Hotta-Lister - The Japan-British Exhibition of 1910: gateway to the island empire of the East

A WIDE VARIETY of sources of information was investigated to write this book: for the facts on the actual Exhibition, there were two Official Reports, one published by the British Commission and the other by the Japanese Commission. I was fortunate enough to be able to borrow the Japanese Official Report from the SOAS Library and the British Official Report from Mr Robert Scoales. Useful information on original British and Japanese official documents, was provided by British Foreign Office Papers at the Public Record Office at Kew, the Kensei Shiryokan, the Kensei Shiryoshitsu in the National Diet Library, and the Gaiko Shiryokan(the Diplomatic Record Office) in Tokyo respectively. Other valuable sources of information were newspaper and journal articles (in English at Colindale and in Japanese at the National Diet Library), which provided public opinions, anecdotes, praise, criticisms and comments often revealing contemporary attitudes. Various information on, and related to, the 1910 Exhibition was provided by the kind help of the Hammersmith & Fulham Archives and Local History Centre, the British Library, the Kew Garden Library, the library of the Japan Society in London, the library of the Royal Horticultural Society at Victoria in London, the National Diet Library in Tokyo, the Yokohama Shiryokan, and the private libraries of Professor I.H.Nish and of Mr Robert Scoales in London.

Information on other exhibitions, international and national, was available in several books and articles on exhibitions in English and Japanese, as well as in several autobiographies of those who attended or were involved with those exhibitions, while information on the background of the time was abundantly supplied by scholarly books, articles, catalogues, and leaflets at various university libraries in London, Tokyo, and Hong Kong and the private library of Professor I.H. Nish, as well as the National Diet Library in Tokyo.

For the 1991 Japan Festival, I am grateful to Sir Hugh Cortazzi, the former Chairman of the Japan Society, MrNicolas Wolfers, the former Chairman of the Japan Festival Committee, and some members of the Festival office and the Japan Festival Education Trust for providing me with useful information.

For the photographs, I would like to express my thanks to Mr R. Scoales, Mr Donald Knight of Bamet, the Tokyo Post Office Museum, Mr Yonosuke Mutsu and Hammersmith & Fulham Archives and Local History Centre for their kind permission to take photographs of original materials in their possession. I would also like to acknowledge the help extended to me at a several meetings in December 1994,1995 and 1996 in Tokyo by Mr Yonosuke Mutsu, the son of Mutsu Hirokichi, one of the Japanese commissioners of the Exhibition, providing me with useful and interesting information.

At the personal level, my sincere gratitude is due to Mrs Olive Checkland for her valuable advice in various ways while I was completing the book. Mr Paul Norbury of Japan Library also deserves my gratitude for useful advice on the publication of this book and for his patience. Most of all, I am deeply indebted to Professor I.H. Nish of the LSE for guiding me through this project with so much care and support and for extending his kind help without giving up on me even when I had to move to Hong Kong for personal reasons in the middle of this research; I am grateful for his patience and the encouragement extended to me for the publication of this book. Finally, I owe hundreds of thanks to my husband, who has been not only a good adviser but also a patient supporter of my academic interests and being 'Ennoshita no chikaramochi '.