Area Studies: Japan

Area Studies: Japan is a collection of digitized primary sources documenting, from a Western perspective, the political, social, and cultural history of Japan from the 1400s to the 20th century. The collection includes documents by writers, diplomats, tourists, businessmen, missionaries, and other Western visitors to Japan. The collection includes the following highlights:

• Medieval manuscripts relating to Japan, including an account by Marco Polo;
• The logbook of William Adams (1564-1620), alias Miura Anjin, the first Englishman known to have visited Japan;
• The journals, printed articles and other papers of William Elliot Griffis (1843-1928), American author, teacher and educational reformer in Japan. These documents were digitized from the William Elliot Griffis Collection, which is held by Rutgers University Libraries in Special Collections and University Archives.