De-Isolating Ise in Early Meiji Japan

Breen examines how the Ise shrines, long closed to foreigners, were opened in the early Meiji period through the visits and writings of Ernest Satow, Isabella Bird, and Henry Palmer. Satow, the first foreigner admitted in 1872, combined on-the-ground observation with deep knowledge of Shinto history; Bird, in 1878, offered vivid travel writing that contrasted Ise&s;s natural beauty with her disappointment in its shrines; Palmer, reporting for The Times in 1889, interpreted Ise through a Christian-inflected lens of awe and reverence. Breen shows how these foreign voices, across scholarly, literary, and journalistic genres, contributed to the ‘de-isolation’ of Ise while the shrines themselves underwent major transformations in ritual, space, and modern presentation.