Copyright, 1910, ByDODD, MEAD AND COMPANYPublished, September, 1910
Copyright, 1910, ByDODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
Published, September, 1910
PREFACE
By many friends, both in this country and in the Far East, the question has often been asked me: “Why do you not write a book about Japan?” Whatever answer to this questionà proposof each particular occasion, may have been given, there have been two reasons which have made me decline the temptation hitherto. Of the innumerable books, having for their main subject, “The Land of the Rising Sun,” which have appeared during the last forty years, a small but sufficient number have described with a fair accuracy and reasonable sympathy, certain aspects of the country, its people, their past history, and recent development. To correct even, much more to counteract, the influence of the far greater number which, if the wish of the world of readers is to know the truth, might well never have been written, is a thankless and a hopeless task for any one author to essay.
A yet more intimate and personal consideration, however, has prevented me up to the present time from complying with these friendly requests. Many of the experiences, of special interest to myself, andperhaps most likely to be specially interesting and instructive to the public, have been so intimate and personal, that to disclose them frankly would have seemed like a breach of courtesy, if not of confidence. The highly favoured guest feels a sort of honourable reserve about speaking of the personality and household of his host. He does not go away after weeks spent at another’s table, to describe the dishes, the silver and other furnishings, and the food.
What I have told in this book of some of the many rare and notably happy, and, I hope, useful days, which have fallen to my good fortune at some time during my three visits to Japan, has not, I trust, transgressed the limits of friendly truth on the one hand, or of a friendly reserve on the other. And if the narrative should give to any of my countrymen a better comprehension of the best side of this ambitious, and on the whole admirable and lovable people, and a small share in the pleasure which the experiences narrated have given to the author, he will be much more than amply rewarded.
George Trumbull Ladd.New Haven, June, 1910.