Mirror in the Shrine: American Encounters with Meiji Japan [Paperback]

Robert A. Rosenstone (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 067457642X | ISBN-13: 978-0674576421 | Publication Date: April 1, 1991

Based on the travels of Griffis, Morse, and Hearn in the late 1800s, these stories evoke the immediacy of daily experience in Meiji, Japan, a nation still feudal in many of its habits yet captivating to Westerners for its gentleness, beauty, and pure charm.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Absolutely delightful, at first for its unspoiled picture of late-nineteenth-century Japan as seen through the eyes of three remarkable but very different Americans, [the missionary William Elliot Griffis, the scientist Edward S. Morse, and the writer Lafcadio Hearn], and then for the marvelous reconstruction of how Japan worked on their minds, radically changing their perceptions of the country and the whole relationship between East and West--between the barbarian and the civilized. The book is a tour de force
--Edwin O. Reischauer

A fascinating study of cross-cultural encounters, written with great empathy not only for the three men but for the culture and the people they loved.
--Kunio Francis Tanabe (Washington Post Book World )

Mirror in the Shrine does what we want historical biography to do: to speak through the sources and bring to life the trials, excitements, disappointments, joys, and ambitions of long-past souls. Rosenstone does this much and more.
--C. Andrew Gerstle (Journal of Asian Studies )

Review

Absolutely delightful, at first for its unspoiled picture of late-nineteenth-century Japan as seen through the eyes of three remarkable but very different Americans, [the missionary William Elliot Griffis, the scientist Edward S. Morse, and the writer Lafcadio Hearn], and then for the marvelous reconstruction of how Japan worked on their minds, radically changing their perceptions of the country and the whole relationship between East and West--between the barbarian and the civilized. The book is a tour de force (Edwin O. Reischauer ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (April 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067457642X
• ISBN-13: 978-0674576421
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #653,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert A. Rosenstone, Professor of History at the California Institute of Technology, is a leading figure in the field devoted to studying the relationship between film and history. He has written two books on the topic, Visions of the Past: the Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History (Harvard, 1995), and History on Film / Film on History (Pearson, 2006), and has edited a breakthrough collection of essays, Revisioning History: Film and the Construction of a New Past (Princeton, 1995). Currently he is editing an anthology of original essays by scholars from around the world for a British publisher, to be titled The Blackwell Companion to Historical Film.

Rosenstone has participated in the production of several films, both dramatic features and documentaries. His award winning biography of John Reed was used in part as the basis for the Academy Award winning Reds, on which he worked as consultant. Other film involvements include his writing of the narration for a documentary on the Spanish Civil War entitled The Good Fight (1983), and time spent as consultant and / or Talking Head for several films, including Darrow; Tango of Slaves; Screening Histories: The Filmmaker Strikes Back; Rebels; and Emma Goldman: A Troublesome Presence.

Rosenstone's works of narrative history include Crusade of the Left: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War (Pegasus, 1969), Romantic Revolutionary: A Biography of John Reed (Knopf, 1975), and Mirror in the Shrine: American Encounters with Meiji Japan (Harvard, 1988). He has published two works of imaginative writing, a book of stories entitled, The Man Who Swam Into History (Texas, 2005), and a historical novel, King of Odessa (Northwestern, 2003). His second novel, Red Star, Crescent Moon, will be published in September, 2010.

Rosenstone is the Founding Editor of Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice, and in 1989 created the first film section for the American Historical Review. He has been a visiting professor at Oxford University, the University of Manchester, the University of Barcelona, the European University Institute (Florence), Kyushu University (Japan), the University of La Laguna (Canary Islands), and Tolima University (Colombia). His fellowships include four from the National Endowment for the Humanities, three from the Fulbright program, and he has been a research fellow at both the East-West Center (Honolulu) and the Getty Research Institute.

