In the 23 year of Meiji era, a foreigner traveled and stayed in Noto Peninsular. Persival Rowell who was known to be the man of aspiration and dedicated scholar, predicting the existence of “Puluto”.He was born in Boston in the United States and came to Noto
Peninsular. During his visit there, he photographed a few dozen sites in Noto area and published his memoir on his visit to Note peninsular. The pictures he took in Noto had been left unknown at a storage that were discovered and identified as these of the pictures that Rowell took 100 years ago. This paper is designed to reveal and assess his view of Noto through the photographic perspective, which might shed some light on his view of Noto.


It has been noted for a quite sometime that the motivation and aspiration which led Rowell to travel to Noto was not truly known until such a time when these pictures were brought to the attention of scholars and the public. In an opening sentence of his book, entitled “Noto: An Unexplored Corner of Japan”, published by Atlantic Monthly in 1891, he described his motivation and aspiration which led him to came to Noto. He stated that his adventure to Noto did stem from his intuition and feelings that there might be something that could attract and rejuvenates him, although his friends regarded his journey to Noto as his usual behavior and dismissed him as a simple traveler. He stated, however, that he never regretted that he visited Noto.

It may be said that his journey to Noto was like as if he fell in love. His relationship with Japan began when he came to Japan in the 16th year of Meiji era. He lived in Tokyo for some years. His interest and curiosity brought his attention to a unique shape of a peninsular that he noted from the map of Japan. He stated in his book that the reason that attracted his mind about Note was due to his perception and imagination of the shape of Noto. It is the peninsular, as he stated that was defying the East and looking toward the West was like a girl who was so absorbed with an open ocean facing the Sea of Japan. He loved the name of Noto and described his feelings toward Noto as if Note were perceived in his mind that it was the peninsular, possessing the gender and feminine characters and more he saw the more attractive and intrigue Noto became for him.
So. his journey began with his servant and cook by the name of Mr.Eijiro Yamada in May of the year of 22nd of Meiji. Japan was undergoing through so-called the period of industrial revolution. Their journey started from Ueno station on to Yokokawa through Takasaki. They kept walking through a famous Usui Toge which was known to be the difficult pass to reached Karuizawa, from there they took a train for Naoetsu. The railways in Japan was not as complete as now when they travelled, particularly in the country-side facing Sea of Japan, so they had to depend on “jinrikisha” and they had to kept walking for a long hours when such a service was not available; their destination was Note.

Their journey carried them from Naoetsu on to Oyashirazu. Rowell was intrigued by how limes were being manufactured. It was with smoky and bad-smelling condition. He was, however, amazed to learn that the limes were manufactured with charcoal which was made of Note and his desire of reaching Noto sooner did propel. Rowell did mention in his book, saying that when he heard of the charcoal which was from Noto ,his mind beamed harder and harder and he was proud of Note because of the local peoples who were making the limes did admire of the charcoal being brought over to Oyashirazu from Note. He stated that Note was a mighty place where the best quality of anything were available there. He felt as if he himself were an integral part of Note; every bit of Noto possess. His style of writing his book on his visit to Noto was enriched with his observation of customs and the way of life in the inroad to Noto.

Rowell describe in his book about his observation of his interactions with the peoples at
Zenkouji Temple that was located Koyasirazu between Niigata and Toyama. He took many pictures of the peoples he had seen and interacted with there. He described his observation of those peoples who came to Zenkouji in such a way, which was illustrated not only poetically but also philosophically. His observation was; Peoples were crossing the streets in the mass and they were old and young both men and women. Each person came there with his or her own traveling clothes and bags. Some peoples were loaded with personal belongings way over they could carry but did manage to carry it with a balanced technique they used with sticks, which kept their belongings in balance.
He said that some of them might have to travel back to their homes for more than 200 miles before they could reach their homes. Through the process of visiting there, they might have gone through the process of agony and torture but they would return their home with the feelings of accomplishments that they had achieved what they have had hoped for; it was the accomplishments that they were able to come to Zenkouji to pay their respect for Buddha. It would be a rewarding journey for them in their lives. So, he described in his book.

