A diplomat during political change
Algernon Bertram Mitford served in the British legation in Japan from 1866 to 1870, during the upheaval that ended the shogunate and restored imperial government. His letters and recollections describe that period through the experiences of a foreign official learning the country’s language and political life.
Tales of Old Japan appeared in 1871, soon after his return to Britain. Its account of the Forty-seven Rōnin and its descriptions of ceremonies attracted lasting interest. Mitford later became Baron Redesdale and continued writing about Japan, gardens and his own memories. His collecting and diplomatic work helped shape the perspective through which he introduced Japanese subjects to readers abroad.
Stories, sermons and woodcuts
The two 1871 volumes held here credit Japanese artists with drawings cut on wood. In his preface Mitford names Odake in connection with the drawings. Their pictures accompany stories that change register from heroic loyalty to comic reversals and supernatural encounters. Later moral teaching uses everyday situations to explain judgment, including an apprentice learning to recognise good silver. The collection’s variety gives readers several forms of storytelling, each framed by Mitford’s account of the customs around it.
