EAST MEETS WEST
Original Records of Western Traders, Travellers, Missionaries and Diplomats to 1852

Part 1: The Log Book of William Adams (1564-1620) and other Manuscript and Rare Printed Materials from the Bodleian Library, Oxford

This project is based on the sources displayed at the ' Japan Encountered' exhibition at the Bodleian Library in 1991, which made many scholars aware for the first time of the richness of Oxford holdings in this area.  It is divided into six sections:

• The Christian Century in Japan;
• Jesuit Editions;
• Early Travels to Japan;
• The English and Dutch East India Companies;
• Images of Japan;
• Expeditions to Japan in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.

Exceptional items include: the log book of William Adams (1564-1620) describing four voyages made to Cochin-China and Siam; a magnificent illuminated copy of The Travels of Marco Polo, produced in England in c1400 by the artist Johannes; one of only two originals of the shuinjo, issued by Ieyasu Tokugawa, granting trading privileges to the English East India Company;  and a host of rare printed items from Antwerp, Amsterdam, Mainz, Munich, Paris, St Omer, Alcala, Lisbon, Madrid, Rome, Venice, Edo, Kyoto, Nagasaki, Kazusa, and Osaka.