By the Waters of Babylon

By the Waters of Babylon is a memoir and travelogue by Mori Arimasa, the influential Japanese philosopher and intellectual who interpreted European culture to postwar Japan. A professor of French philosophy, Mori visited Paris and came to the realization that to truly understand the significance of French and European civilization, he would have to live there and immerse himself in French culture. Abandoning his Tokyo professorship, Mori remained in France for over two decades, teaching, translating, and writing. Written in an intimate epistolary style, Mori's memoir chronicles his complex response as an outsider to a culture he so admired. His observations on European art, architecture, literature, and philosophy were highly influential to the first Japanese generation to come of age after World War II, who felt a need for Japan to rejoin the global community. By the Waters of Babylon is a compelling account of cross-cultural encounters and a meditation on living and loving a culture that is so different from one's own.