Books are Full of Visual Gems: Early 20th century Japan edition!

Posted by Ryan Sands, Google Books Online Team

It may come as no surprise to the book nerds out there (you know who you are) that the annals of written history are full of visual gems.

Now, when you come across something interesting in a public domain title that has been scanned via our Library Project, you can easily add it to your own website or blog. Simply snag the chunk of text or image using our Clip feature in Google Books () and copy and paste the Embed HTML code onto your site.

I've lived in Japan on three different occasions, first as an exchange student and later during college. Many of us encounter and enjoy Japanese contemporary pop culture in our daily lives, but I've always been most interested in the history and arts of early 20th century Japan. I spent some time this week looking through the Google Books archives, focusing on items from the late Meiji period (1868 - 1912) and the Taisho period (1912 - 1926). Particularly fascinating to me is the Taisho period's cultural milieu, from which the Takarazuka Revue theater and pulp fiction author Edogawa Rampo sprung.

I used the Clip feature in Google Books to pull together a collection of images from early 20th century Japan. These books are written in English by American and European authors, and reflect a few of the Western perspectives on Japan of that era. They provide a unique snapshot of Japan from an interesting and important time in the country's history - simply click any image to read the original book source!

[Please note, some content may not be available in full view to users outside of the United States.]


Young Japan by James Augustin Brown Scherer [1905]


War With Japan? by Thomas Edward Green [1916]


Mysterious Japan by Julian Street [1921]


Working Women of Japan by Sidney Lewis Gulick [1915]


Sea-Girt Yezo by John Batchelor, Church Missionary Society [1902]