"Engelbert Kaempfer was one of the most extraordinary men of his age. Scientist, physician, linguist, artist, he is best known today as an early traveller to Japan, whose History of that country was many times reprinted and was required reading for travellers to the East for many decades." "Kaempfer's life now seems remote from us in two respects: the period during which he lived has become alien and in part unintelligible to us, and the exotic cultures of the countries through which he voyaged no longer exist in the form in which he experienced them. However, as Dr. Haberland reveals in this scholarly account, which is based on an exhaustive study of the original sources, the life story of such a man can reveal a great deal about the culture and society in which he lived, doubly so in the case of someone so curious and communicative about the wider world in which he travelled." "Dr. Haberland's award-winning biography, first published in German in 1990, has been extensively revised and updated for this first English edition."--BOOK JACKET.