The principal aim of this work is to to give a general sketch, of the history of Japan. In short, the book is, strictly speaking, intended for those Europeans and Americans who would like to dip into the past, as well as peer into the future, of Japan, not as a land of quaint curios and picturesque paradoxes only worthy to be preserved intact for a show, but as a land inhabited by a nation striving hard to improve itself, and to take a share, however humble, in the common progress of the civilisation of the world. The book covers the period from pre-history to the Meiji Restoration. Written by Katsuro Hara of the College of Literature, Kyoto Imperial University in 1918.