Isabella Bird and Japan

Kiyonori Kanasaka, a distinguished geographer at Kyoto University, is widely recognized as Japan’s leading researcher on Bird. He has published extensively in Japanese on the subject, including a full annotated translation of the original two-volume edition of Unbeaten Tracks. He is known worldwide for his ‘Twin Time Travel’ photographic exhibition, shown in many countries – presenting Bird’s descriptions of what she wrote about in her books in juxtaposition with illustrations of the present.

[Plate Section faces page 108]


Foreword by Sir Hugh Cortazzi, GCMG


Author’s Preface to the English Edition


Translator’s Preface


Translator’s Notes


Preface to the Japanese Edition


Maps of Isabella Bird’s Travels in Japan (Figs 1–3)


CHAPTER 1: Interpreting Bird’s Travels and Unbeaten Tracks in Japan


· A scientific study


· The three original works and their Japanese translations


· Bird’s vocabulary and the translation challenge


· The importance of place names


CHAPTER 2: Isabella Bird – A Life of Travel


PART 1: FROM BIRTH TO BIRD’S PERIOD I JOURNEYS: CANADA AND AMERICA


· A clergyman’s daughter


· Bird’s home life and character


· Bird’s Period 1 journeys: Canada and America.


· The second journey to America and her father’s death


· Move to Scotland and her mother’s death


· Bird’s attempts at slum improvement and serious illness


PART 2: BIRD’S PERIOD II AND III JOURNEYS: AUSTRALIA, HAWAIIAN ISLANDS, ROCKY MOUNTAINS, JAPAN


· Start of Bird’s Period II journeys: Australia and New Zealand


· Hawaiian Islands


· Rocky Mountains


· Back home from her Period II journeys


· Background to planning the Japan trip


· Preparing for Japan: Bird’s Period III journeys


PART 3: POST-JAPAN AND EVENTS IN BIRD’S LATER YEARS: JOURNEYS FROM THE LATTER PART OF PERIOD III TO PERIOD VI


· Two journeys on her way home: The Malay and Sinai Peninsulas


· Rapidly-changing personal circumstances


· A visit to Ireland : prelude to Bird’s Period IV journeys


· Bird’s Period IV journeys: Lesser Tibet, Persia and Kurdistan


· Bird as a lecturer and major travel personality


· Bird’s Period V Journeys: three years in a rapidly-changing Far East


· Subsequent activities and trip to Morocco: Bird’s Period VI journeys


· Final years


· A life of travel


CHAPTER 3: Aspects of Bird’s 1878 Visit to Japan


· No regional or time constraints


· Special interior travel permit


· Plant-collecting


· First trip with a servant-interpreter Contents ix


· The route


· Horses and jinrikishas of the Land Transport Agent


· The British Legation


· Missionary agenda


· Bird’s letters


· Press reports


· Planning the journey with Parkes


· Ainu society


CHAPTER 4: Access and Support in Japan


· Minister and Lady Parkes


· The Foreign Ministry


· Accounts by Stoddart and North


· Bird’s letters


· Satow and the three consuls


· Assistance from missionary organisations


· Chamberlain and others


· French and Austrian Legations


· Japanese Foreign Ministry and Hokkaid? Development Commission


· Japanese Home Ministry


CHAPTER 5: The Legacy of Bird’s Stay in Japan


PART I: BIRD AND HER CIRCLE


· On Bird herself


· On Chamberlain


· On Parkes 17


· On It? Tsurukichi


PART 2: WHAT BIRD’S TRIP AND UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN MEAN FOR EUROPE AND AMERICA ISABELLA BIRD AND JAPAN


PART 3: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON THE REVIVED TRAVELOGUES


· Travelogues forgotten and revived


· Understanding Unbeaten Tracks in Japan


· Two illustrations of Mt Fuji and their message


Endnotes


Postscript to the Japanese Edition


Chronology: The Life of Isabella Bird


Bibliographies


Index