Rowell and his servant kept moving on to Noto. They traveled along the shoreline road and reached Mitsukaichi (currently called Kurobe City).Whne he reached Mitsukaichi, riding on Jinrikisha, he was the center of curiosity of the local peoples there. Although he was afraid of the crowed gather around him, which annoyed him a bit if there were any accidents, he was managed to reach an inn at Mitsukaichi. He was glad to see that the local peoples were so kind to treat him. He stated that the local peoples at Mitsukaichi, which was under the control of Daimyo of Kaga, were aware of how to host and treat visitors out of their territories. He stated that the local peoples there knew the manners and courtesies to be extended to the visitors as they had learned from the way it had to be done under Kaga regime that Mitsukiaichi was controlled.

The next morning at Mitsukaichi, he hired Jinrikisha and went further to Fushimi.
From there, he kept walking along the seashore road for approximately one mile over the sand beach. He confessed that it was a difficult way of reaching Fushimi. His impression of Fushimi was beyond his expression. He described that Fushimi is the town with the sense of grace and warmness. One episode, which he cited, was that when
He needed someone who could assist him to carry his personal belongings, he asked the manager of the inn that he needed someone to help him to carry his personal belongings. Upon the request of Rowell, the manage of the inn was able to find a woman who could assist him. But, he declined to accept the offer because he felt that such a hard labor should not be imposed on a woman, which astonished the manager of the inn. He stated in his belief that Japanese society might have been provided such a system of labor services to be available through the services of Jinrikisha, horse, caw, man and woman in order of the needs. His own personal conviction being that he could not tolerate the using of woman for such a hard labor. He stated that it would be beyond of his imagination that the woman who might have been used as such a labor could not be in harmony with what he believed. He maintained that it could be more
Hardship than what it had been the case where Anglosacsons had treated the women in discriminately way.

After all, Rowell decided to hire two men a s the carrier of the personal belongings and left for Himi. He had confronted with another difficulty when reached at Himi where he could not find any inn he could stay as he was refused to let in. Fortunately, he was able to find one inn which had offered him to let stay in. But, he declined accept the offer because he felt that the inn was not exactly what he wanted to stay. He decided to ask Eijirou to solicit Police office to find a suitable inn that he wanted stay in. Due to thanks of the way the police officeﾕ kindness, Rowell was able to stay at one of the best inns at Himi and he was lucky enough to enjoy the taste of tea and plum-pickles at the inn right after he was able to check in there.

Having treated by the police office at Himi, Rowellﾕs observation of Japanese police was noteworthy. He described in such a way;　Throughout the world, Japanese police was one of the best one that does care for the peoples with a sense of the deep affection for the well-being of the people that Japan could proud of. I was amazed and impressed that the officers of the police office performed their duties with dignity to prevent the peoples from being forced into difficulties. Although they were diligent and attentive to their duties, they impressed on me being the group of students who studied harder by which they were forced to wear eyeglasses.

He stated that the fact was that all inns at Himi were fully occupied and that it was not that he was refused to be allowed to check in at an inn, which he had prematurely conceived. In fact, the inn that he himself had declined was the one that the police office arranged him. He later admitted that he was wrong to have had such a misunderstanding that he had been denied to stay at the inn.

Rowell arrived at Noto in the following morning. On his journey of the last step before reaching Noto, he was able to take a view of Noto from a teahouse on the top of Arayama hill at the sea level of 394 meters. He was excited as he viewed the entire shape of Noto and described his impression of Noto as he saw from the top of Arayama hill. He stated that his expectation of Note struck his mind with a kind of illusion and disappointment. He further stated that there was nothing but the spread rice fields were stretching in the slop facing a range of low mountains. The rise fields looked as if they were tail with color of green and brawn. It may have been hat he was so disappointed with his first view of Note, which shattered his long-held expectation of Note, which had been developing in his mind.

