The Japan Society Review 59
Book, Stage, Film, Arts and Events Review

Issue 59 Volume 10 Number 5 (October 2015)

Contents
1)

Netsuke: 100 miniature masterpieces from Japanby Tsuchiya Noriko

Editor2)

An Interview with Junichi Kajioka

Reviewers

3)

Kiku’s Prayer by Endō Shūsaku

Chris Corker, Hugh Cortazzi, Suki Maw and Mike Sullivan

4)

Revenge by Ogawa Yōko

www.japansociety.org.uk/resources/reviews

William Upton

Latest Reviews(Image: Endō Shūsaku)

Netsuke: 100
miniaturemasterpieces fromJapan
by Tsuchiya Noriko
The British Museum (2014)
ISBN 978-0-7141-9481-0
Review by Sir HughCortazzi

Netsuke, as this book explains, were ‘practical fashion
accessories worn by men of the Edo period (16151868).’ Japanese traditional dress had no pockets andmen had to find a way of carrying their money andother accessories. These were attached to the sashes,
which kept their clothes in place by means of netsuke,
which were a form of toggle. They are often foundattached to inrō (portable medicine cases) but netsuke
were used with all sorts of sagemono (hanging things).
When the globetrotters began to arrive inJapan after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, they were
fascinated by the exotic character of things Japanese.
Like tourists today they wanted to take home someof the strange objects they saw in the souvenir shops(kottoya). Netsuke immediately took the fancy of thevisitors. They were often of exquisite craftmanship andthey were small. This was a valuable consideration if, as
was often the case, they were going on to China andother parts of Asia.

Japanese craftsmen soon realized how popular
netsuke were with the tourists and to meet thedemand the craftsmen involved developed andexpanded production. All sorts of new netsuke werecarved often primarily as ornaments.
The British were particularly avid collectors. The
British Museum has some 2,300 netsuke. The hundred
selected for this book are accordingly only a fraction of
the museum’s stock, but they are representative of thevarious types of netsuke made in Japan.
Tsuchiya Noriko explains the history of netsuke
and describes the different materials used to makethem including ivory and various kinds of wood. She
also gives some account of artists and carvers involvedin their manufacture and has usefully added a section
on some of the well known signatures that collectors
will encounter.
The majority of netsuke are, she explains, kataborior ‘carvings in the round.’ The subjects of such netsuke‘range from human figures and animals to plants andstill-life objects.’ Other types of netsuke are sashi whichare ‘longer and slender’ and manjū which are so-called
because their round flat shape suggests a manjū whichis ‘a round flattish rice-cake filled with bean-curd.’
The 100 netsuke chosen for this book include
carved figures of humans, ‘immortals,’ ghosts andsupernatural beings, masks, animals and various manjū
objects. The seven images, which I have selected fromthe book, are ones which particularly attracted me. I
hope that this subjective selection may tempt readersof this review to buy and enjoy this little book. §Koto, Japanese harp, ivory, unsigned, mid-1800s

2

Issue 59 Volume 10 Number 5 (October 2015)

A ‘stone lifter’, wood, by Gessho, about 1800

Hare with loquats, ivory, by Yamaguchi
Okatomo, late 1700s

Goat, ivory, by Kaigyokusai Masatugu (18191892)

A manju, walrus ivory, unsigned, 1870s
mid-1800s

A sashi, sea horse, bone and coral

Issue 59 Volume 10 Number 5 (October 2015)

