A side remark I am interested, after "Japan, an attempt..." in reading Mr. Herbert Spencer!
• A very informative must-to-read book for anyone interested in understanding Japan and the Japanese. It is not particularly a research treatise but a very thoughtful and very readable excursion in the Japanese history, culture, ethics, beliefs and etc. Although the book was first published more than a century ago it remains valuable to the date.
• A little dense in places (particularly the description of Buddhism) but very informative despite being somewhat dated.