The First European Description of Japan, 1585 ─ A critical English-language edition of Striking Contrasts in the Customs of Europe and Japan

"In 1585, at the height of the 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 constitutesthe 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, butrather 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 Japanese history and culture. "--

Luis Frois S.J. was a long-time Jesuit missionary in Japan in the later years of the sixteenth century

Daniel T. Reff is a Professor in the Department of Comparative Studies in the Humanities, The Ohio State University, USA

Richard Danford is an Associate Professor and Director of Latin American Studies, and Vice-President for Diversity and Inclusion, at Marietta College, Ohio, USA

Robin Gill is a freelance translator and editor, USA