As we have stated in class before, the trope of cannibalism was one that was extremely popular, especially for highlighting how a culture or community was strange and unusual. The lack of information that Polo has on Japan, since he was never able to actually travel to it, is supplemented by stories that he has heard, which we have seen before like in the section on India, however for Japan these stories are less believable due to their generic nature. He mentions that Japan has a great deal of gold and pearls available and then goes into a long summary of how the Great Khan took control over the country, before ending the section with a brief description of their religion. This is certainly supported when reading rest of Polo’s account on Japan, since there is so much false information about the country that is just not believable.įirst, Marco Polo does not include many details of Japan at all, compared to the locations that he has traveled, simply focusing on the riches and religion of the nation. It is interesting to note that Polo describes Japan to be independent and “exercising no authority over any nation” because that insinuates that there is a lack of knowledge available for international community about Japan, since there are less cultural connections between this country and others. He does not define the characteristics of a nation for us, however we can assume that religion and geographical location are two factors a part of his understanding of separate nations, as Marco Polo constantly uses them to differentiate between the places on his travels. It is interesting to note the pattern of fair skin being tied to a superior and more attractive appearance, as we have seen before in many travel narratives in this class, but this is one of the first instances that Polo uses the word “nation” in his personal account. He goes into great depth in describing the people and uses similar adjectives that we have before, such as “fair-complexioned”, “good-looking”, and “idolaters”, but he introduces some new descriptors in this section: “well-mannered”, “wholly independent”, and “exercising no authority over any nation but themselves” (Polo 244). Polo starts his description of Japan, much like other sections of his narrative, starting with an detailed account of the people. The final section of The Travels of Marco Polo that I would like to analyze is his time in Japan.
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