The Japan Society Review
Book, Stage, Movie, Arts and Events Review

Editor: Sean Curtin
Managing Editor: John Cooke........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Issue 36 Volume 6 Number 6 (December2011)

Contents
1) The Dream of Lafcadio Hearn
2) Samurai William: The Adventurer Who Unlocked Japan

In this issue we focus on pioneers and adventurers who
opened Japan up to the wider world. Susan Meehan kicks 3) Professor Munakata’s British Museum Adventure
off with a gripping new work by Roger Pulvers on Lafcadio 4) Milligan and the Samurai Rebels
Hearn, the great Japan chronicler of the 1890s who captured
the essence of traditional Japan before it morphed into 5) 快楽亭ブラック[Kairakutei Burakku]
its modern form. Hearn was himself a true global citizen, 6) Professor Munakata’s Museum Adventure
having a Greek mother, Irish father and being schooled in7) A Man With Style (あぜ道のダンディ)
England, Ireland and France. This background imbued his
observations with a universal appeal which has stood the 8) In Search of a Distant Voice
test of time. Michael Sullivan looks at Giles Milton’s Samurai 9) Cymbeline
William: The Adventurer Who Unlocked Japan which charts
the life of the first Englishman to learn about and live in We are grateful to our regular reviewers:
Japan. Adams (1564-1620), known in Japan as Miura Anjin
Fumiko Halloran[三浦按針], helped forge the UK’s first links with the land of Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Ian Nish		
Ian Nishthe rising sun as well as establishing the first English factory in
Susan Meehan
Ben-Ami Shillony
the country, something this work also examines. Adams will
William Farr
be one of the focal points in the 2013 Japan 400 celebrations
to mark the 400th anniversary of initiating official Japan-UK ....................................................................................................
ties. Next we move from reality to the the realm of fictional The Dream of Lafcadio Hearn
adventurers with two reviews of Professor Munakata’s
British Museum Adventure. This beautifully illustrated work by Roger Pulvers
by the renowned Japanese artist Yukinobu Hoshino (星野 之Kurodahan Press Book No. FG-JP0031L37,宣) manages to perfectly capture the unique atmosphere of
220 pages, Trade paperback 5” x 8”
the British Museum while conjuring forth a ripping yarn. Sir
Graham Fry looks at the fictional Irish swashbuckler Milligan (127mm x 203mm), ISBN-13: 978-4in Simon Alexander Collier’s Milligan and the Samurai 902075-41-0
Rebels which is set in 1860s Japan. The likeable rogue takes Review by Susan Meehan
on an array of indigenous and foreign foes, surviving someentertaining adventures and encountering a host of beautiful Talking about The Dream of Lafcadio
women. Atsuko Inoue (井上敦子) takes us back to reality Hearn at the Oriental Club in London onwith a Japanese book on the real life Australian trailblazer 24 October 2011, its author, Roger Pulvers,
Henry James Black who became a traditional Japanese gave a measured account of Lafcadio Hearn, crediting him forstoryteller, a rakugoka [落語家], in 1891, taking the stage his incredibly well-written yet fairly unknown journalistic work
name Kairakutei Black [快楽亭ブラック]. The Australian writer carried out mainly in the USA, his extraordinary insights into
and academic Dr Ian McArthur meticulously researches theJapan and his role as a pioneer ethnographer and anti-elitist
life of this extraordinary individual. Susan Meehan explores
while pointing out that none of the stories he wrote in Japan
director Yuya Ishii’s bittersweet family drama A Man With
Style (あぜ道のダンディ), which examines the relationship were original. They were all well-crafted re-tellings of Japanese
between two middle-aged men, both of whom are far stories and myths.
removed from any association with ‘style.’ Michael Sullivan Pulvers referred to Hearn as a “true cosmopolitan if an outsider.”delves into Taichi Yamada enigmatic “In Search of a Distant
Hearn was born to a Greek mother and Irish father, schooled inVoice” which as the title suggests is a quest to understandEngland, Ireland and France and ventured out to the USA at
a remote echo of the mind. The main character, Kasama
Tsuneo, is on an emotional journey involving repressed the age of 19. Not quite Greek nor British nor Irish, diminutive
feelings and a murky traumatic past. Susan Meehan and with a blind globular eye, Hearn felt alien amongst his ownrounds off this issue with a look Yukio Ninagawa’s visually and more readily accepted by the Japanese who probably
spectacular production of Cymbeline which chronicles expected all foreigners to be a little strange anyway. Not the best
the wanderings of Posthumus, the adventurer and main of writers on Japan, the Japanese nevertheless have cherishedprotagonist of Shakespeare’s gripping and unusual tale. Hearn for his lack of arrogance and superciliousness.
Sean Curtin

It is this aspect of being on the periphery that I imagined had................................................................................................... attracted Pulvers to Hearn as Pulvers himself, born and bred in
New reviewswww.japansociety.org.uk/resources/the-japan-society-review
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the USA, admitted to not being able to live in the country of hisbirth and to have felt instantly at home in Japan on setting footthere in 1967.
In The Dream of Lafcadio Hearn, Pulvers writes an intriguing andabsorbing account of Hearn’s life in Japan from the perspective......................................................................................................................................................................................................

