Engelbert Kaempfer was a German physician who served with the Dutch East India Company (VOC) between 1690 and 1692. During this period, Japan was closed to most foreign merchants, with only a small enclave in Nagasaki harbour open to Dutch and Chinese vessels. Kaempfer visited Edo (modern Tokyo) and was able to learn much about Japanese history, culture, customs, medicine and botany. He wrote these descriptions down and made several detailed illustrations, but he died before the work was published.

Following his death, Kaempfer’s manuscripts were purchased by Sir Hans Sloane, whose librarian translated them into English. This two-volume work was published in 1727 and served as one of the principal accounts of Japan and Japanese life until well into the nineteenth century. As well as being the first such account in English, the work is notable for its extensive descriptions of Japanese plant life and its maps, one of which provides the earliest European depiction of a plan of Edo.