ABSTRACT
IN CURRENT intellectual discourse, a strong interest in contemporary theory often shapes the manner in which historical and cultural events are examined. Yet however satisfying such a sustained level of synthesis and generality may appear to be, such forms of analysis—and so critical judgment—perforce set aside the stubborn and limited nature of individual facts. And such facts are particularly important to keep in mind when analyzing the complex issues, so important in the Meiji period, which concern the transmissions of ideas from one culture to another, and from one national sensibility to another. Unfortunately for the theoretical strategists, it would appear that the idiosyncracies of personality, chance encounter, and shifting intellectual enthusiasms on the part of the diverse players in these complicated cultural dramas remain such that too great a level of generalization brings risks of misinterpretation.
