In his review of Herbert’s book Shinto the Fountainhead of Japan, Sebastian Swann states that he was initially hopeful that the book would provide an accurate analysis of Japanese Shintoism through western eyes. However, he claims that “the thirty years which the author spent in patient research, in travel, in tireless questioning of priests and professors have resulted in a book that is virtually unreadable”. One of the problems with the book, according to Swann, is the fact that Herbert fails to recognize the historical changes and developments of Shinto. The reviewer concludes that “it seems tragic that so much patient research over so many years should in the end benefit neither the scholar nor the general reader.”