THE PHRASE, “MEN of Meiji,” carries a great deal of emotional weight for many Japanese. Hearing it they envision images of men larger than life, men whose dedication to the national good was matched by ambition, decisiveness, and drive. Most people are unaware that the Meiji spirit was not limited to Japanese nationals. Thousands of Westerners serving in Meiji Japan (1868–1912) equalled their hosts, not only in pride and ambition, but in their commitment to the cause of Japanese nation-building. Although several useful studies of their contributions have appeared in recent years, a great deal more investigation of these foreigners is needed in the ongoing quest to understand Japan's late nineteenth-century development.

A particularly intriguing example of a Meiji Westerner is Edward H. House (1836–1901), an acerbic Bostonian whose reportorial work brought him into contact with Japan's first mission abroad in 1860 and then propelled him into decades of work as America's first fullfledged foreign correspondent in Japan. From 1869 until his death a third of a century later, House spent all but eight years in Japan, teaching English, writing for leading American papers and journals, promoting reforms in music and in the treatment of women, publishing an English-language newspaper, corresponding with powerful friends, and crusading for treaty reform and better American diplomats.

His life, filled with alternating moments of triumph and tragedy and of influence and isolation, is worthy of study merely for its inherent drama, but it also illustrates three crucial roles played by many Westerners living in Meiji Japan. It shows, first, the much discussed role so many foreigners played in helping to create a new Japan through the fresh ideas and expertise they brought to a changing land. It also highlights two other, but less discussed, features of foreign life in Meiji Japan – first, the lively, often contentious interactions of the foreign community and, second, the role these foreigners played in portraying Japan abroad. They served as the primary lens through which many Western leaders developed their own particular view of Japan.

Before we look directly at House's participation in each of these areas, a brief summary of his life is needed. Born in the home of the Boston engraver Timothy House on October 5, 1836, he developed an early propensity for his mother's profession as a pianist.