of this Japanese chronicler, describing Japan as it was in the
1890s before it underwent massive change. Pulvers pulls
it off with aplomb, expertly mimicking Hearn’s prose as it
appears in Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan or Exotics andRetrospectives, to name a couple of his books with which
I’m familiar. Preceding the narrative is an extremely helpful
and comprehensive biography of Lafcadio Hearn allowing
readers to engage with Hearn’s life story before reading ‘his’
account of his years in Japan.
Pulvers’s characterisation of Hearn is marvellously done
providing a well-rounded impression of this flawed, sociallyawkward, cantankerous, peculiar, shy, macabre misfit who
managed to gain great respect and acceptance in Japan. His
love of all manner of pipes, the affection which he garneredfrom his students in Matsue and Tokyo and the difficulty he
had in connecting with people are palpable.
Unlike the many pontificating Western professionals who
were invited to Japan after its opening to the West in
1853, Hearn arrived in Japan in the spring of 1890 aged
40 as, Pulvers so concisely puts it, “. . . to learn, to scavenge,
to discover what his temperament had taught him wasbeautiful, potent and bizarre human spirit.” Ironically, hewrote about aspects of old Japan which he was distressed
to witness fading while the Japanese, in their embrace ofeverything Western, were loath to be reminded about.
Initially on a contract with the magazine Harper’s Monthly
he soon severed links with Harper and Brothers feeling thatthey had mistreated him. He was found a teaching postat the Shimane Prefectural Common Middle School andNormal School in Matsue thanks to the efforts of Basil Hall
Chamberlain, an eminent British Japanologist and Professor
at Tokyo Imperial University.
Hearn spent the last 14 years of his life in Japan. Though
there were aspects of Japan which he despised such as
thoughtless copying of the West, imperial ambitions andKumamoto, which he loathed, he admired the Japaneseand felt that their art was superior, as Greek art was superior
to early European art-groupings. “I only wish I could bereincarnated in some little Japanese baby so that I could see
and feel the world as beautifully as a Japanese brain does,”quotes Pulvers, remarking that Japan could not resist “suchblatant adoration.”
Though Hearn is shown to adore Japan throughout thebook, he is also portrayed as having pet peeves and being
irritated by certain aspects of the Japanese. He is critical of theJapanese giggle and false embarrassment as it “could turnto arrogance at the drop of a coin.” On another occasion hetalks about irritating obligatory mores and regulations andI wondered whether there was also an element of Pulvers
projecting his own frustrations with Japan onto Hearn.
Pulvers serves up some interesting insights into Hearn’s
unconventionality; in the book he is seen to add salt to
his coffee rather than sugar, avoid the telephone, leave
restaurants before being served having completely
forgotten that he’d not yet eaten and, most perversely of
all I thought, to love the tall, hard wooden pillows used inJapan while finding Japanese food bland.
Pulvers also introduces some startling episodes into thenarrative – Hearn is portrayed on one occasion as a peeping
tom watching his friend’s sister having intercourse with amonk. On another, two of his students play an incredibly
nasty trick on him during a trip to the hot spring resortof Hakone. Suspending disbelief and reading the book
as Hearn’s autobiography, as intended, I imagined theseexperiences of Hearn as providing material for his books oneerie and strange Japan.
While Pulvers gives us a real overview of Hearn down to his
negative traits, I sensed a warmth for this man and felt that
Pulvers recognised in him a kindred spirit.
Someone in the audience at the talk referred to the way
Hearn seemed to treat his wife Setsu with little love. In thebook Hearn refers to her being no beauty and admits that hewanted a wife to look after him and to give him peace andquiet. Pulvers defended Hearn by pointing out that he wasa man of his time and that women were often treated with
contempt in the19th century. The role of the husband wasto support his family and Hearn, with extremely well-paidteaching jobs and high status, ensured his family and his
wife’s family a comfortable and enviable lifestyle. In Setsu’s
account of life with Hearn, Reminiscences of Lafcadio Hearn,
she is frank about her late husband and admits to having
been embarrassed by him on occasions.
Like Hearn, Pulvers also feels that he will always be
considered a foreigner in Japan no matter how good his
Japanese and understanding of the country. As the monk
Nakagawa, says to Hearn, “But of course, you foreigners will
never truly understand Japan . . .” “. . . even if you become
Buddhist yourself, even if you become Japanese yourself,even if you take a Japanese wife.” For contrary Hearn, thismakes his quest to understand Japan all the more pressing.