A ‘foreigner’, ivory, unsigned, about 1780
3

An Interview with
Junichi Kajioka

There were so many famous actors in the shooting
including my then-mentor Teruyuki Kagawa. Of
course I was so nervous before the shooting andInterview by Mike
got a severe headache on set but once the shooting
Sullivanstarted my headache and nervousness were gone andJunichi Kajioka is a
all my attention was concentrated on listening to theprolific actor based indirector and paying attention to camera positions andLondon who has been in
the other actors. Concentration! It turned out to be an
numerous movies overenjoyable experience and I can say that I learnt somethe last twenty years,
really useful things on set!
andincrediblyheWhat has been your most memorable role so far andgraduated from Tokyo
why?
Sushi Academy, which
My most memorable role was, I have to say, the onemeans he is a qualified sushi chef. He has had many for 47 Ronin because it was my first Hollywood film. I
appearances in TV dramas in China and has had a went to the auditions three times and each one wasnumber of supporting roles in productions across the for a different role. In the end I was given a speaking
world including 47 Ronin. His recent passion has been role but it was just one line! It was very tough! Actually
his own film project, IMPHAL 1944, a movie about a I was cast for another big-budget film at the same time
war veteran who comes to London for reconciliation in China. However, in the time that I waited for the 47
between the British and Japanese who fought in Ronin shooting in London, the big role in that otherfilm was filled. It’s not the only time that potential
Imphal in 1944.
When did you know that you wanted to become an projects have clashed. I wish I had two bodies!
Looking back at all of the projects you have been
actor? Were you inspired by anyone in particular?
It was when I was in high school – I wanted to do attached to it seems like you work really hard! Althoughsomething different from everyone else. I’m still you are based in London, are you normally moving
exploring different possibilities though. I was hugely from one place to another? Do you often have work
inspired by Kurosawa’s films. When I was younger in Japan?
I worked as an
I wasn’t a keen
actor in Tokyo forcinemagoer
butseven years andafter being involved
then moved tointhemakingChina in 1995. I’veof Devils on the
Doorstep in China,
acted in films andI started my passion
TV series in China.
for films. I watched
I was often away
555 films in the year
from three to six
before I came tomonths for Chinese
London. Kurosawa’s
projects
and30 films were the
moved from one
most
impressive
place to another.
From Imphal 1944 (2014), his own project.
and I could see how
These days I’m
his style changed as his life progressed.
still moving a lot. I’ve just come back from a tour in
How do you prepare for an audition?
Glasgow and Paris. I hope to go to India again soon andFirst of all, I try to get any script for the role so that I a film festival in Monaco in December. Yes, definitely
understand the context for the piece I am performing. I’m often on the move!
If I know who the director is, I will check their style and Your latest project is IMPHAL 1944, a place in India
try and get inspiration from their past work. The rest of where there was an important battle between theJapanese and allied troops. It seems that you haveit relies on spontaneity!
What was the first part you ever had? Were you been the driving force behind this?
Yes, I’ve been involved in another Indian film project
nervous?
My first role was a croupier in a one-off TV drama. which has had a long gestation period. It was originally4

Issue 59 Volume 10 Number 5 (October 2015)

intended to be finished in time for the 70th anniversarycommemoration of the Battle of Imphal this year. In
March when I realised that this wasn’t going to bepossible I decided to make my own film instead. It wasa very intensive project due to the timescales involved.
Of course, it’s so hard to make and produce one film
but it’s so rewarding! I will definitely continue withwriting and producing my own films now.
What kind of reaction have you had from the audience
for this film?
So far it has only had private presentations in Imphal
and Delhi screenings, including the 70th anniversarycommemoration in Imphal. When I received a round of
applause from hundreds of people in the theatre I felt
very emotional. A lot of newspapers and magazines inJapan and India wrote about our film and my acting
life. Now that I am back in the UK, it is wonderful toknow that so many people are interested in our project.
What do you think are the differences between being
an actor in Japan and in the UK?
There are always different challenges. In Japanbelonging to a good agent and being established

Kiku’s Prayer
by Endō ShūsakuColumbia University Press(2013)
ISBN: 0231162820
Review by Suki Maw

Kiku’s Prayer is an English
translationof
Endō
Shūsaku’s novel Onna noIsshō: Ichibu – Kiku no Baai
(Woman’s Life: Volume I –Kiku’s Case), first publishedin 1982.
Endō Shūsaku (1923 – 1996) was a Japanesenovelist born in Tokyo. While many of his light-hearted,
humorous works are widely read in Japan, he isparticularly highly regarded for his serious novels withstrong Catholic themes. (His literary work is sometimes
compared to that of Graham Greene.) Following the
divorce of his parents at the age of ten, Endō wasbaptised into the Catholic Church on his mother’s
persuasion. However, his spiritual journey was not asmooth one. Finding it incongruous to be a Japaneseand a follower of the Western religion, he formed theview that the cultural and ideological milieu in Japanwas such that it did not allow the Christian faith toIssue 59 Volume 10 Number 5 (October 2015)

