Unbeaten Tracks In Japan: Travels On Horseback In 1878

by Isabella Lucy Bird

Suffering from an unspecified illness, Isabella Bird left her English home in 1878 journeying to Japan to "improve her health." Her unorthodox cure consisted of buying a local horse and exploring the islands of the reclusive Japanese homeland. The Long Rider author carefully documented various aspects of the fascinating culture she discovered, describing a host of subjects ranging from "Children's Games" to "A Narrow Escape." "I lived among the Japanese, and saw their mode of living, in regions unaffected by European contact. As a lady travelling alone, and the first European lady who had been seen in several districts through which my route lay, my experiences differed more or less widely from those of preceding travellers," she wrote. Though her quest for equestrian adventure was to turn her into a compulsive traveller, Isabella's famous lone trek through the interior of Japan remains a classic and is presented now in its original two volume set, complete with delightful drawings.

Genres: Japan, Japanese Literature

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Isabella Lucy Bird Bishop (October 15, 1831 – October 7, 1904) was a nineteenth-century English traveller, writer, and a natural historian.

Works:
* The Englishwoman in America (1856)
* Pen and Pencil Sketches Among The Outer Hebrides (published in The Leisure Hour) (1866)
* The Hawaiian Archipelago (1875)
* The Two Atlantics (published in The Leisure Hour) (1876)
* Australia Felix: Impressions of Victoria and Melbourne (published in The Leisure Hour) (1877)
* A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879)
* Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (1880)
* Sketches In The Malay Peninsula (published in The Leisure Hour) (1883)
* The Golden Chersonese and the way Thither (1883)
* A Pilgrimage To Sinai (published in The Leisure Hour) (1886)
* Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan (1891)
* Among the Tibetans (1894)
* Korea and her Neighbours (1898)
* The Yangtze Valley and Beyond (1899)
* Chinese Pictures (1900)
* Notes on Morocco (published in the Monthly Review) (1901)

Reviews

[Frank McAdam · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Victorians were absolutely the best travelers ever. They would pick a blank space on the map, pack their things, and set off with complete self-confidence to discover what was there. It's amazing they almost always came through it unscathed.

Bird's view of Japan in the early part of the Meiji Period is invaluable to anyone with an interest in that country. Though the Japanese character itself has not changed greatly, it's incredible to think that less than 150 years ago the sophisticated technologically advanced nation with which we're familiar was a backward, almost third-world country whose political instability, complete with assassinations and mutinies, was so pervasive that it was hardly worth remarking upon.

The most interesting part of Bird's narrative, for me at least, was the second part in which she described her stay among the Aino, the aboriginal race inhabiting Hokkaido. I'd always been interested in these people, and Bird's account is the most in-depth study I've come across.

I had considered Bird's 1886 memoir an obscure work at best - I got my copy as a free download from Project Gutenberg - and so was surprised that many of my Japanese friends were familiar with it. It turns out the book was the inspiration for a 2015 manga comic book titled Isabella Bird in Wonderland that became something of a bestseller in Japan.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this mainly because I wanted to "compare notes" so to say. I've been to some of the places that Bird visited and I wanted to see how a woman travelling on her own (or as much on her own as a European lady of that time would every travel, being that she had Ito, an interpreter and help with her) would have seen them about 130 years ago.

It is a wonderful account, very personal, very minute and very open. Bird's book is a collection of letters written to her sister and she comes across as a very open-minded and outgoing person for a lady of her time (also as compared with Ida Pfeiffer's way of talking about the "natives"). While Bird's Christian education, beliefs and morals are very obvious, she deals with what she sees in a far more accepting manner than Pfeiffer does. I assume that may also be due to the fact that Pfeiffer was much older when she travelled and had spent her life in conservative surroundings.

That being said, I really enjoyed the "trip report". It's amazing how many details Bird gives - this is probably mainly because these are all personal letters and while she may have adapted them a little, the day-to-day toil and description of the towns, the people and her impressions are fascinating.

You follow her for 400 pages from Tokyo via Nikko up to the North (Aomori). There's a second volume of letters starting from there that I'm very much looking forward to.

For me, it wasn't just the travel aspect though. I've read a lot of books about Japan and I have my own impressions from my trips. Taking that into account, it's interesting to see Bird give her picture - this was not very long after Japan opened itself to the West and you can see in her account exactly how the Japanese government and the public dealt with the new ideas, laws, medicine and technology. So from a historical point of view, the look into Japanese history from someone who's been there and reports, unknowingly, what I've read up on later in a historical treatise, is spell-binding.

This book is for anyone with an interest in Japanese history, an interest in women travelling in the past, and an interest in Japanese culture as such. It's very rich and powerful, imo a total must-read.

[Benemint · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good entertaining vacation reading for me.