The Dream of Lafcadio Hearn touches on Hearn’s life in
Matsue, Kobe and Tokyo. I wondered why his stint inKumamoto hadn’t been included and Pulvers mentioned
this at the talk. Hearn detested Kumamoto and felt miserable
there so Pulvers left it out of the narrative – in character with
Hearn’s churlishness I thought.
Hearn’s last years in Tokyo were not happy and, given
the chance, he would have left Japan. Tokyo was in stark
contrast to Setsu’s small hometown of Matsue and was alien
to Hearn’s sensibilities. He came to detest the place finding
it “hellish.” In the meantime his eye and heart condition
worsened.
In his talk Pulvers remarked that after his death Hearnbecame the most widely read interpreter of Japan outside
Japan. This changed after the First World War, however,when he began to be seen as an apologist for nationalistic
Japan. Hearn increasingly became discredited by the Westas being outdated – a lover of fireflies and ancient stories. He
would not have condoned Japanese wartime aggression,seeing it as yet another mistaken imitation of Westernimperialism.
Issue 36 Volume 6 Number 6 (December 2011)

The Japanese continue to consider Hearn a foreigner who
profoundly understood Japan and an irresistibly fascinating
character. Despite his erratic behaviour he continues to beaffectionately held in high esteem. That such a slim bookcan conjure up such a multi-faceted impression of theman is tribute indeed to Roger Pulvers.

Samurai William: The
Adventurer Who UnlockedJapan
by Giles Milton
Hodder and Stoughton, 2003, 399
pages, £7.99, ISBN 0340794682
Review by Michael Sullivan
Using extensive research of letters and other documents ofthe seventeenth century, this book tells the fascinating storyof the first Englishman and the first English factory in Japan.
In 1620 William Adams, otherwise known as Miura Anjin [三浦按針], passed away and by 1623 the English factory was
given up, bankrupt, and within a few years Japan would
enter an era of Sakoku [鎖国], or closed country. Although
the main focus is on the life and actions of Adams, thebook goes into great detail about the English factory and its
other European competitors. It details the bafflement that
Europeans had to overcome in order to pursue businessinterests in Japan while showing the contrasting confusionthat the Japanese felt when trying to understand thepolitics and religions of Europe. Initially marooned in Japanafter an ill-fated voyage, Adams eventually took up thecustoms and language of Japan as his own and was pivotal
in opening the country up for trade on behalf of his own
countrymen as well as a fellow Protestant country, Holland.
William Adams was born on 24th of September 1564 in
the fishing town of Gillingham in Kent, in his youth he wastrained as a shipwright and pilot. At a relatively young age
he was given command of a supply ship in 1588 during
the attempted invasion by the Spanish Armada. In thesame year he married Mary Hyn in the parish church of St
Dunstan in Stepney. After years of work on trading ships
travelling between England and North Africa, Adams heard
about Dutch plans to send a large fleet to the East Indies.
Lured by the thought of adventure and riches, in 1598
Adams left his wife, daughter and London, to join the fleet
in Rotterdam. Unbeknownst to him, he would never return.
In Rotterdam he found the fleet at anchor, five ships: Hope,
Faith, Love, Fidelity and the Merry Messenger, he also foundwidespread rumours that the real purpose of the fleet was
to sack Catholic Spain’s settlements in South America.
Over the course of the next two years the fleet would
repeatedly suffer ill luck, the description of the voyage provides
Issue 36 Volume 6 Number 6 (December 2011)

an interesting contrast to the modern day. A journey to Japan
now can be completed in less than two days and return justas quickly. In comparison, in 1598, the Dutch fleet had to fightwith Portuguese soldiers in the Cape Verde Islands and suffer
fatalities from the poisoned arrows of the tribes of Cape Lopez.
In 1599 the fleet became becalmed in the southern Atlantic,
and then while braving the Straits of Magellan the starving
men found an island of penguins. Within minutes over a
thousand birds were dead. Sailing up the western side ofSouth America, again the hapless sailors had to contend withbands of tribesmen who were fearful fighters and described asgigantic men up to eleven feet tall. Upon reaching the Pacific
Ocean the fleet was scattered by a storm, the Faith was the
only ship to eventually return to its homeport with only thirty
six crewmembers still left alive out of an original one hundredand nine. The other ships, apart from Adams’ ship the Love,
would be captured by the Spanish, Portuguese or sunk.
Worried about encountering the Spanish or Portuguese in
the Spice Islands and in the Philippines, they decided to headfor the fabled land of Japan. The Portuguese had reachedJapan in 1544 and by 1580 had gained control over the portof Nagasaki, by this time they had established a lucrativetrade importing silk while Catholic priests took up the taskof conversion. Rumours of wealth, particularly silver, had
gradually spread around the European continent since thattime. Unfortunately, the journey was long and the crew of
the Love did not know exactly where Japan was. On 12th ofApril 1600, starving and sick, the ship arrived in Bungo, Japan.
Only twenty four of the original crew were still alive, mostnear death, and Adams was one of the few who could still
stand when he looked upon the Japanese for the first time. By
this time the Portuguese had made nearly 150,000 converts
in Japan and through their connections they quickly heard
about the arrival of a strange ship in Bungo, believing it to
be Spanish they interceded with the local lord to help thebattered ship’s occupants. When they discovered English andDutch Protestants, they just as rapidly decided that Adams
and his crew had to be gotten rid of. Since arriving in Japanthe Portuguese had presented their religion as being united
under the leadership of the Pope in Europe, furthermore
they had claimed that their king had an army of millions.
The governor-general of the area, Lord Terasawa, did notknow what to do, so he sent a message to his superior in
Osaka, Tokugawa Ieyasu. Ieyasu brought Adams to themagnificent castle of Osaka for a personal interview and at
first hand heard about the wars of Europe, how Christianity
was divided and about the ships and weapons of the English
and Dutch. He soon made a decision; the newly arrived
foreigners would be kept safe, but must not leave Japan again.
Ieyasu wanted the knowledge of how to build ships, andwanted to use the cannons of the Love for an upcoming war.
Adams spent the rest of his life in Japan, his letters
to England eventually arrived, provoking interest in
an English trading mission and he was instrumental
in setting up the English factory in Hirado in 1613.
However, by the time the English had arrived in Japan
Adams had spent over a decade living there and to theirsurprise he seemed to have gone completely native.
This book details the incredible challenges that seventeenthadventurers had to brave in the name of profit, religion andpatriotism, as well as the Japanese responses to the differingstories told by their visitors. The Europeans would witness
battles involving hundreds of thousands of Samurai andbetween themselves, while eventually all Catholics would bebanned from the country. The recurring theme throughout
the book is the behaviour of the Europeans coming into
conflict with Japanese culture, a problem which finallycouldn’t be resolved and led the Japanese to the decisionthat the best choice would be a Japan with no Europeans.

