{"product_id":"samurai-trails-wanderings-on-the-japanese-high-road-9789492722010","title":"Samurai Trails: Wanderings on the Japanese High Road","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Finally the treatment these true classics deserve: thoroughly re-edited and modernized texts, with glossary, index...and beautiful layout to boot.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLucian Swift Kirtland (1881-1965), walking Japan's ancient Tōkaidō and Nakasendō highroads on the eve of the First World War, is still very much the late-nineteenth century traveler, pith helmet and all. And while, like so many of his contemporaries, he is prone to the unabashed Orientalism of his day, he is thankfully free of the \"eczema of reformers.\" Despite his determination to be of \"extreme magnitude in the perspective,\" Kirkland soon falls head-over heel for Japan's irresistible charm, surprising us with his evocative, unprejudiced observations-of a group of men in conversation, of a whistful girl at a barber shop dreaming of another life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith Kirthland we discover a Japan that has by now all but disappeared, a rural and mystical landscape occupied by abandoned temples, thatched cottages, old inns that once hosted feudal lords on their way to the capital. It is a landscape inhabited by quintessentially Japanese characters-a white-bearded pilgrim leaning on his staff, a fairy-like girl carrying a barrel-sized basket on her back, her eyes fixed on some wild flowers in her hand. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs to every visitor, past and present, Japan to Kirtland proves a country full of wonderful contradictions. Thus, lost in the mist among the mountains on the Nakasendō, he and his companions encounter a peasants in traditional rush grass cape, terrified at the sight of aliens, while at the next inn a maid sits down at the foot of his bed for a cigarette and a casual conversation about marriage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDe Lange, William:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - William de Lange studied Japanese language and culture at the universities of Leiden and Waseda. He is the author and translator of a number of books on Japanese history, culture, and language.","brand":"Toyo Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50493427286290,"sku":"9789492722010","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_3dd6d71e-0fd2-43cc-bed4-f7577df1be25.jpg?v=1730647274","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/samurai-trails-wanderings-on-the-japanese-high-road-9789492722010","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}