As he descended into Kashima from the hill, he encountered a group of children who were the first of the residents of Note whom Rowell met. The children were so curious of Rowell and their continued with their eyes wide-open, looking at Rowell. He kept move on to Wakura Hot-Spring place, which Rowell had learned of its reputation as one of the best hot spring.

On his way to Wakura, he seemed to have astonished by the scene in the rice fields where frogs were stubbed with sticks being left there in the rise fields. He must have been shocked with such a scene, thus one of the pictures he had taken covered this particular scene. Wakura hot spring must have impressed on Rowell who described it as a group of poorly built low-houses. If he were to see Wakura of what it is now, how he would have reacted with them.! He stated in the book that he was somewhat disgusted the way the master of Wakura hot-spring inn kept saying on the effects of the hot spring for the health. So disgusted by the repeated way the manage of the inn who tried to impress on Rowell, he had thought of finding another inn.

Another aspect of his disappointment to Rowell was that he was not the first foreigner who stepped his foots in Note. Two foreigners from European country who had been teaching at a school in Kanazawa had been to Wakura in doing their research on the effects of hot spring. His recollection of the early days of Wakura illustrated in his comment that he was constantly visited by the guests at the inn, even maids come to see him at his room and stayed with him for hours, chatting unnecessary matters.

On the next day, Rowell was aboard on a steamboat for Anamizu. On the boat, he seemed to have enjoyed the view of the area in Nanao bay. He must have enjoyed his pipe smoke as he viewed the scenic view of the area. He left his remarks by saying that
He felt that as if he had been in place in “twilight-zone” where air was stationery which seemed to have formed the mystic crowds with golden color in part and that the area itself was so completely isolated from the rest of the world. He pictured the scenic by saying that the smoke from his pipe vanished slowly and slowly into the air. So, he described of his early impression of Noto. One of the floating cottages in the bay struck Rowell with his curiosity. It was the floating cottages for catching gray mullet and he took time out to see that on his way back from Anamizu.

On commenting on the floating cottages for gray mullet, he quoted the historical perspective of so-called “the Deluge”. He did compare the situation comparable to the situation on the Deluge with the environment of Nanao Bay. As he arrived at Anamizu and he decided not to stay in Noto. Rowell left his foots on a small part of Noto. Why was that Rowell did not extend his journey into the northern part of Noto peninsular.

Rowell was satisfied with his journey to Noto. Ironically, his mind was beginning to develop somewhat strange feeling; the feeling of which was not to discover everything that Noto possess. He wanted to leave some of the untouched place left alone and wanted to keep in his mind for his imaginations. He stated that he felt that there would be no place beyond Anamizu, which may have been attractive to him. Although he did think of some potentiality of golden country with much abundance and treasures, he was more or less developing his mind that there would be no worthy to advance his journey
beyond which there would be nothing but the Sea of Japan connecting with Korean peninsular. He stated that even he had kept walking northward, there would be nothing that he could value for. There might be the case that he could have confronted with women but he felt he could not see them eye-to-eye straight and may end-up with his expectation in vain.

After resting while at Anamizu, he decided to go back to Nanao. He kept move on to Isurugi via Kurikara hill, where he stayed overnight and moved on to Takaoka and Toyama. Commenting on his journey to Noto, Rowell stated that Noto was not as attractive as he had thought but Noto had some essence of beauty of its own which might have comforted visitors and travelers. On the way of his journey back along the road, he encountered the occasion where children had been playing sliding from the top of the hill to the lower place. The children stopped playing their movements as they may have thought that it was a silly game. Having so impressed and amused by the game that the children were playing, Rowell asked them to continue their games. He gave some tips to them The reasons for his giving tips to the children by Rowell was that he thought that he had acted as if he was a sponsor in order to enjoy himself for the way the children were playing their games. He stated that it was a kind of supportive action to enrich a kind of the games that should have been supported. I thought that I had acted as a sponsor for the game that the children were playing.