Professor Munakata’s British
Museum Adventure
by Yukinobu Hoshino,translated by Nicole
Coolidge Rousmaniere,
Hiromi Uchida and Timothy
Clark
British Museum Press, 2011, 264
pages, ISBN-13: 978-0714124650,£14.99
Review by Sean CurtinThis beautifully illustrated work by the renowned Japaneseartist Yukinobu Hoshino (星野 之宣) manages to perfectly
capture the unique atmosphere of the British Museum.
Hoshino’s meticulous artwork successfully transports theworld famous institute, plus several of its curators, into
the alternate reality of the manga world. Hoshino places
Professor Munakata (宗像教授), his best known character,
into an extraordinary web of intrigue centred round themuseum and its eclectic collection of amazing artefacts. Theinternal and external depictions of the iconic museum, froma host of angles and perspectives, are masterfully drawn
in superb detail. Anyone who appreciates the building’s
elegant architecture will enjoy Hoshino’s exquisite artwork,
even if they are not particularly interested in the mangagenre.
The enthralling narrative begins with the distinguished
Professor invited to the British Museum to give a lecture on
mythology and folklore. However, at about the same timethe majestic Stonehenge megaliths on Salisbury Plain are
somehow stolen. The Professor’s investigations lead him
into a sinister and tangled plot that threatens the museum
itself along with some of its most important collections andprize exhibits. Much of the action takes place in various
galleries and locations within the museum with eachpresented in fantastic detail. My only real complaint is thatat one point in the action the roof of the magnificent Great
Court is severely damaged and even though this is only inthe fictional manga world, the sight of such destruction isquite disturbing.
The extraordinary tale was originally published over fivemonths during 2010 in ten instalments in the popular
Japanese magazine Big Comic [ビッグコミック]. The British
Museum Press has compiled and translated these ten
episodes into one slick English language volume. To give
the work an authentic manga feel reading is from right toleft with the trademark manga sound captions retainedin the original Japanese. The book also contains several
supplementary features including an interview with
Hoshino, an essay on the history of manga entitled ‘From
Ukiyo-e to Manga’ by Timothy Clark, plus useful referencematerial. Some of the black and white strip is in gorgeous
colour further enhancing the work and making this a highly
attractive publication.
The book was launched at Daiwa House in London on
8 November 2011 by Dr Rayna Denison and Dr Nicole
Coolidge Rousmaniere, whose manga alter ego appears inthe story. Dr Denison presented a fascinating and energetic
overview on the history of manga while Dr Rousmanieregave some insights and background into the story itself.
She traced the genesis of the project back to 2009 when
Hoshino attended a small exhibition of his work at the British
Museum. The artist was deeply impressed by the marvellous
interiors of the museum and its incredible collections while
the curators were eager for him to take the museum into
the manga realm.
Dr Rousmaniere, who currently also serves as a project
curator in the museum’s Department of Asia, worked closelywith Hoshino during the creation of Professor Munakata’s
British Museum Adventure. She is the inspiration for the key
character of Chris Caryatid who accompanies the Professor
in the tale. Dr Rousmaniere also detailed how Hoshino
integrated experiences from his time in the museum andwell known London locations into the narrative.
The character of Professor Tadakusu Munakata (宗像伝奇) was first conceived by Hoshino in 1990 and has
subsequently become one of Japan’s most famous manga
characters. Millions of readers eagerly await his adventures
which appear fortnightly in the magazine Big Comic.
Because the strip appears every two weeks, Hoshino has
to work to a gruelling schedule to meet the deadlines. This
meant the time he could spend in London was limited. In
many respects the British Museum is a perfect backdrop for
the Professor who is a historical ethnographer dedicated tounravelling mysteries. In previous adventures the intrepid
academic has discovered ancient burial grounds andparticipated in deadly Agatha Christie style archaeologicalexcavations.
The museum is currently exhibiting an exclusive displayof some of Hoshino’s original artwork from the bookaccompanied by explanations of how he createdillustrations in the story. This is scheduled to run until 8 April
2012 and is worth seeing, especially if you or your children
have purchased the book.
While this publication is primarily aimed at manga
aficionados and young adults, its appeal is much wider
Issue 36 Volume 6 Number 6 (December 2011)and it makes a highly attractive museum souvenir. Children
familiar with the British Museum will also greatly enjoy it. My
nine-year-old son thought it was brilliant as did several of his
friends. They especially liked the fact that places they know
in the museum along with famous objects like the Rosetta
Stone are featured. This is something that will no doubt also
appeal to British Museum Young Friends. The only gripe I
heard from the children was the price, £14.99, which wasbeyond the normal pocket money allowance. The museum
produced this volume so it would include the entire originalten episodes, but I hope there may be a possibility in the
future for individual episodes to be published. If this werethe case, smaller booklet formats should be within the
pocket money range of young children. One thing seems
certain, Hoshino’s magnificent manga incarnation of the
British Museum is destined for a long life and represents an
excellent export of this Japanese art form.