definitely helps to get you a job. In UK, there is always anaudition to get a role so it’s based more on one’s ability
to perform in a particular role. But there is not such agreat variety of roles for minorities so you tend to be
typecast. That’s why I’m exploring more opportunities
not only in Japan and the UK but in other countries. I
am also not just waiting for auditions as an actor but
also making my own films with a UK/Japan theme. I
want to find and tell little known stories to the world
through my film making.
What are your favourite things about Japan, and yourfavourite things about the UK?
I love eating out and shopping in Japan – it is cheap
and convenient. The first thing I do when I go back toJapan is go to a sushi restaurant to eat as much sushi
as I want and then pop into convenience stores in the
middle of the night. This is my obligatory routine!
I love the easy-going life style in UK, and thecultural diversity in London. I feel a sense of freedom
living in London. People here are so patient and openminded. They never put you in their box and judge
people. You are just comfortable being yourself. §truly permeate among the Japanese, and the clash
between Japan and Western Europe in religious andethical contexts became one of the main themesin his literary work. At the same time, Endō’s literarywork features a focus on weak or cowardly individuals,
and a compassionate image of Christ developed andembraced by the Japanese. On this point, Endō’s
analysis was that, the image of compassionate
Christ was developed in Japan by those who sought
forgiveness for ostensibly abandoning their Christianfaith for fear of torture and death under persecution.
In Kiku’s Prayer, Endō depicts the characters in
different situations amidst the persecution of theChristians in Urakami, a suburb of Nagasaki, during
the turbulent years of the latter half of the nineteenth
century. While Kiku’s Prayer is a fiction, the novel
incorporates meticulous research conducted by theauthor, and contains accurate accounts of the historicalevents as detailed below, along with the names ofpriests, political figures, places and buildings.
Christianity was introduced to Japan by Francis
Xavier, a Jesuit, in 1549. The number of Christians inJapan, or kirishitan – the word referring to the Japanese
Catholics until the lifting of the ban on Christianity in1873 – is estimated to have been as high as 600,000 circa
1600 (approximately 2.4% of the country’s population).
However, following the shōgun Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s
5

abrupt order to expel the Jesuit missionaries from thecountry in 1587, the Tokugawa shogunate imposed a
total ban on Christianity in 1614. Within the country, astrict anti-kirishitan policy was maintained throughout
the remainder of the Tokugawa era, a period of some
250 years. Under this regime, ferocious attempts weremade to eradicate Christianity altogether by meansof torture and death. (For example, some kirishitan
who refused to renounce their faith were thrown alive
into a volcano in Nagasaki.) Also, systematic methods
were employed for suppression, including tramplingon sacred Catholic images by all subjects in front ofgovernment officials and the compulsory registrationof all subjects as parishioners of their local Buddhist
temples.
However, a few months after the completion ofŌura Catholic Church – the church built for the French
Catholics residing in Nagasaki – in 1864, Fr. BernardThadée Petitjean had a dramatic encounter with agroup of kirishitan from Urakami. While Tokugawa’s
anti-Christian edicts were still strictly in force amongst
the Japanese, to Fr. Petitjean’s astonishment and joy,these Urakami kirishitan confided in him that theyshared his faith, and were overjoyed to see the statueof Virgin Mary with “Baby Zezesu” in her arms. Thisimplies that, remarkably, Christianity had not been
extirpated in Japan in spite of the severe anti-kirishitan
policy for over 250 years.
In fact, while having to abandon all the outward
manifestations of Christianity, groups of Japanese
Christians had clandestinely preserved their faith for
two and a half centuries, despite having no access toa priest, the Church or the Bible, and of course, at theconstant risk of death. Kirishitan skilfully developed
their own ways of practising their faith, and passed
the teachings from one generation to the next. For
example, Maria Kannon, images of Our Lady in the guiseof a Buddhist deity, were created, and secret posts wereassigned within underground communities to baptise
the children (called mizukata) and to communicate
the Church calendar (chōkata).
Following Fr. Petitjean’s dramatic discovery of
the hidden Christians at Ōura Catholic Church, theUrakami kirishitan grew increasingly expressive of
their faith. In 1867, they went as far as to collectively
express their wish to no longer have any dealings with
the Buddhist temple at which they were forced to beregistered. Bewildered, the local magistrate reported
their resistance to the central government. The newly
formed Meiji government’s decision was to exile theentire village of Urakami, in spite of the fierce criticism
6