Rowell may have been the man of the sense of humor and had the sense of respect for women. He felt that it was pity to see that women in Noto had to labor hard by carrying things loaded in full on wheel. He concluded at least in his mind that women in Noto were like poor labor as was in the case in northern Germany where women had been used as the oppressed labor. He stated that such a wrong practice may have been a part of the inherited social custom prevailing in Noto.

Commenting on some of good aspect of peoples whom he encountered during his journey to Noto, he cited that peoples and travelers were energetic and happy. They seemed to Rowell that they were one of the happiest persons on the earth. He said that he enriched himself with such feelings being demonstrated by peoples whom he encountered.

Rowell moved on further to Toyama. He traveled from Toyama to Tateyama Sita hot spring along with Jogan River. Faced with the depth of snow, he decided to return to Toyama. Rowell continued his journey through Zenkouji Temple, Matsumoto and Shiojiri and then took a riverboat, which led him to reach a point facing Pacific Ocean. His grand journey to and from Noto ended at this point which he had treated in his book.

In retrospect, he cited in his book that he left for Noto with the mixed feeling about Noto. He stated that he wondered how excited he had been before he left embarked upon his journey to Noto but he admitted that he was disappointed about certain things he confronted with in Noto, which were far from what he had imagined. He was,however, gratified that he was able to enrich himself with the intrigued beauty and mystic beauty of Noto. He left Noto for his next destination with the sense of keeping rooms for his further imagination about Noto of which Rowell had seen only a bit of it.

In 1891, he published his book under the title of “An Unexplored Corner of Japan”.He published many other books relating to Japan,Korea. He could be said as one of the noted scholar on Japan. Hahn(?) was said to have been influenced by Rowellﾕs book of the Soul of the Far East and came to Japan at the later year.

It took ten years for translating his book,”An Unexplored Corner of Japan” into Japanese, which was published in 1979. It had been a question why no picture was used showing what he had seen on his journey to Noto. It led to believe that there must be the pictures kept undiscovered somewhere. Thanks to the Director of Rowell Astoronomical Observatory in Arizona, two sets of album were discovered which was maid available as exhibits for Japanese version of his book. As we look back the days when Rowell traveled through Noto, we may begin to see what Noto looked like in shape and life there. It may well be said that Rowell was not only a noted astronomer but also an unique scholar on Japan with the sense of the deep insight in to Japanese culture.
Parsival Rowell was born in 1855 in Boston. He was educated at Harvard University where he took his interest in math, physics, and classical literatures. After working for his father for a few years, he came to Japan in 1883, to follow his friend by the name of Vigero who was a medical doctor. Rowell visited Japan three time before 1893. He lived in Japan nearly 3 years in total during his three times visit to Japan. During his life in Japan, he studied Japanese language and conducted his research on Japan. In 1894, he founded with his private money Astronomical Observatory in Arizona, which was named after his name. He devoted tirelessly to his continued research at the Observatory for 22 years. He had predicted the existence of an another planet beyond the Pluto based on his skilful mathematical analysis. His prediction of the existence of an another planet between “Neptune” echoed and excited the interest on the part of scholars. He passed away at the age of 61. 14 years later after his death, it was discovered a new planet which was named as “PLUTO”


An editing-translation of “Persival Rowellﾕs View of Hokuriku of 100 Yeas Ago is the works of Mr.Yusuke Kataoka。The editor-translator did the best he could to reflect on what the original writer on this article had hoped to express his view of Parsival Rowell. The article was contributed to the local publication in Kanazawa. Mr.Yusuke Kataoka is currently serving as Acting Chairman &Executive Director for U.S.Foundation for International Economic Policy(not-profit foundation incorporated in the United States, designed to promote the further enhancement of equilibrium of the bilateral trade on trade, culture and education.

