THE DEER CRY PAVILION: A Story of Westerners in Japan 1868-1905

Pat Barr previously wrote The Coming of the Barbarians which dealt with the period of Western settlement in Japan from Commodore Perry's arrival in 1853 to 1870. This volume presents a picture of Japan in the years between the restoration of the Meiji Emperor and Japan's victory over Russia seen through the eyes of the Westerners who were involved in the process of modernization. Mrs. Barr relates the experiences of schoolteachers, missionaries, diplomats, engineers and technicians, how they took part in the social revolution in those years and how the Japanese themselves responded. Her book is a graceful account of the passing of an insulated, ordered, charming and secure but often harsh way of life. The Deer Cry Pavilion or Rokumeikan was a social center where the leading members of Tokyo's international society flocked in the late '80's.