KOREA AND HER NEIGHBOURS is a book that is eerily prescient about Korea. It is also provides glimpses of Korea as it was before Japan's Occupation. It has all the confidence of its time, but has some drawbacks.

KOREA AND HER NEIGHBOURS was written by a remarkable woman, Isabella Bird Bishop, an independent British Victorian lady who had also written books about Japan and the US. She toured Korea four times between March 1894-7, and also toured Manchuria and Korean settlements in the Russian Far East. She visited Pusan, Seoul, and Pyongyang, and also sailed the Han River on a raft and climbed the Diamond Mountains. Her accounts and opinions are unusually precise and honest, and still meaningful. Other topics of discussion include marriage customs, shamanism, political events, accounts of the Sino-Japanese War, Koreans in exile, and interviews with the Korean royal family.

The book also includes photographs, particularly useful and informative, since the Japanese destroyed many of the royal households during the Occupation.

Bishop had the opportunity to see parts of Korea that most foreigners have not seen since the Korean War and the division of the peninsula. Although she is very critical of the Korean government and upper classes, she develops a fondness and sympathy for the people of Korea. But, that does not impede her honesty, and she criticizes common behavior and customs readily.

Although the book is full of information, whether it be political, historical, sociological, or naturalistic, her Victorian viewpoint is very apparent. Her faith in Japanese (and Russian) assistance to develop Korea is uncannily prescient, if only naive. Confronted with the account of the murder of Queen Min by the Japanese, she can only plead special pardon for the Japanese, whom she sees as enlightened saviors. Her belief in development is well-meant, but is too simplistic for such a backward country as Korea was. But her account of foreign efforts to reform Korea are expansive (she includes ample appendices and transcripts of government documents). She is a firm believer in a form of democratic republicanism not seen since the First World War.

This is a treasure for students of Korea and Asia, but also for students of the late 19th Century. This very spirited, independent woman amazingly travelled alone, accompanied only by hired men, down rivers and up mountains in summer and winter, walked across battlefields, waded through slums, and interviewed kings, queens, and politicians. This is not only a triumph of scholarship, but of adventure.

this books tells more than just facts about korea one hundred years ago. she-isabella bishop-wrote it on her experience in korea. she traveled every mountain,river and road on her foot, well, actually, somtimes in a boat and carriage. anyway, though it was very hard time then and she had not only pleasant experiences, her love to the country shines throughout the book. i think it is lucky for us korean that she wrote this book.

This book is actually a series of letters written in the 1870's by Isabella Bird, an intrepid Scotswoman,to her sister. Japan had "opened" to the west only some 10 years earlier and she was determined to visit the "untoured" areas of inland Japan, off the beaten track. I wondered to myself how many hordes of Western tourists had there already been to Japan at that time? What makes this book so interesting is twofold. First of all she describes peasant and village life in areas which were quite poor and did not conform to the picture of Japanese life in the cities of Tokyo or Kyoto at that time or now. As was true for Europe at the same period, there were huge differences in the standards of living between the different classes and between town and village. Her descriptions of the Ainu were especially vivid and interesting. The other aspect is Isabella Bird herself. She traveled by pack horse, cow, rickshaw and on foot via mountain tracks and fording countless rivers. She slept in flea infested Ryokan and endured being stared at endlessly. For weeks at a time she could speak only to her servant/interpreter since she did not know Japanese. Recommended for those with an interest in Japan or good travel writing.

This is one of the great travel books of all time. First of all it is an adventure. This English woman decided, for some strange reason of health, in 1878 to go to Japan and travel from Tokyo to the island of Hokkaido, roughly 500 miles as the crow flys but much longer by her route. She went "off the beaten track" where Westerners, men or women had never been before. Japan had been opened up to the West only 10 years before her journey. Word of her coming to a village (on horseback) caused such excitement that people that wanted a better view caused the roof of a building to collapse. Changing into night clothes was an ordeal because people would poke holes in the screens to watch her every move. Then there was the bugs and the rain storms and the rivers, etc., etc. It was well written and a joy to read.