FEATURES
BUSINESS
VOICES
PATTERNS
LIVES
FOCUS: CHINA
FOCUS: INDIA
CHEAT SHEETS
100 DAYS
WRITERS' BLOGS
History
Older than Bond, James Bond
The art of stealth has deep roots in the Indian, Chinese and Japanese cultures.
Espionage is said to be the second-oldest profession in the world, (presumably driven by a demand from wives whose husbands were busy being supplied by the first) and some ancient Asian civilisations were particularly good at it. In fact, many spying techniques that were used in ancient China, India and Japan may have predated modern intelligence methods by several centuries.
Outward bound
Newly discovered sources point to a golden age of Japanese seafaring during which the Marco Polo of Japan lived.
Before the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry’s "black" ships on the shores of Edo in 1853, Japan was a country known for its notorious isolation from the outer world. All overseas trade was restricted, and most Japanese ports were closed to foreign ships. Such isolation, however, was not always the case, as newly discovered sources point to a golden age of Japanese seafaring during the early 17th century.
