Ideas of islands shaped Britain's self-identity and its relationship with the wider world in the early and mid-nineteenth century. Existing interpretations of Anglo-Japanese relations have emphasized the development of the idea of Japan as the ‘Britain of the East’ in the late nineteenth century with the significance of Japan adopting a western model of development. This article argues for a critical re-evaluation that directly engages with the crucial developments within early nineteenth-century ideas of Japan as Britain's eastern reflection. It argues that the idea of Japan as Britain's eastern reflection did not arise out of Japanese reforms during the mid-nineteenth century but significantly predated these developments, grounded in ideas of geographical and cartographical connections between the two island nations and reinforced by firsthand travel accounts from the late 1850s onwards. Crucially, it argues that these ideas of twin isles of East and West exerted a powerful, at times eclipsing, influence over British conceptions of Japan in the early and mid-nineteenth century, employing geographical imaginaries in the face of geographical and cartographical difference.

中文翻译：

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东部岛屿、西部岛屿：1800-1868 年英国日本概念中的地理想象和跨岛屿身份


岛屿的概念塑造了 19 世纪早期和中期英国的自我认同及其与更广阔世界的关系。现有的对英日关系的解释强调日本作为“东方英国”的理念在 19 世纪后期的发展，以及日本采用西方发展模式的重要性。本文主张进行批判性的重新评估，直接涉及 19 世纪初日本作为英国东方反思的思想中的关键发展。它认为，日本作为英国东方反映的想法并不是源于 19 世纪中叶的日本改革，而是明显早于这些发展，以两个岛国之间的地理和地图联系为基础，并得到 1850 年代后期以来的第一手旅行记录的强化。至关重要的是，它认为，这些东西双子岛的观念对 19 世纪早期和中期英国的日本概念产生了强大的影响，有时甚至令人黯然失色，面对地理和制图差异，利用地理想象。