Those who wish to study the history of Japan’s opening to
the West are well-advised to stick to Satow’s diaries, but for
those who want only to cheer themselves up on the longflight to Tokyo, the Milligan version is just the job. This isCollier’s first book, and it is available from Amazon. Let us
hope that he finds time soon to write the sequel.

快楽亭ブラック[Kairakutei
Burakku]
イアン・マッカーサー著
内藤誠、
堀内久美子 共訳, 講談社[Kodansha International], 1992,
317 pages, ２０００円, ISBN: 406-205738-7
Editor’s note:Milligan and the Samurai
Rebelsby Simon Alexander Collier
Amazon, 2012, 339 pages, ISBN:
1477544593
Review by Sir Graham Fry
What would have happened if in
1862 the serious British diplomat,
Ernest Satow, had gone to Japan with a rather less studiouscolleague called Milligan, whose main interests were
women and wine but whose escapades have mysteriously
vanished from the history books? The answer is in thisbook by Simon Alexander Collier, himself a former British
diplomat, and it provides a thoroughly entertaining story.
Milligan lands himself in one scrape after another, and thereader is carried along with him at a breathless pace.
Milligan is a likeable Irishman who cannot resist temptation
but is blessed with more than his fair share of good luck
and a strong instinct for self-preservation. This is just as
well since his encounters with an enraged British naval
officer, murderous samurai, a wicked French spy, and arich assortment of other threatening characters would
surely have proved the undoing of a lesser man. Along theway, Milligan is comforted by an equally rich assortmentof beautiful women. With their help he manages not only
to survive, but to play an important (but unseen) role inthe success of British diplomacy, as Japan’s western clans
scheme to expel the barbarians and overthrow the Shogun’s
government.
The book owes part of its inspiration to the Flashman stories
by George MacDonald Fraser. Like them, the historicalbackground has been carefully researched, but the reader
needs no prior knowledge of history to enjoy the tale. He or
she needs only to keep turning the pages as the plot twists
and turns.
Issue 36 Volume 6 Number 6 (December 2011)

Henry James Black was bornin Adelaide, Australia on 22
December 1858. Due to his father’s work he lived in Japan
from the age of three. He worked as an English teacher for
about a decade before becoming a rakugoka [落語家], orJapanese style public storyteller. He performed under thename Kairakutei Black [快楽亭ブラッ­ク], which he adopted
in March 1891. He also had a stint as a kabuki actor. Black
eventually took Japanese nationality, taking on the Japanesename Black Ishii [石井 貎刺屈]. He received his Japanesename by being adopted by Mine Ishii, a sweet shop ownerwhose daughter, Aka, Black married. He died of a strokeon 19 September 1923 at the age of 64 and is buried in
Yokohama Foreign Cemetery.
井上敦子
モーツァルトがまったく無名だった当時の有名な音楽家は宮廷楽長のサリエリだった。
けれども今、サリエリの名前はモーツァルトと比べるとほとんど人の口にのぼることはない。
ご存じですか、
快楽亭ブラックのことを・・・・。
ではじまるカヴァの見返し部分の紹介文を読んで先ず思い浮かんだのがこれだった。
青い目の落語家、ヘンリーブラックのよきライバルとされていたのが三遊亭円朝だった。お互いに切磋琢磨して天下の人気を二分したとあるが、三遊亭円朝はいまだに三遊亭の一派が脈々と続いている中で確固とした地位を占めている。
かたや快楽亭と言う名を私は聞いたことが一度もない。
今では相当な数にのぼる外人タレントのはしりだろうか。
アジア系以外の外国人が日本語を流暢に話してくれるときの驚きと面はゆいような嬉しさを感じさせる何かが私たちのＤＮＡにはいまだに確実に ある。
当時の日本人の反応はいかばかりだったろうかと想像するだけでもこの「青い目の落語家」という肩書は興味を引いた。
物語はヘンリーの父が日本に来るようになったいきさつからヘンリーと日本語の関わり、落語家になるようなった経緯、
人生の上り下りを当時の時代まで含めて描いている。
彼の活躍は創作落語を含む高座だけにとどまらず楽隊を率いてのエンターティナー、翻訳、通訳、催眠術、歌舞伎役
者、
英語教師、
記者、
日本で初のレコード制作にも関わってちゃっかりと自分の落語をたっぷりとレコードに吹き込んでいる。
このレコードは１００年前の日本語の話し言葉のイントネーションを研究する上での貴重な資料となる。