February 14,2000

Percival Lowell was one of the last Renaissance men. He pioneered both in
educating the American public about East Asian culture and in founding an
observatory devoted to the search for extraterrestrial life. A man of many
talents, he is only recently receiving the attention he deserves, thanks in
large measure to the founders of the Lowell Society of Japan. That
organization brings together scholars in Japan and abroad who are interested
in studying Lowell. Indeed, even before the founding, a number of its
organizers had already made important contributions to our knowledge of
Lowell. I wish to recognize my own debt to the work of Professors Miyazaki
Masaaki of Kanazawa Institute, Yokoo Hiromitsu and Hiraoka Atsushi of Kyorin
University, Onishi
Naoki of ICU, as well as Mr. Inoue Masao, editor of "Hokkoku Shimbum" and Mr.
Sakashita Tamaki of Anamizu. In founding the Lowell
Society, they are not only promoting a better understanding of Lowell, but
also setting an example which my colleagues and I in America might well
follow. For, up to this point, there is no Lowell Society in the United
States.

So, why should we in the twenty-first century pay attention to Percival
Lowell? The best way to answer this question is to review his achievements in
exploring East Asia and the solar system and clarify the important place
which he and his family occupied in American life. On both sides of the
family, Percival was the descendant of the cotton aristocracy which had
established mills in Lawrence and Lowell, Massachusetts, towns named after his
ancestors. Thus, Percival and his siblings were heirs to an industrial
fortune and members of an exclusive Boston upper-class called the Brahmins who
lived off of their fortunes, intermarried with each other, and devoted
themselves, more than any other group in America, to the promotion of science
and culture. For example, Percival's brother, A. Lawrence Lowell, was a
political scientist who became president of Harvard University, while his
sister Amy, deeply influenced by Percival's travels, was a well-regarded poet
who sometimes
made Japan the subject of her poetry.

The importance of Lowell's work in East Asia becomes immediately apparent when
we remember that his book, "The Soul of the Far East," stimulated Lafcadio
Hearn's interest in visiting Japan and provided a benchmark against which
Hearn later measured his own writings on Japanese culture. In point of fact,
Lowell's first book on East Asia was written about Korea rather than Japan.
It grew out of his work as foreign secretary to the Korean mission to
Washington, D.C. in 1883. As a reward for his efforts, Lowell was invited to
visit Korea and spent three months there in the winter of 1883-1884. In the
process, he became the first Westerner to use a direct knowledge of Korea as
the basis for writing a book (entitled "Choson: The Land of the Morning Calm:
A Sketch of Korea") Lowell not only explored Korean culture, but also took
over 50 photographs in and around Seoul which provided the first authentic
visual record of the landscape and people from royalty to shopkeepers and
ordinary citizens.

Lowell also pioneered in revealing Japan beyond the Kanto plain to his
American readers. He climbed no less than five volcanic peaks in the Japan
Alps and floated down two Japanese rivers. He also became one of the first
Westerners to explore the Noto peninsula, a trip which he once again
documented with his own photographs. In climbing Mount Ontake in 1891, Lowell
discovered not only evidence of volcanic activity, but also the members of a
trance-practicing Shinto sect. This experience became the basis for his
systematic study of trance practices in Japan which was published as "Occult
Japan" in 1894 and marked the end of the East Asian phase of his career.

But Lowell's greatest accomplishment during his travels in East Asia was to
provide for the first time for Western audiences a systematic treatment of
Japanese civilization. In "The Soul of the Far East," Lowell found evidence
that the Japanese family, gardens, art, religion, and language were all were
shaped by and expressed the central principle of Japanese civilization which
he identified as "impersonality." In this way, he was able to clarify for his
readers the coherence of that civilization and to contrast what he believed to
be the individualism of the West with the more communal orientation of East
Asia. It was this systematic approach which first attracted and later
repelled many future Western travelers in Japan including Lafcadio Hearn.

