This dissertation examines the origin and development of a phenomena that I term the “Japanese-European” mode: or, Japanese media that draws on a specific kind of European or European diasporic influence, and yet also resembles no real place or time. Examples of this phenomenon include the many adaptations and reimaginings of classic Euro-American novels in manga and anime, maid and butler cafés that vaguely mimic nineteenth-century English grand houses, Japanese adaptations and retellings of European fairy tales, and more generally the notable and pervasive presence of European styles and vaguely defined locations and historical events. These are obviously representations of a sense of European-ness, but simultaneously not meant to resemble any form of reality. They evoke time periods, places, and even people and events that exist(ed) in “reality,” but encased in a world that does not exist elsewhere. While elements of the Japanese-European has been discussed in conjunction with specific titles or media objects, it remains underexplored as an overarching phenomenon. I argue that the broader Japanese-European mode is the result of multiple overlapping “worlds” that originate in translated English-language literary texts. Specifically, I highlight tactile and adjacent manifestations of Japanese-European worlds as a form of end point, or the final stage of transformation from the literary narrative or narratives where they may have originated. To that end, I have chosen three literary texts as case studies: L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series. Each chapter toggles between a contemporary tactile and/or spatial phenomenon and its literary source as a means of tracing how a literary text can be the seed from which an entire world can sprout. From there, I argue that these simultaneous and overlapping worlds detach themselves from their sources to become an overarching, specifically Japanese-European mode.