Isabella Bird

By Shiori Iikura

Isabella Bird

Isabella Bird was famous as a traveler and writer. She went to many countries including Japan, and then wrote about her traveling. She was a really honest person; she told the reader what she really saw in other countries in her books. She was the only person who did like this in this period.

She was born in Boroughbridge in 1831 on the 15th of November, and grew up in Tattenhall, Cheshire. She was not well as a child and had many diseases throughout her life. Her real desire was going many countries. In 1854, her father gave her some money for going to America to visit her relatives. It was a first time for her to travel to another country. She was really excited. She stayed there until her money ran out. “The Englishwoman in America”, which is written about this her first journey, was published in 1856. I think this first travel made her active to travel to other countries.

She didn't want to stay in Britain, because it always seemed to make her sick and feel not good. In addition, her mother died there in 1868. She wanted to leave there, and finally she left Britain in 1872. She went to Australia and Hawaii first. She wrote about her stay in Australia and Hawaii in her second book which was published 3 years later.

In 1878, she came to Japan, and looked around with translator Tsurukichi Ito. In Nikko, she saw many beautiful view and nature. She was really impressed by them. She also went to many places like mountain, river and water falls which she liked. She said about Japan in “Unbeaten Tracks in Japan”. “It was the safest place for woman. We don’t have to worry when we walk around. There are no countries like this.” she said. However she said about not only place but also people. She said “Japanese people have yellow skin, small eyes, and hard hair.” She thought that a standard of Japanese people’s morality is quite low. She had two different opinions about Japanese good aspects and bad aspects.

As I said at the beginning, she was really honest person. That's why she said about Japanese people like that. But I think that perhaps there was too much expression about image of Japanese people.

She went to not only Japan nut also China, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia. Around this time, her sister died because of typhoid. She was very sad and depressed. After this happened, she started to study medicine and decided to travel as a missionary. When she was nearly 60 years old, she went to India as a missionary. She traveled in Persia, Kurdistan and Turkey. She traveled British soldier traveling between Baghdad and Tehran. I was impressed that she changed her mind to travel as a missionary after her siste'’s death. Also, even though she was nearly 60 years old, she still continued to try new things.

After these travels, she became the first woman inducted into the Royal Geographical Society. She was elected to membership of Royal Photographic Society in 1897. In this year, she went to her great final travel to Yangtze and Han which are in China and Korea. She still traveled to Morocco after that. Then she died in Edinburgh within a few months of her return in 1904 when she was 73 years old. Actually she was still planning to travel China, but she died before that.

She loved travelling to various countries, especially Asia. Even though she got sick easily, she didn't stop travelling. She was a really honest person, and that is why she always told us real things about place, view and people in her books.

I think her background is interesting. She was sickly child, but she didn't give up what she wanted. She traveled to many countries and wrote about that honestly. I was surprised when I read about her at first, because she said about Japanese or other negative things like that. But sometimes it is important. We can know real things by that. She was one of interesting people in this period. Knowing her background made me want to read her books.


References

イザベラ・バード(Isabella Bird) Wikipedia(n.d.) Retrieved on 6/27/2013 from

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A4%E3%82%B6%E3%83%99%E3%83%A9%E3%83%BB%E3%83%90%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89

Isabella Bird Wikipedia (n.d.) Retrieved 6/27/2013 from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Bird

Isabella Bird and her stay in Japan

By Kanako Kawai

Isabella Bird

If you had the opportunity to travel around the world, where would you want to go? An English explorer, Isabella Bird traveled around the world for almost her whole life to treat her illness. On her journey, she met lots of people and had various experiences. For example, she climbed Rocky Mountain, experienced Ainu tribe culture in Japan, and became the first woman inducted into the Royal Geographical Society. Also, she published some books, which if you read them, perhaps you will notice she has really strong opinion, and has different views for observing. In this paper, I will first mention her early life, and next describe her journey particularly in Japan, and finally conclude what she contributed to the later society.