In 1894, Lowell abandoned his study of Japanese culture in order to take up a
new project, the exploration of extraterrestrial life on the planet Mars. In
order to take advantage of Mars's close approach to the Earth in the fall of
1894, Lowell had to move quickly. Relying on the advice and assistance of
William Henry Pickering, a Harvard University astronomer, Lowell mounted an
astronomical expedition to the Arizona Territory, one of the most remote areas
of the North American continent, and thus became the first person to take
advantage of the good observing conditions which could be obtained on the high
desert plateaus of the American southwest. Originally a temporary expedition,
the Lowell Observatory became a permanent fixture on the Arizona scene and
remains a monument to Lowell's pioneering spirit. It is currently under the
direction of William Lowell Putnam, Percival's great nephew.

It was the observations he made in Flagstaff, Arizona, and the resulting
publications which brought Lowell his greatest fame and notoriety. Following
in the footsteps of the Italian astonomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, who in 1877
had seen a network of lines on Mars, Lowell, who saw the same geometric
network, presented a convincing explanation of its nature and significance as
canals connecting the equatorial areas of the planet to a water supply
produced by melting ice at the poles and thus enabling the Martians to survive
on a dry planet. In Lowell's eyes, the Martians were far more progressive
than East Asians or Westerners. In order to survive, they rejected local
differences in favor of creating a planet-wide economy. While the existence
of the canal network was disputed by professional astronomers and shown by
recent space probes to have no basis in fact, Lowell succeeded in developing a
scientific approach to determining whether or not a heavenly body might
support the existence of extraterrestrial life and thus deeply influenced
space scientists of our era.

Far less daring and speculative than the Mars project was Lowell's plan to
discover a ninth planet in the solar system. His interest in this project
followed no doubt from the involvement of his Harvard mentor, the
mathematician Benjamin Peirce, in the clarification of the orbit of the newly
discovered planet of Neptune. A project of this kind required the use of the
sophisticated skills in mathematics which Lowell had developed under Peirce's
tutelage. Lowell was also eager to take up the project because it would
likely counteract the criticism of his Martian work which was regarded by
mainstream, professional astronomers as far too sensational. A more
conventional project like the search for a new heavenly body in the solar
system would bring recognition to Lowell and his assistants and showcase their
skills in a more conventional project. Unhappily, Lowell could not find the
planet he had identified during his lifetime. However, fourteen years after
his death--and thanks in part to the gift of a new telescope to the
Observatory by his brother, A. Lawrence--Clyde Tombaugh discovered the ninth
planet in the solar system. The important role which Lowell played in
the search for the newly discovered planet was recognized by naming it Pluto
whose first two letters were Percival Lowell's initials.

In view of Lowell's inability to produce convincing evidence to support his
claims for life on Mars and the existence of a ninth planet, we might be
tempted to regard his astronomical career as a failure. However, as we have
already seen, the Lowell Observatory played a pioneering role in recognizing
the importance of atmospheric conditions as essential for good seeing and thus
for success in astronomy. In addition, Lowell helped to secure the future of
the Observatory by hiring as his assistants, Carl Otto Lampland and Vesto
Melvin Slipher, both graduates of Indiana University. Both men enhanced the
reputation of the Observatory, Lampland through his expertise in photography
and Slipher through the discovery of the radial velocities of nebula which
supported the idea of an expanding universe, one of the most important
astronomical discoveries of the twentieth century. Through the highly
regarded work of his assistants, Lowell Observatory, thus, gained a
respectability which it could not have achieved through Lowell's own projects.

Looking back at Lowell's career from the perspective of our age of
specialization, we marvel at his ability to cross the divide between culture
and science which was rapidly developing even in his time. It is important,
however, to approach the development of Lowell's career from his perspective
rather than ours. The virtually impassable divide which we now see was not a
significant obstacle for Lowell. His Harvard education, Brahmin associates,
and intellectual orientation all encouraged him to undertake what now appears
to be a breathtakingly broad range of projects.

