The First European Description of Japan, 1585
In 1585, at the height of Jesuit missionary activity in Japan, which was begun by Francis Xavier in 1549, Luis Frois, a long-time missionary in Japan, drafted the earliest systematic comparison of Western and Japanese cultures. This book constitutes the first critical English-language edition of the 1585 work, the original of which was discovered in the Royal Academy of History in Madrid after the Second World War. The book provides a translation of the text, which is not a continuous narrative, but rather more than 600 distichs or brief couplets on subjects such as gender, child rearing, religion, medicine, eating, horses, writing, ships and seafaring, architecture, and music and drama. In addition, the book includes a substantive introduction and other editorial material to explain the background and also to make comparisons with present-day Japanese life. Overall, the book represents an important primary source for understanding a particularly challenging period of history and its connection to contemporary Europe and Japan.
Luis Frois S.J. was a long-time Jesuit missionary in Japan in the later years of the sixteenth century.
Daniel T. Reff is an anthropologist and Professor in the Department of Comparative Studies in the Humanities, The Ohio State University, USA.
Richard K. Danford is an Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese and Vice-President for Diversity and Inclusion at Marietta College, Ohio, USA.
Robin D. Gill is a translator, author and editor, Key Biscayne, Florida, USA.
Japan Anthropology Workshop Series
Series Editor:
Joy Hendry, Oxford Brookes University
Editorial Board:
Pamela Asquith, University of Alberta
Eyal Ben Ari, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hirochika Nakamaki, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka
Kirsten Refsing, University of Copenhagen
Wendy Smith, Monash University
Founder Member of the Editorial Board:
Jan van Bremen, University of Leiden
A Japanese View of Nature
The world of living things by Kinji Imanishi
Translated by Pamela J Asquith, Heita Kawakatsu, Shusuke Yagi and Hiroyuki Takasaki
Edited and introduced by Pamela J Asquith
Japans Changing Generations
Are young people creating a new society?
Edited by Gordon Mathews and Bruce White
The Care of the Elderly in Japan
Yongmei Wu
Community Volunteers in Japan
Everyday stories of social change
Lynne Y. Nakano
Nature, Ritual and Society in Japans Ryukyu Islands
Arne Rkkum
Psychotherapy and Religion in Japan
The japanese introspection practice of naikan
Chikako Ozawa-de Silva
Dismantling the East-West Dichotomy
Essays in honour of jan van bremen
Edited by Joy Hendry and Heung Wah Wong
Pilgrimages and Spiritual Quests in Japan
Edited by Maria Rodriguez del Alisal, Peter Ackermann and Dolores Martinez
The Culture of Copying in Japan
Critical and historical perspectives
Edited by Rupert Cox
Primary School in Japan
Self, individuality and learning in elementary education
Peter Cave
Globalisation and Japanese Organisational Culture
An ethnography of a Japanese Corporation in France
Mitchell W. Sedgwick
Japanese Tourism and Travel Culture
Edited by Sylvie Guichard-Anguis and Okpyo Moon
Making Japanese Heritage
Edited by Christoph Brumann and Robert A. Cox
Japanese Women, Class and the Tea Ceremony
The voices of tea practitioners in northern Japan
Kaeko Chiba
Home and Family in Japan
Continuity and transformation
Edited by Richard Ronald and Allison Alexy
Abandoned Japanese in Postwar Manchuria:
The lives of war orphans and wives in two countries
Yeeshan Chan
Tradition, Democracy and the Townscape of Kyoto
Claiming a right to the past
Christoph Brumann
Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan
Soka Gakkai Youth and Komeito Anne Mette Fisker-Nielsen
Language, Education and Citizenship in Japan
Genaro Castro-Vzquez
Death and Dying in Contemporary Japan
Hikaru Suzuki
Disability in Japan
Carolyn S. Stevens
Ascetic Practices in Japanese Religion
Tullio Federico Lobetti
Japanese Tree Burial
Ecology, kinship and the culture of death
Sbastien Penmellen Boret
Japans Ainu Minority in Tokyo
Diasporic indigeneity and urban politics
Mark K. Watson
The First European Description of Japan, 1585
A critical English-Language edition of striking contrasts in the customs of Europe and Japan by Luis Frois, S.J.
Translated, edited and annotated by Richard K. Danford, Robin D. Gill, and Daniel T. Reff.
First published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2014 Daniel T. Reff, Richard K. Danford and Robin D. Gill.
The right of Daniel T. Reff, Richard K. Danford and Robin D. Gill to be identified as authors of the translation, selection and editorial material, has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fris, Lus, -1597.
[Tratado em que se contm muito susinta- e abreviadamente algumas contradies e diferenas de custumes entre a gente de Europa e esta provinca de Japo. English]
The first European description of Japan, 1585: a critical English-language edition of striking contrasts in the customs of Europe and Japan by Luis Frois, S.J. / translated from the Portuguese original and edited and annotated by Richard K. Danford, Robin D. Gill, and Daniel T. Reff; with a critical introduction by Daniel T. Reff.
