Excerpt from Journeys Among the Gentle Japs: In the Summer of 1895; With a Special Chapter on the Religions of Japan When Japan emerged from her isolation forty years ago, it is not surprising that so remarkable an event should have called forth a multiplicity of books de scribing from every possible standpoint the country which had remained so long a sealed empire; but it would have been strange indeed if much that was written of a land with a civilisation so unique, thus thrown open to the rest of the world at one stroke of the ruler's pen, did not misrepresent the stern reality. For even now, four decades after we forced our acquaintance upon her at the cannon's mouth, Japan - as no other country in the world - is apt to run away with the sober sense of the one who sets himself to write about her. It is my wish, in pre paring this volume, to guard myself against the suspicion of the same want of self-restraint and the temptation to enthuse, and, on the other hand, not to be too niggardly in my praise of a country which all are agreed - has a great deal about it that appeals with an irresistible charm to the Western. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.