First published in Boston in 1881 and rarely available today, Japanese Episodes reveals House as a writer, commentator and observer of things Japanese at his best and was to inspire Lafcadio Hearn in the same pursuit twenty years later. Formerly a reporter for the New York Tribune, House was a respected journalist in the United States, and though later he became a paid apologist for the Japanese state in many of his writings, sought to find a balance between his integrity as a writer and the task of arguing Japan’s case to the outside world: an objective many have since argued which was unattainable. Nevertheless, Japanese Episodes provides an important benchmark in Western writing on Japan in the early Meiji period.