is in Sapporo. Nicole Rousmaniere comments that “Hoshino’s
work is characterized by its detailed and yet dramatic drawing
style, swift and suspenseful storylines, and the incorporationof actual historical or mythological events in his narratives.”
In recent years Hoshino’s stories have concentrated on thecharacter of Munakata Tadakusa, a professor of Ethnology and
Folklore at the fictitious Toa Bunka University in Tokyo, “whochallenges previous misinterpretations of myths, legends
and historic incidents from the ancient past to the present.”

しかし落語家として名を成すようになればなるほど家族とは疎遠になった。
「河原乞食」などと言う言葉はもう死語
As Hoshino explained to Dr Rousmaniere, in thinking
で、外人タレントは現代ではひっぱりだこだが、１００年
about a manga which would involve the British museum,
前なら日本人も今とは違っていただろう。ヘンリーの兄弟
he first decided that he would like to introduce anがそのことを感じなかったわけはないと思う。
歩いて10分、
airship and then Stonehenge. He explained that he
15分くらいの距離に住んでいながら会おうともせず母親
does not see manga as high or fine art, but Ukiyo-e tooの死も知らせなかった妹、神戸で実業家になってはいた“was created for the mass public.” He added that he had
が、
ヘンリーの高座を大声で罵倒妨害した弟。
本当の家族
some fun creating “the story of Professor Munakata andを持てなかったヘンリーにとっては哀切極まりない事実
the museum” which was one of his two longest stories.
だ。
こういった様々な暗い逸話の一方でヘンリーは日本を深く理解し幅広い交友関係でいろどりある人生を歩むこと Tim Clark in a separate essay ‘From Ukiyo-e to Manga:
Japan’s Mischief-making Print Culture’ notes that “aができたのではないか。
ぜひそうであってほしいと思う。
manga-like genre which began in 1775, can be found in
the popular kibyōshi or yellow cover books.” He points out
Professor Munakata’s British that “There is a chronological lineage of pre-modern artists
Museum Adventureof popular illustrated fiction and ukiyo-e prints which leads
fairly seamlessly into the world of modern manga. The
by Yukinobu Hoshino,artists are linked above all by a common predisposition fortranslated by Nicole
mischief-making that may well end up being the defining
Coolidge Rousmaniere,characteristic of the lineage.” The Japan Punch producedby the British artist Charles Wirgman in the Treaty port ofHiromi Uchida and Timothy
Yokohama in the early Meiji period influenced the way in
Clarkwhich manga eventually developed in Japan. But he rejects
British Museum Press, 2011, 264
the view that “manga are the modern equivalent of ukiyopages ISBN-13: 978-0714124650,
e or that ukiyo-e are the traditional precursors of manga.”£14.99Japanese (and English) readers will find in the drawings
Review by Hugh Cortazzi
an introduction to the contents and work of the museum
This is the English version of an original Japanese Manga and to famous places in London as well as to importantbook. It was translated into English by Nicole Coolidge historical personages. Professor Munakata wanted to see
Rousmaniere with Uchida Hiromi and Timothy Clark. It the room where one famous Japanese figure connected
has to be read from the back as if it were a Japanese book. with the museum had worked. He was Minakata Kumagusu(1867-1941) who spent so much time in the Reading Room,As Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum but the Professor does not seem to have been told that
explains in his foreword the museum became acquainted Minakata was twice suspended from entry to the Readingwith Mr Hoshino Yukinobu when he was making drawings room for causing disturbances (see Carmen Blacker’s portraitof Japanese clay figures for the recent dogu exhibition at the of Minakata Kumagusu in Britain and Japan Biographicalmuseum (Also see our review of the Unearthed Exhibition in Portraits volume 1 edited by Ian Nish, Japan Library 1994).
issue 30). The artist visited the museum and was inspired to
produce ten episodes in which his manga character Professor I will not spoil the reader’s enjoyment of the fantastical andMunakata is involved with objects in the museum’s collection. fictional elements of the story line by attempting a summary.
Dr Rousmaniere in her introduction explains for readers
unfamiliar with the genre that manga “which we mighttranslate playfully as ‘pictures run riot’ is a visually compelling
medium that engages the reader in a uniquely effective
manner through a combination of pictures and text. They
are printed in predominantly black and white and are initiallyserialized in low cost magazines.” If they become popularthey may appear in book form or even inspire anime films.
Hoshino Yukinobu “is one of the most acclaimed manga artists
currentlyworkinginJapan.”BorninKushiro,Hokkaidohisstudio

A Man With Style(あぜ道のダンディ)
directed by Yuya Ishii(石井裕也), 2011, 110 minutes.
Review by Susan Meehan
Director Yuya Ishii is only 27 and has
already released a number of films
Issue 36 Volume 6 Number 6 (December 2011)

including last year’s hit, the hilarious and poignant Sawako
Decides (川の底からこんにちは).

