The Periodical Press in Treaty-Port Japan

In The Periodical Press in Treaty-Port Japan, Munson offers an analytical survey of print media published in the ‘treaty port’ of Yokohama during the tumultuous final decade of the Tokugawa shogunate. His focus includes English-language newspapers; ‘hybrid’ multinational newspapers, published by Westerners but written in Japanese; and the Japan Punch, a satirical illustrated journal published by Charles Wirgman (Japan correspondent and illustrator for the Illustrated London News). Whereas previous studies of the topic have been written from the perspective of institutional development, The Periodical Press in Treaty-Port Japan provides a fresh take in the field of Japanese media history—and convincingly demonstrates that these early efforts were in fact vital, sophisticated, and exciting.