Most of the 27 portraits in this volume are of 19th-century characters. They are interesting, nonetheless; they tell the reader much about Japan shortly before and after the Meiji Restoration.
The first portrait is of Capt. Broughton of the Royal Navy, who surveyed Hokkaido and the Kurile Islands in the 1790s. He was impressed by the cordiality of the Ainu.
The turbulent times of the beginnings of the Meiji era are described in the portrait of Hirobumi Ito. He was one of the first Japanese to study in Britain and was prime minister of Japan four times.
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