Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan

It is a collection of impressionistic travel sketches, reporting on Hearn's first travels in Japan between years 1890 and 1893. It is also the first works on Japanese culture Hearn published. In the book, Hearn discusses several themes concerning Japanese culture such as religion (Buddhism and Shinto) and local folklore, and gives a detailed account of Japanese lands and people. Hearn describes an image of Japan that is mysterious and which intrigues him, which reminds him of an ancient civilization spared by what he believes to be a "Western contamination", as synonymous to modernization. Throughout his book, he explains in details why he believes Japan would not benefit from either modernizing nor, as established in the preface, converting to Christianity, as this would erase the charms of Japan.