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FO R some time scholars have realized that it would be difficult to treat modern Japanese relations with the West, more particularly, Japan's contacts with America, without a visit to New Brunswick. This is true because of the location of the Griffis Papers in the Department of Special Collections and Archives of the University Libraries. The presence of the Griffis Papers at Rutgers University was in turn the product of the experience and interest of a remarkable individual, as well as of a fortuitous relationship between Rutgers and Japan during the nineteenth century. The individual was, of course, William Elliot Griffis (1843-1928, Rutgers Class of 1869),1 who was doubtless America's first "old Japan hand." The relationship was technically between the Rutgers Grammar School (now Rutgers Preparatory School),2 Rutgers College (now part of Rutgers University), and a feudal domain, Echizen (modern Fukui Prefecture).3 The ties began in the 1860s, when a band of samurai (with assumed names to hide their illegal exit from Japan) arrived to study English and then to transfer into college-level work at Rutgers. In our day, thanks to the work of American and Japanese scholars and to the generosity of Japanese philanthropy, the original Griffis Papers have been greatly augmented and the significance of this resource greatly enhanced. On December 6, 1980 in the Alexander |
