ABSTRACT
Ruth Benedict and her work on Japan could be described in quite as paradoxical a manner as the way in which she set out to represent Japan. In a discipline which characterizes itself by the learning of language, and long-term participant observation in the field, Benedict produced, without the benefit of either of these research tools, a book which to this day epitomizes the anthropology of the Japanese people. Although carried out without even a visit to that country, the results of Benedict’s inquiry are still cited as genuine source material, her work is regarded as a classic in the field (e.g. Saeki and Haga 1987:187), and she must have sparked off as much, if not more, debate from the subjects of her study than any other ethnographer.
