| dc.description.abstract | In this thesis, I analyse English and Japanese travelogues and guidebooks on Japan in the Meiji era (1868-1912) with a focus on Northern Japan, specifically Yokohama, Tokyo, Nikko, Niigata, and Aomori. The English primary sources, that of Isabella Bird’s Unbeaten tracks in Japan and Ernest Satow’s A Handbook for Travellers in Central and Northern Japan are comparatively analysed together with the Japanese primary sources, that being the travelogue Autumn in Ryomo by Tokutomi Roka, and the guidebooks The Great Japan Train Guide to Famous Places (大日本汽車名所) and Japan National Railway Tourist Information (日本全国鉄道名所旅行案内). The thesis statement I have worked with is “How is Japan in the Meiji era experienced and written about by foreign and Japanese travellers.” With this, I have analysed the writings of the primary sources to find how they describe the landscape, culture, people, and general travel recommendations in their writings. In the travelogues of Bird and Roka, they write about their experiences travelling, depicting the scenery and experiences in Northern Japan. Where Bird often notes her cultural encounters and the hybrid cultures travelling on the “unbeaten tracks” through the nature of Japan on an anthropological journey, Roka focuses on the poetic journey in the Japanese tradition of Tabi as well as the usage of English traditions that influenced Japan at the time, as he describes his journey to the Ryomo region in autumn. The guidebooks present the respective authors' recommendations for travel in Japan through the interest and bias of their authors and the cultural and technological development of Japan during the Meiji era. Satow’s guide, being one of the first English guides on Japan, often presents the traveller with detailed information on the Shrines and Temples, as these are the primary interest of the author. He has a deep understanding of Japanese history and culture and presents the primary locations for visit to experience an “authentic” Japan. The Japanese guidebooks present a modernizing Japan through railway travel, combining the traditional concept of travel, Tabi, with the faster and more accessible travel, Ryoko, whilst still adhering to the poetic traditions. They share Satow’s interest in religious locations as important cultural sights for tourists, but unlike Satow, in areas such as Aomori, they are able to draw on the distinctive Japanese by quoting the poet Saigyo in advertising the area. | eng |