From time to time in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries European works of an obviously practical nature, such as texts of astronomy or botany, were admitted to the country, either in the original languages, or in Chinese translations made by the Jesuits in Peking. But it was not until the close of the eighteenth century that any interest was shown in European writings of a more literary nature. It was at this time that the Japanese first began to concern themselves with what they might learn from the few Dutch traders who were kept virtual prisoners on an island off Nagasaki, and a number of scholars went there to find out what they could about the West. One of them heard this story:
“Some ten years ago a ship was stranded on an island, and two men of the crew went ashore to look for water. There they encountered a giant over ten feet tall with one eye in the middle of his forehead. The giant was pleased to find the two men. He seized them and took them off with him to a rocky cavern. Inside there was another giant, the mate of the first one. The cave was spacious, with cracks in the rocks serving as windows. There were many beasts inside.“One of the giants went out and the opening was shut as before. The other giant caught the two men and stared at them for a long time. Suddenly he seized one of them and began to eat him from the head downwards. The other man looked on in terror and astonishment as though he were watching demons in a nightmare. He could not think how he might escape. While the giant was devouring half of the first man, the other covered his face and could not bear to look. The giant then fell into a drunken sleep, snoring like thunder.
