"To have lived through the transition stage of modern Japan makes a man feel preternaturally old; for here he is in modern times, with the air full of talk about bicycles and bacilli and spheres of influence, and yet he can himself distinctly remember the Middle Ages. The dear old Samurai who first initiated the present writer into the mysteries of the Japanese language, wore a queue and two swords. This relic of feudalism now sleeps in Nirvana. His modern successor, fairly fluent in English, might almost be a European, save for a certain obliqueness of the eyes and scantiness of beard. Old things pass away between a night and a morning. The Japanese boast that they have done in thirty or forty years what it took Europe half as many centuries to accomplish..." - Basil Hall Chamberlain

Contents: Abacus. Abdication. Acupuncture. Adams (Will). Adoption. Agriculture. Ainos. Amusements. Archæology. Architecture. Armour. Army. Art. Asiatic Society of Japan. Bamboos. Bathing. Bibliography. Birthdays. Blackening the Teeth. Books on Japan. Botany. Bowing to the Emperor's Picture. Bronze. Buddhism. Camphor. Capital Cities. Carving. Cats. Cha-no-yu. Characteristics. Charms and Sacred Pictures. Chauvinism. Cherry-blossom. Chess. Children. Christianity in Japan. Clans. Classes of Society. Climate. Cloisonné. Confucianism. Conventions. Cormorant-fishing. Cremation. Currency. Cycle. Daimyō. Dances. Decorations. Demoniacal Possession. Divination. Dress. Duck-hunting. Earthquakes and Volcanoes. Education. Embroidery. Empress. English as she is Japped. Esotericism. Eta. Eurasians. Europeanisation. Fairy-tales. Fans. Fashionable Crazes. Festivals. Filial Piety. Fires. Fire-walking. Fishing. Flag. Flowers. Food. Foreign Employés in Japan. Forfeits. Formosa. Forty-seven Rōnins. Fuji. Fun. Funerals. Gardens. Geisha. Geography. Globe-trotters. Go. Government. Harakiri. Heraldry. History and Mythology. Incense Parties. Indian Influence. Industrialism. Japan. Japanese People (Characteristics of the). Jinrikisha. Kaempfer. Kago. Kakke. Kakemono. Lacquer. Language. Law. Literature. Little Spring. Living. Logic. Long-tailed Fowls. Lotus. Luchu. Luck (Gods of). Maps. Marriage. Maru. Massage. Metal-work. Mikado. Mineral Springs. Mirrors. Missions. Moral Maxims. Mourning. Moxa. Music. Mythology. Names. Naturalisation. Navy. Newspapers. Nō. Nobility. Numerical Categories. Painting. Paper. Parkes (Sir Harry). Perry (Commodore). Philosophy. Pidgin-Japanese. Pilgrimages. Pipes. Poetry. Politeness. Polo. Population. Porcelain and Pottery. Posts. Praying-wheel. Printing. "Proverbs". Pug-dogs. Race. Railways. Religion. Roads. Rowing. Sake. Salutations. Samurai. Sculpture. Shimo-bashira. Shintō. Shipping. Shōgun. Shooting. Siebold. Silk. Singing-girls. Societies. Society. Story-tellers. Sun, Moon, and Stars. Supernatural Creatures. Superstitions. Swords. Taste. Tattooing. Tea. Tea ceremonies. Telegraphs. Theatre. Time. Tobacco. Topsy-turvydom. Torii. Towels. Trade. Treaties with Foreign Powers. Tycoon. Vegetable Wax. Volcanoes. Weights and Measures. Woman (Status of). Wood Engraving. Wrestling. Writing. Yezo. Yoshiwara. Zoology.