A Man With Style is a bittersweet family drama which has
at its centre two fifty-something school friends – widower
Junichi Miyata (Ken Mitsuishi –光石研), a blue-collar worker
and Sanada (Tomorowo Taguchi –田口トモロヲ). Both arerather ordinary middle-aged men, far removed from any
association with ‘style.’
They reminded me somewhat of The Odd Couple, a 1970s
film and TV series about Felix and Oscar, two divorced
men sharing a Manhattan flat. One is a neat obsessive andthe other far more casual resulting in comedy situations.
Another film which sprung to mind was Sideways, a 2004
feature directed by Alexander Payne centring on twocollege friends now 40-something men, on their week-longroad trip.
Junichi Miyata is the more cantankerous and frustrated of
the two in Ishii’s oeuvre. His wife died of cancer ten years
ago, leaving him with an overriding memory of a silly but
hilariously acted children’s song of bunnies she used to singand two children who now, aged 18 and 19, hardly engage
with him and are keen to move to university in Tokyo. He isshort-tempered with them and nags them endlessly to noavail.
Miyata, suffering from stomach problems, is convinced
he has cancer and no more than three months to live. He
doesn’t want to worry his children, allegedly, but confesses
his fears to Sanada during one of their regular drinking
sessions. He melodramatically resorts to taking a funeralphoto of himself with his cat and in another funny scene,slides copies under his children’s bedroom doors muchto their amusement – they have never seen a funeralphotograph including a pet.
Having made an appointment to see the doctor, Miyata
histrionically asks Sanada to look after his kids.
Sanada, the more carefree of the pair has taken to sportinga hat and comes across as the long-suffering friend. He has
spent the last seven years devotedly looking after his dying
father only to have his wife desert him. He never complains,
has no children to worry about and is constantly reassuring
and uplifting Miyata.
The polyp, it turns out, is benign and Miyata is told to goeasy on the drink. The ensuing scene is hilarious, as he
immediately gets drunk and unruly as he celebrates with
Sanada. In an admission of his failure in life, he says, “I can’teven get cancer!”With no money or status and with kids who ignore him,
Miyata confesses to wanting to have style at the very least.
Sanada assures him that he has bags of style and has done all
he could for his kids, Toshiya and Momoko, brilliantly played
by Ryu Morioka [森岡龍] and Jun Yoshinaga [吉永淳]. In thelittle time they have before the kids move to Tokyo to takeup their places at private universities, Sanada does his best
to ensure that all three connect.

Issue 36 Volume 6 Number 6 (December 2011)

As Sanada drops Toshiya and Momoko off in Tokyo, thesense of gratitude the children have for him is palpable andToshiya tells his father not to worry about money as he will
diligently continue working part-time in order to pay hiscosts in Tokyo.
The show of emotion and love in this film are sensationallysubtle and almost Ozu-esque. There is no trace ofsentimentality and there is no hugging, touching or kissing
each other. The affection they feel for each other is shown
through acts of selflessness.
All in all a very beautifully portrayed, well-scripted, goodnatured, gentle film full of side-splitting scenes andtremendous acting; Mitsuishi playing Miyata, however,steals the show; you can’t get much more curmudgeonly!
This film was shown at the Premiere Japan 2011 event at
the Barbican.

In Search of a Distant Voice (遠くの声を探して)by Taichi Yamada [山田 太一](translated by Michael Emmerich,
Faber and Faber Limited, 2006
(originally published in 1989, Tokyo),
183 pages, £8.99, ISBN 0571229719.
Review by Michael Sullivan
Taichi Yamada [山田 太一] was bornin 1934 in Tokyo, he has worked
as a screenwriter for television and film. In 1987 his novel
Strangers [異人たちとの夏] was published and it won the
Yamamoto Shugoro Prize, in 1989 he followed this up withthe publication of In Search of a Distant Voice [遠くの声を探して]. In 2004 Strangers was translated and publishedin English and since has been released in many otherlanguages, subsequently in 2006 In Search of a Distant
Voice was also translated and published.
As the title suggests, the theme is the search for a distant voice,
one that only Kasama Tsuneo can hear. Following a traumatic
event in his past he focuses on having a normal life, which tohim means dedication to work and a lid on any emotions.
He wants to be clean, so he doesn’t allow himself to become
intimate with girls, and his only friends seem to be fellow coworkers. As the story develops, and Tsuneo’s emotions are
given full release, it becomes apparent that the repression ofhis personal feelings and of his past, are interlinked.
Eight years after leaving America Kasama Tsuneo works forthe immigration office, tracking down illegal immigrants
and constantly fighting a battle within himself, a ‘ritual’that he performs every day to be emotionless. On one raid
an illegal immigrant tries to escape, but just as Tsuneo has
the immigrant cornered he is paralysed by a huge feelingof arousal, thus allowing the man to run away. Later thatnight, the same thing happens again except this time he isparalysed by the emotion of sorrow after which he ‘hears’ afemale voice asking “who are you?”
Gradually, over the course of days, Tsuneo begins to talk to
the female voice. She seems to hear everything he thinks,
but he can only hear what she says to him. Unbeknownst tohim, in their conversations he is also talking out loud causing
concern to his neighbour and his preoccupation with thevoice means that his behaviour becomes increasingly
bizarre to those around him. An arranged marriage isended when during the engagement ceremony he is firstparalysed by laughter and then by grief, he becomes angry
with the ‘voice’ accusing it of being someone from his past.
He refuses to explain what is happening to his co-workers
or a doctor that he is sent to, ultimately his obsession
with the voice leads him to think she must be the answer
to everything. He makes her agree to meet him, and in
return he will tell her the truth of what happened to him in
America.

