Canada, Hong Kong, UK, USA: Columbia University Press, 2002. Hdb ISBN: 0-231-12340-X

Donald Keene was hailed in the New York Times Book Review as "the twentieth century's leading expert on Japanese literature, as well as its most indefatigable translator". In this masterful study Keene not only offers us an unrivaled portrait of the critically important Meiji period of modern Japanese history; he also introduces us - perhaps the first time this has been done successfully - to the emperor himself. With Keene we follow Meiji from his early years and through the period of rapid modernization to the major wars with China and Russia. When Emperor Meiji began his rule in 1867 Japan was a relatively weak country, threatened by civil war and cut off from the outside world. By the end of his long reign it had been transformed from an isolated island nation to one of the world's major powers. Keene's sparkling prose makes this a vivid and engrossing biography and a pleasure to read.