“I Wish They Were All Christians”: On Isabella Bird’s Grapplings with Indigenous Beliefs in Unbeaten Tracks in Japan

Abstract

The religious aspect of Japanese life has a prominent place in Bird's Unbeaten Tracks in Japan. And her lengthy explications of the irreligious state of Japan contributed greatly in popularizing the image of the passive "Oriental" as they were quoted by those interested in disseminating knowledge on the religious plain of the “Far East.” Despite the importance of religion in Unbeaten Tracks, there are no focused studies of Bird's interpretation of Japan's indigenous religions such as Shinto and Buddhism. This study explores how Bird, even as she acknowledges Japanese modernity, demotes the Japanese to second-rate citizens in the hierarchy of peoples. The double role Japan plays as the modern subject and the “uncivilized Oriental” reveals the flexibility of the Victorian triad, and allows Bird to widen the gap between Japan and the “properly civilized” nations of the West. While there are vociferous locals who refute the premise of the triad, Bird sutures the holes they puncture in her Eurocentric narrative by using plural temporalities.