This series published by Shunnansha from 1929 onward remains highly regarded today as an unconventional series of books depicting Japanese history through the eyes of non-Japanese writers. An important body of literature in translation, it covers the history of links between Japan and Europe, a history suffused with the turbulence in Japan from the late Sengoku period to the final years of the shogunate. These intrepid accounts penned by foreign visitors paint a picture of Japan as it truly was at the time: politically, economically, culturally, and in terms of religion, customs and its natural environment, making the collection an accurate supplement to other Japanese history resources, with the added factor of a foreign perspective. Old-style fonts that bring the flavor of the original books to the fore add to the special sense of time and place.