and protests from Fr. Petitjean and Western diplomats.
In total, over 3,000 Urakami kirishitan were exiled
to various places within Japan, including Tsuwano
in south-western Honshu, where particularly harshtortures were inflicted upon them. In fact, the Urakami
kirishitan had endured three crackdowns previously.
However, this fourth became the most extensive.
The political situation in Japan was changing. In
1868, the Tokugawa shogunate was overthrown, andthe Meiji government was formed with the emperor
restored to the throne. As a consequence, along withthe collapse of the Tokugawa era’s feudal system, thesamurai ruling class with hereditary privileges had
been abolished. In Kiku’s Prayer, their fate and thedrastic changes to the country’s political and social
hierarchy are skilfully depicted in the contrast between
two individuals, Itō Seizaemon and Hondō Shuntarō.
In the novel, Kiku, a self-assured peasant girl in
Urakami, falls in love with Seikichi, a young peddler
from another district of Urakami and a devout
Catholic. While she witnesses Seikichi quickly make‘some strange gesture’ at the entrance of ŌuraCatholic Church, Kiku knows virtually nothing about
Christianity. When the Tokugawa era’s abhorrence ofkirishitan in society in general was still prevalent, it is not
surprising that, to Kiku, a naive country girl, kirishitan
were ‘strange people’ who held ‘pointless beliefs’. In
fact, she associated the word kirishitan with criminals
on death row. However, instead of abandoning his‘evil kirishitan faith’ as Kiku wished, Seikichi begins
to assume that kirishitan have now become able topublicly express their faith with the demise of the
feudal ruling elite on the arrival of a new, emperor’sera. However, he was completely wrong. Seikichi is
exiled to Tsuwano in the fourth Urakami crackdown.
During Seikichi’s exile, Kiku determines to alleviate his
misery, and is moved to great self-sacrifice. The singleminded efforts she makes for Seikichi are painful. The
novel has a profound religious climax.
One feature in Endō’s literary work is the focus
on weak or cowardly individuals. In Kiku’s Prayer, thecontrast is stark between the self-confidence of the
sharp, ambitious Hondō Shuntarō, a government
interpreter, and the clumsiness and tactlessness of
Ito Seizaemon, a lower-ranking Nagasaki official anda persecutor of kirishitan himself.(‘A pathetic soul’ incontemptuous Hondō Shuntarō’s words.) However, it
is worth noting that, in the author’s afterword, Endōconfesses that he ‘began to sympathise with thisdespicable man – and [that he] felt not just sympathy
but even a love for him’. The author further explains that
Issue 59 Volume 10 Number 5 (October 2015)‘[u]p to the very end of the novel [he] couldn’t bear toforsake him’. This is perhaps why Endō had Fr. Petitjean
say to Ito that God loved him more than he loved
Hondo Shuntaro. Overall, the role that this dishonest,
cowardly yet complex man plays in the novel seems
no less important than that of the eponymous Kiku.
On the whole, Kiku’s Prayer is a faithful translationof Onna no Isshō. In addition, the footnotes will prove
useful to readers in gaining background information onsome political figures. One disappointment, however,is the absence of the nuances which the regional
dialects convey in the original novel Onna no Isshō. In
the first line of the author’s afterword, Endō explainsthat Onna no Isshō was an attempt to repay some of theindebtedness he felt towards Nagasaki. Kiku’s Prayer is
not free from apparent translation errors, omissions