May 2010

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Way of Telling the Past, April 21, 2000

By 

Rob Angove - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mirror in the Shrine: American Encounters with Meiji Japan (Hardcover)

Essentially, the 'story' was about three Americans (Willie Griffis, Edward Morse, and Lafcadio Hearn) visiting Japan in the 1800s who had their lives permanently changed by the experience. Unconventional in both style and form, and explicitly subjective - even self-reflexive - the book was nonetheless interesting, informing, and challenging. Moreover, it was exactly what Robert Rosenstone purported it to be: a new way of telling the past. His aim was to "break with some of the conventions of narrative history, and to move beyond the 'realistic' nineteenth-century novel as a paradigm for the historian's 'art'." While the technique itself was effective, the author kept 'reality' in check by combining this unorthodox approach with sound research.

The author's interest in historical fims was evident from the outset. Clearly, his "notion of writing as a motion picture camera" was carried through to the fullest extent. Rosenstone wrote in the present tense, both in the second person (addressing the reader and, less frequently, the characters) and in the first person (of the characters). No use of 'proper' quotations was made, and the characters' comments were injected - yes, from documentation, not guesswork - into italicised words, sentences, and even entire paragraphs. In addition, a person called "The Biographer' crept in once in a while to explain methodological and historical problems. Such comments appeared much like side takes in television documentaries. A&E anyone? In any case, the method, scorned by most conventional historians, was quite successful. Instead of reinforcing the dichotomy between 'true' history and film, Rosenstone established a truce between them - one might even say a 'relationship'.

That traditionalists are likely to question the author's technique is undeniable, but they have no grounds for criticising his honesty. By that is simply meant that he had a straightforward thesis. He looked not at how his three American subjects changed Japan, but at how Japan changed them, about their lives having been "altered greatly...in ways they did not fully understand." Having lived in Japan himself, albeit almost a century later, Rosenstone undoubtedly experienced some of the same 'feelings' and 'alterations' as Griffis, Morse, and Hearn. Sound relativistic? That choice was entirely deliberate.

Probably, the author's stay in Japan resulted in a new attitude about historical studies. Maybe, it was the result of seeing things differently, 'unconventionally'. Regardless, he is very aware of the change, and it was reflected in his historical writing, which showed that the use of new techniques AND traditional modes of research can indeed result in new ways of telling the past. For that reason alone, 'Mirror in the Shrine' was enjoyable and provocative, and is certainly highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting, but also very dry..., August 7, 2002

By 

Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Mirror in the Shrine: American Encounters with Meiji Japan (Hardcover)

A book about how Japan was changing Americans NOT just on how America (and the West) was changing the Japanese. It focuses on William E. Griffis, Edward S. Morse, and Lafcadio Hearn (whose names you will find many times within history books about Japan). Their different writings (with their different ideas, backgrounds and view points) allow us to see how Americans responded to visiting and living within Japan.
I have to warn you, the book is somewhat dry(the other review compared it to A&E) but worth reading for those of us who love Japanese history.

3.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful prose, muddled history, September 16, 2005

By 

Sage Ross "Sage Ross" (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mirror in the Shrine: American Encounters with Meiji Japan (Paperback)

Mirror in the Shrine essentially attempts to recreate the perspectives of three Americans living in Japan. The language is very nice, although often longwinded, with plenty of visual imagery and a conscious attempt by Rosenstone to emulate the film through words. Some readers may find the language pretentious, but I found it quite enjoyable. Unfortunately, the stories of these men simply are not interesting enough to pull in readers. Historians may also take issue with the blurring of lines between sources and the author's imagination; one is never sure whether a given (perhaps ignorant or prejudiced) comment is a paraphrase of the journal sources, Rosentone's speculation as to what the subjects would have thought, or Rosenstone's own perspective.

Despite the flaws, this book should prove valuable for historians interested in experiments with style. Narrative history continues to gain momentum (both among scholars and readers) but this book is merely an early experiment, not a canonical example of how modern narrative history can be done.