Cymbeline
by William Shakespeare (Yukio
Ninagawa’s production at the
Barbican, London, 29 May 2012 to 2
June 2012)
Review by Susan Meehan
I was expecting this versionof Cymbeline to display Yukio
Ninagawa’strademarks– unparalleledstage scenery, plush costumes and a magical ending. I was
not disappointed. However, having recently enjoyed 11
Shakespeare plays during the Globe to Globe season inwhich the 37 plays were performed in different languages
by 37 international theatre groups, I had come to appreciate
the understatement and simplicity of the Globe’s stage andthe actors’ costumes. Unexpectedly, I found Ninagawa’s
sets and exquisite costumes to be somewhat excessive andunnecessary and was more critical than I had intended or
wished.
The play, part of the World Shakespeare Festival,
breathtakingly opened with the actors sitting down before
dressing table mirrors, getting ready to perform, moving
across the stage and chatting to one another. This magicalset disappeared all too soon as the actors lined up to bow tothe audience and had no tie-in to the rest of the play.

Cymbeline is set in Britain and Rome in the early first century,
during the reign of Augustus Caesar, Emperor of Rome,and Cymbeline, King of Britain. Majestic statues of two
wolves associated with the rearing of Romulus and Remus
adorned the stage when the action was in Rome along withbeautifully elaborate Japanese folding screens depicting
scenes from the Tale of Genji.
Cymbeline’s first wife died when his three children, a girl(Innogen) and two boys, were very young. He remarries.
Cymbeline’s second wife hopes that her son, Cloten, will
marry Innogen who is the king’s heir while his two sons,kidnapped when they were very young, are not found. The
scheming queen is a wicked stepmother and on a par withevil Lady Macbeth.
Innogen secretly marries her childhood friend Posthumus.
Orphaned as a baby, he was brought up by Cymbeline. The
king, furious that Innogen has married below her status andsupporting the queen in her wish for Cloten to marry his
daugher, has Posthumus exiled.
Posthumus was wonderfully played by the handsome andcharismatic Hiroshi Abe while Innogen was played by fiftyfour year old Shinobu Otake. This was a brave decision giventhat this role is normally saved for actors in their youthfulprime. Innogen had a lot to say; sadly she did so very quickly
in rapid machine-gun style, failing to declaim her words
with much feeling or poetry.
Cloten tries to woo the heartbroken Innogen with,unsurprisingly, no success. He is an incompetent fool.
Masanobu Katsumura played him expertly as a goofy Mr
Bean-style clown with an unflattering mop of hair, clumsy
and unable even to unsheathe his sword. The best scene
has him sliding round the stage like a penguin on ice – averitable jester, which I’m not sure is what Shakeaspeare
had in mind.
In the lush Roman setting to which Postuhmus has fled, hefalls in with the friends of his host Philario who begin talking
about women. Iachimo, one of these friends, is offended
that Posthumus in extolling Innogen praises her above
Roman women. A wager is made – Iachimo will travel to
Britain and make Innogen fall in love with him. Postuhumus,
so confident of Innogen’s fidelity, promises to given Iachimo
his diamond ring if Iachimo succeeds in wooing Innogen.
Iachimo was portrayed as a cackling somewhat
exaggerated villain by Yosuke Kubozuka. He inveigles his
way into spending a night hidden in a trunk in Innogen’s
bedroom and is able to commit the room to memory, toslip off Innogen’s bracelet while she is asleep (which he’ll
say she gave him as a token of her love) and to notice a
distinguishing mole on her breast.
The second half of the production was an improvementon the first. It became tenser and compelling when Pisanio,
Postuhumus’s servant at court in Britain, having led Innogento Milford Haven tells her that Posthumus wants her killed
for her infidelity. Dressing Innogen in men’s clothes, Pisanio,
played with genuine style and affection for the part by Keita
Onishi, says that she’ll be safer as a man. He encourages
her to serve Caius Lucius, a general of the invading Roman
army. A distraught and confused Innogen is grateful for thisidea as she can then follow Lucius to Rome where she cankeep an eye on Posthumus.
As Innogen wanders into the distance disguised as the lad
Fidele, a lonely figure in the huge wooded landscape , thesimple setting works extremely effectively. Otake is a muchbetter Fidele than Innogen.
The play concludes on a positive note as all is resolved
and the evil get their come-uppance. A hugely enjoyable
evening but perhaps Ninagawa’s Cymbeline fell short of his
Twelfth Night, Pericles, Titus and Andronicus and Hamlet.

Issue 36 Volume 6 Number 6 (December 2011)