Hugh Cortazzi 
Mitford“s Japan 
Memories and Recollections, 1866-1906

As the preface to this new edition points out, Mitford (Algernon Bertram, the first Lord Redesdale) was a gifted writer whose descriptions of Japan, during the critical time of transition from a feudal to a modern state in the late nineteenth century, are a testimony to his narrative skills, accuracy and objective reporting – qualities which are sometimes overshadowed by the higher profile given to his contemporary Ernest Satow. Accordingly, this new paperback edition, which makes the Mitford memoirs available to a much wider audience, includes a wide selection of extracts from Mitford“s bestselling
Tales of Old Japan (1871) – what Mitford, according to Carmen Blacker, perceived as the essence of the Japanese spirit: “heroic, ruthless, devotedly loyal, bloody and chivalrous“.