At Harvard College, Lowell was part of the last generation which experienced
the required curriculum. In this environment he was both required and
encouraged to study a wide array of subjects. And, Lowell was clearly
attuned to the idea of a general education. He took almost as many courses in
history and classics as he did in physics and mathematics. It is also
significant that in his senior year he won both the Bowdoin prize for an essay
on the decline of England in the 17th century and delivered a graduation
disquisition on the nebular hypothesis. The strong inclination for doing both
science and humanities which he demonstrated at Harvard, continued in his
postgraduate years. As a result of his work on East Asia, he was elected to
the literature and arts division of the prestigious American Academy of Arts
and Sciences. Following his work on Mars, the Academy moved Lowell to the
division of mathematics and astronomy which he strongly protested on the
grounds that he should be recognized in both divisions simultaneously.

Not only Harvard, but also Brahmin Boston in the late 19th century encouraged
Lowell's renaissance inclinations. Literary clubs promoted what they called
"dilettantism." In this climate, Lowell's closest friends and associates
shaped their careers so that they could exercise their diverse interests and
talents. Two of his best friends, Frederick Stimson and Robert Grant, both
Harvard graduates, studied for careers in the law. Both used their spare time
to become well-known writers of fiction even as they maintained their careers
in the law. Two more famous contemporaries, future president Theodore
Roosevelt whose cousin married Lowell's sister, and historian Henry Adams
provided similar models. Roosevelt was an amateur botanist, a South Dakota
rancher, and historian of the American west before entering politics, while
Adams taught and wrote history and art history. However, none attempted, as
Lowell did, to cross the growing divide between science and culture.

Perhaps, most importantly, Lowell never thought of himself as a boundary
crosser. As a disciple of the British philosopher, Herbert Spencer, Lowell
supported Spencer's cosmic philosophy project. According to Spencer, the
concept of evolution was the unique key to unlocking the secrets of the
universe from its origin as a gaseous nebula to its current complex form
including myriad solar systems and the existence of a variety of civilizations
at different stages of development. Since the seeds of this evolution were
contained in the original nebula, the cosmic philoospher's task was to show
the process of development unfolded over time. Spencer's multivolume
"Synthetic Philosophy" was one attempt to accomplish this task. Lowell's
books on Japan and Mars was another. Lowell began this task in a backward way
with his work on East Asia which tried to account for the relative development
of different races on the surface of the globe. His study of Mars was an
effort to understand the development of what he believed was a more advanced
race on another planet. His later books, devoted to the origin of the solar
system, showed how over time various planets within the solar system developed
into environments conducive to supporting life. In short, Lowell believed
that he was using scientific methods in the service of understanding cultural
diversity as it was revealed in the development of the Earth and other
planets. The telescope and psychical research, directed respectively to Mars
and Japan, were simply different tools to achieve the same end--an
understanding of the course of natural and social evolutioin on different
planets in the solar system.

As will hopefully be evident from the preceding account, I have tried to
capture the essence of Lowell's life and work in the biography I have
written. Does this mean then that there is nothing more to say about Percival
Lowell? After all, my colleagues in the Lowell Society of Japan and I have
undertaken exhaustive searches to locate all the materials pertaining to
Lowell's life and to use them as fully as we can. Even so, there is more to
be accomplished. For one thing, we have not recovered a number of important
documents which would yield a fuller understanding of Lowell. While we have
many of Lowell's letters to friends and colleagues, there exist very few of
his letters to them. Further, the record of Lowell's work and play in Japan
is not fully documented. We would, for example, be well served if we could
find letters and memoirs recording the views of Lowell expressed by his
Japanese associates including Miyaoka Tsunejiro, his secretary, and Masujima
Rokuichiro, the founder of the English Law School. New documents of any kind
might, in fact, reveal hitherto unknown dimensions of Lowell's personality and
activities. Happily, the establishment of the Lowell Society of Japan, will
provide a focus for any efforts to expand our knowledge of Lowell and to
provide new documentation for the next generation of Lowell scholars. I hope
that my book will be a stimulus to this effort and that the new documents will
shed additional light on Lowell so that Lowell's next biographer can give us
yet a fuller and truer account of the life and work of this adventurous and
lively man.