Page:The Awakening of Japan, by Okakura Kakuzō; 1905.djvu/23



sudden development of Japan has been more or less of an enigma to foreign observers. She is the country of flowers and ironclads, of dashing heroism and delicate tea-cups,—the strange borderland where quaint shadows cross each other in the twilight of the New and the Old World. Until recently the West has never taken Japan seriously. It is amusing to find nowadays that such success as we have achieved in our efforts to take a place