Mapping Isabella Bird: Geolocation & Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (1880)

Original Source: Isabella Bird, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Ainos of Yezo (Frontispiece), 1880. Illustration, wood engraving.

This illustration is a smaller version of the frontispiece to volume 2 of Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (1880), which in turn is based on two photographs by Baron Raimund von Stillfried. There are some subtle differences here with regards to the positioning of the bodies. Both men are given names, Shinondi and Shinrichi, that match Bird's narrative. Their expressions here more readily invoke conversation and interaction.

Discussed in the following chapter: Spiker, Christina M. “‘Civilized’ Men and ‘Superstitious’ Women: Visualizing the Hokkaido Ainu in Isabella Bird’s Unbeaten Tracks, 1880.” In Gender, Continuity, and the Shaping of Modernity in the Arts of East Asia, 16th­­–20th Centuries, edited by Lara Blanchard and Kristen Chiem, 287-315. Leiden: Brill, 2017.

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