3 Review(s)

Clergyman and ornithologist H. B. Tristram (1822-1906), was an early supporter of Darwin's evolutionary theories - in his 1859 paper 'On the Ornithology of North Africa' - who became both a Fellow of the Royal Society and canon residentiary of Durham; he was also the Church Missionary Society's representative in the county for forty years. This 1895 volume, the last of many travel narratives he published, is an account of a sojourn in Japan, visiting his daughter Katherine, then headmistress of the Society's school for girls in Osaka. As well as describing the country's minority Christian communities, Tristram's highly readable narrative covers Japanese customs, industries, shrines and ornithology, with excursus on both native wild birds and local practices for taming them. It illustrates the author's ongoing interest in both religion and the natural sciences, as well as illuminating cultural contact between Britain and Japan in this formative period.