Isabella Bird, who was born in the English county of Yorkshire in 1831, was well-known among people as she traveled all over the world. In her early age, she was a sickly child and spent her entire life struggling with various diseases. She mentions that she began to have health troubles at least six different times during her six-month stay in Hawaii. Although she had several diseases, she was really active, and her desire was to travel around the world. In 1854, she was allowed to travel to America with £100, and the trip inspired her to travel other countries like Australia, China, Japan or anywhere she interested in. Surprisingly, during her journey, she never got ill. 

When she landed in Japan, she first realized that it was really hard to find her way around. Because there are no names on the streets but just numbers on maps without sequence, she was confused a lot. Moreover, there were no Europeans on the way to go. Therefore, she had trouble with lots of people because of the language problem, so she finally hired a young Japanese man to be her translator, and they traveled together to Hokkaido. On the way to Hokkaido, in her observation of the urban area, Yokohama and Tokyo, she was really frank. She said “Yokohama does not improve on further acquaintance. It has a dead-alive look” (Simkin, 1997), and “In Tokyo, the houses were mean, poor, shabby, often even squalid, the smells were bad and the people looked ugly, shabby, poor…” (Lucier, 2008). However, she was not always so critical. Meli (2008) says “Indeed, she is struck by the beauty of the landscape she travels through on her way to Nikko.” Also, she mentions that the hospitality and generosity of the Japanese people were respectable, and in fact, some people say that these features and characteristics remain intact. Probably most travelers agree with her opinion.

When she arrived in Hokkaido, she experienced culture of The Ainu tribe which is non-Japanese, and inhabitants of the islands. Their culture is distinct from Japanese. For example, they used their own language, had own culture, and believed in a particular religion. Actually, her observation of the tribe is particularly valuable. As she experienced Ainu culture, she describes them as “complete savages”, although she did not mean this completely negatively. Indeed, she had a great respect for them and their customs. She actually spent a lot of time investigating their culture and customs, and she found their social customs and spiritual beliefs “simple”. For example, she was curious about their thoughts of the possibility of life after death. First of all, she had no idea whether life after death existed or not, but she says “Although the future…does not occupy any place in their thoughts, and they can hardly be said to believe in the immortality of the soul,… their fear of ghosts shows that they recognize a distinction between body and spirit.” This means even if we have died, our spirit is still alive, and there is another life as a ghost. Like this, she gradually began to understand their culture and customs, and wrote everything she saw and experienced on her travelogue.

To conclude, she contributed to the later society as she tells us that she “writes the truth as sees it” (Honjo, 2001). This is one of her famous sayings, and she said she wrote everything truthfully on her travelogue. Thanks to her, now we can see what exactly happened, and the real situations of Japan in the era. However, there is one problem with her observation. As she observed Japan, she wrote her travelogue just on her self-reflection. There might be different concept of what she saw from other people. Even so, knowing the real lives of every different class which may not told by any text in schools is important, and her journey and experiences definitely made the later society reconsider the history. Bird gives us an opportunity to know the importance of studying every little piece of history because they all eventually fade away.

References

Honjo, Y. (2001 December), "Bird's eye view of early Japan", The International Herald Tribune-Asahi Shimbun, Pg. 23. 

Lucier, A. (2008, September), “Lady Isabella Bird in Japan”, Wuthering expectations. Retrieved on 17/07/2013 from http://wutheringexpectations.blogspot.jp/2008/09/lady-isabella-bird-in-japan-rats-gnawed.html


Meli, M. (2008 November), “The “Savage” and “Gentle” Race: Isabella Bird on the Ainu”, Jairo. Retrieved on 16/07/2013 from http://jairo.nii.ac.jp/0161/00000681/en

Simkin, J.(1997), “Isabella Bird”, Spartacus.schoolnet. Retrieved on 16/07/2013 from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WWbirdbishop.htm