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The great wave : gilded age misfits, Japanese eccentrics, and the opening of old Japan
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The great wave : gilded age misfits, Japanese eccentrics, and the opening of old Japan

Author: Christopher E G Benfey
Publisher: New York : Random House, ©2003.
Edition/Format:  Book : EnglishView all editions and formats
Summary:
When the United States entered the Gilded Age after the Civil War the nation lost its philosophical moorings and looked eastward to "Old Japan," with its seemingly untouched indigenous culture, for balance and perspective. Japan, meanwhile, was trying to reinvent itself as a more cosmopolitan, modern state, ultimately transforming itself, in the course of twenty-five years, from a feudal backwater to an  Read more...
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Additional Physical Format: Online version:
Benfey, Christopher E. G., 1954-
Great wave.
New York : Random House, c2003
(OCoLC)680433013
Material Type: Internet resource
Document Type: Book, Internet Resource
All Authors / Contributors: Christopher E G Benfey
ISBN: 0375503277 9780375503276
OCLC Number: 50511058
Description: xviii, 332 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Contents: The floating world (Herman Melville and John Manjiro) --
A collector of seashells (Edward Sylvester Morse) --
The Boston tea party (Kakuzo Okakura and Isabella Gardner) --
A season of nirvana ;Falling water (Henry Adams and John La Farge) --
Messages from Mars (Percival Lowell and Mabel Loomis Todd) --
The mountain of skulls (Lafcadio Hearn and Mary Fenollosa) --
The Judo Room (Theodore Roosevelt and William Sturgis Bigelow) --
Epilogue: circa 1913: the escape from time.
Responsibility: Christopher Benfey.
More information:

Abstract:

When the United States entered the Gilded Age after the Civil War the nation lost its philosophical moorings and looked eastward to "Old Japan," with its seemingly untouched indigenous culture, for balance and perspective. Japan, meanwhile, was trying to reinvent itself as a more cosmopolitan, modern state, ultimately transforming itself, in the course of twenty-five years, from a feudal backwater to an international power. This great wave of historical and cultural reciprocity between the two young nations, which intensified during the late 1800s, brought with it some larger-than-life personalities, as the lure of unknown foreign cultures prompted pilgrimages back and forth across the Pacific. In The great wave, Benfey tells the story of the tightly knit group of nineteenth-century travelers--connoisseurs, collectors, and scientists--who dedicated themselves to exploring and preserving Old Japan. These travelers include Herman Melville, Henry Adams, John La Farge, Lafcadio Hearn, Mabel Loomis Todd, Edward Sylvester Morse, Percival Lowell, and President Theodore Roosevelt. As well, we learn of famous Easterners come West, including Kakuzo Okakura and Shuzo Kuki.

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schema:description"When the United States entered the Gilded Age after the Civil War the nation lost its philosophical moorings and looked eastward to "Old Japan," with its seemingly untouched indigenous culture, for balance and perspective. Japan, meanwhile, was trying to reinvent itself as a more cosmopolitan, modern state, ultimately transforming itself, in the course of twenty-five years, from a feudal backwater to an international power. This great wave of historical and cultural reciprocity between the two young nations, which intensified during the late 1800s, brought with it some larger-than-life personalities, as the lure of unknown foreign cultures prompted pilgrimages back and forth across the Pacific. In The great wave, Benfey tells the story of the tightly knit group of nineteenth-century travelers--connoisseurs, collectors, and scientists--who dedicated themselves to exploring and preserving Old Japan. These travelers include Herman Melville, Henry Adams, John La Farge, Lafcadio Hearn, Mabel Loomis Todd, Edward Sylvester Morse, Percival Lowell, and President Theodore Roosevelt. As well, we learn of famous Easterners come West, including Kakuzo Okakura and Shuzo Kuki."
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