Longfellow's Tattoos: Tourism, Collecting, and Japan [Paperback]

Christine M. E. Guth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2004

Charles Longfellow, son of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, arrived in Yokohama in 1871, intending a brief visit, and stayed for two years. He returned to Boston laden with photographs, curios, and art objects, as well as the elaborate tattoos he had 'collected' on his body. His journals, correspondence, and art collection dramatically demonstrate America's early impressions of Japanese culture, and his personal odyssey illustrates the impact on both countries of globetrotting tourism. Interweaving Longfellow's experiences with broader issues of tourism and cultural authenticity, Christine Guth discusses the ideology of tourism and the place of Japan within nineteenth-century round-the-world travel. This study goes beyond simplistic models of reciprocal influence and authenticity to a more synergistic account of cross-cultural dynamics.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A deep pleasure to read for both scholar and non-scholar, Guth's study of Longfellow's life in Japan is an exemplary, provocative, and highly important work of cultural studies."--Jay Fliegelman, William Robertson Coe Professor of American Literature and Culture, Stanford University "That Christine Guth, one of the most productive and respected scholars of Japanese art, has turned her rich intellect and analytical prowess to curios, photographs, and tattoos collected by nineteenth-century globetrotters, suggests that the real Japanese art history has finally arrived."--Allen Hockley, associate professor of art history, Dartmouth College "Guth deftly illuminates a special moment in Japanese and U.S. cultural history. By using as her touchstone the poignantly eccentric Charles Longfellow (son of the great Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), she adeptly positions episodes in Japanese and American history so they flesh out a heretofore only partially studied cultural dynamic. Each country is made to hold up a mirror to the other."--Melinda Takeuchi, professor of art and art history, Stanford University

About the Author

CULASI

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: University of Washington Press (September 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0295984562
• ISBN-13: 978-0295984568
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,636,206 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An American in Edo, June 23, 2007

By 

David Schweizer "Almawood" (Kansas, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Longfellow's Tattoos: Tourism, Collecting, and Japan (Paperback)

This is one of the most fascinating stories I have ever read. Politically correct academics have succeeded in erasing Longfellow from the American canon, replacing him and his contemporaries with names you've never heard and will never know how to pronounce. Perhaps this bit of exotica if not to say erotica will give life back to this former pillar of American culture. It is the son, not the sage of Cambridge whom Professor Guth has chosen as her subject. But what a character he is. Longfellow Jr. had very little going for himself besides boredom and a nearly limitless bank account, so he went on an extended grand tour of the Orient, setting himself up in a Japanese harem, stocked like a koi pond which nubile Japanese maidens. Besides an addiction to Asian flesh, young Longfellow seems to have keyed into that great American pastime known as shopping with the result that he brought a warehouse full of souvenires back to fill Boston's museums and the mansions of his father's aristocratic friends. Any way you look at it, this story has legs. It's a miracle Hollywood hasn't grabbed hold of it. Stay tuned.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A cultural expose of Japan in the 19th century, February 7, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Longfellow's Tattoos: Tourism, Collecting, and Japan (Paperback)

Charles Longfellow was the son of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Charles visited Japan in the 1870s intending a brief visit, and stayed for two years, returning to Boston with photos and elaborate tattoos he had 'collected' on his body. But Christine M.E. Guth's Longfellow's Tattoos: Tourism, Collecting, And Japan is not so much a survey of collectible items nor even tattoo history, as a cultural expose of Japan in the 19th century travel world. Chapters survey the state and nature of Japanese culture in the world of the times, using art and curios as a focal point.