The idea of Japan

the long version

Ian Littlewood's The Idea of Japan begins with the principle that the more remote a country is, the broader and more indiscriminate are the stereotypes we form of it. A hundred and fifty years ago, Japan was so remote from the West that it might have existed on another planet. Today its influence touches all of us, yet in the West we know almost as little about it as we did in the days when Henry Adams, visiting Japan, called it "a toy-world." In this book Mr. Littlewood. Offers a framework for making sense of this puzzling culture. He carefully sifts through the most common stereotypes that we encounter on television, in movies, or in newspapers and magazines, comparing them with the historical and cultural record. Through a history abundantly illustrated with examples and anecdotes, he shows how our common images - whether of Madame Butterfly or the samurai businessman - scarcely reflect reality. "What emerges as we move through a. Mythical world of subhumans and superhumans, of temples and cherry blossoms, of exotic women and strange fanatical men," he writes, "is a striking picture of how closely our current images of the Japanese are tied to the cliches of the past." Drawing from a wide range of sources - from the accounts of Jesuit missionaries to the japonisme of the nineteenth century and the images of contemporary Hollywood - Mr. Littlewood shows why we have too long seen Japan only as a. Projection of our own fears, dreams, and desires. The Idea of Japan is a fascinating exploration of Japanese life as well as a provocative insight into the processes by which we understand, or fail to understand, another culture.