The curious island of Japan has long fascinated the West: in peace and war; in novels, paintings, plays, and movies. Ian Littlewood, in The Idea of Japan: Western Images, Western Myths, sets out to expose our time-honored myths about that country, not because they are untrue, but because they obscure “all the other things that are true.” Japan, he contends, has grown too important to be ringed in cliches.

Littlewood does not pretend to tell us what Japan is really like; rather, he wants us to know how readily and consistently we engage in stereotypes about it. Nor are these stereotypes necessarily valueless, he says. They persist “because there is a basis of truth to them.” So, he has put together an exhibition of perceptions of Japan, from the earliest Western visitors’ accounts to James Bond and the ninja flicks. There is many a gem here.