RevengeBy Ogawa Yōko
Vintage (2014)
ISBN-10: 0099553937
Review by Chris Corker
Ogawa Yōko is a wellestablished and highly
respected
authorinJapan, who, to quotefrom her profile at thestart of this taut book ofshort stories, ‘has won every major Japanese literary
award including the Akutagawa and the Tanizaki
prizes’. Ogawa is now in her 50s, and these stories
certainly have the marks of a confident author in freeflow. There is an undeniable beauty of narrative ineach tale and in the discreet connections that bindthem together as a coherent whole.
Ogawa seems to be an author who is more
comfortable with the short story and novella genresthat make up the majority of her oeuvre, rather
than more extended prose, and this work, despite
containing a total of eleven stories, stands only ata well-spaced 176 pages. Still, it is hard to complain
when the stories are crafted so meticulously, with an
economy of prose that often cuts right to the heartof the matter. On occasion, however, she does have atendency to rush ahead with the narrative with suchvigour that the dramatic impact is lost, a build-up oftension impossible.

Issue 59 Volume 10 Number 5 (October 2015)

and typographical errors. For instance, Yokohama andNagasaki, north-western and south-western Honshu,
and younger and older sister are confused. Also, it isparticularly puzzling why Moriyama Jinzaburō, an
Urakami kirishitan who was actually exiled to Tsuwano
in the fourth Urakami crackdown, is referred to as
Moriyama Kanzaburō throughout the book. However,
the overall faithfulness of the translation more thancompensates for these slips and inconsistencies.
Kiku’s Prayer contains strong Catholic themes,
and some aspects may be lost on a reader without anunderstanding of the Catholic faith. Nonetheless, it willappeal to a wider audience thanks to Endō’s ingenious
and insightful depictions of human virtues as well as
their failings.§

Rather than a collection of randomly selectedshort stories, the tales that comprise Revenge havea broader significance to one another, generating a
sense of co-dependence that gives birth to a narrative
greater than the sum of its parts. In a manner somewhat
reminiscent of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, the stories
hop through various times and places, and theirconnection to each other is not always immediately
apparent; the desire to find out how each story isinterlinked generates a pleasant page turning anxiety
not often found in the short story genre.
In ‘Afternoon at the Bakery’ a woman waits fora baker to return so that she can buy a strawberry
shortcake for her six-year-old son, who died twelve
years ago inside a fridge. As she waits she recollects
the aftermath of his death. This story, like many othersin this collection, is about not just the cruelty andindiscriminate nature of death, but also its loneliness– symbolised here by the dark, cramped fridge –both for the deceased and their loved ones. The
strawberries on the shortcake are at first ripe and vivid,
but quickly discolour and wilt. This story has a strong
sense of place and transports the reader smoothly intoa Japan of cats, drinking fountains and snap-happy
tourists. The woman inside the bakery, though, isalone, separate from that world. The next story, ‘Fruit
Juice’, also features bereavement and concerns a girlwho, left alone by the death of her mother, goes to see
the father who abandoned them. It is not obviously
connected to ‘Afternoon at the Bakery’ at first, but weeventually learn that they share a common character,despite their chronological displacement.
7‘Old Mrs J’ – my favourite story within thecollection – is a dark, modern and discreetly sinister
fairy tale. A writer – who features in many of thestories in a metafictional role – is intrigued by her new
landlady, who seems at times to be elderly and infirm,
and at others able and nimble. One day she gives thewriter a carrot in the shape of a human hand. Soon
after, more and more of these carrots, replicas of thefirst, are gifted to everyone in the building. This story– redolent of the Succubus myth – builds up tension
very well and maintains its intrigue until the end. In thenext story, ‘The Little Dustman’, a young girl is sitting
on a delayed train on her way to the funeral of a writer.
For ‘Lab Coats’ Ogawa favours a present tense
reporting style. Here we are introduced to anothercommon theme in Revenge: the irrational powerof obsessive – sometimes unrequited – love. It is
portrayed as a blind feeling that will forgive even themost despicable acts. In the morgue of a hospital, twocharacters – one in love with the other despite theircruel personality – itemise soiled lab coats. One ofthem is building up to a confession of love, the otherto a much darker revelation. Briefly revisiting the same
hospital is the protagonist of ‘Sewing for the Heart’.
In this cleverly metaphorical tale of human isolation,a bag maker is commissioned to make a pouch fora woman whose heart hangs externally at her side.
‘Sewing for the Heart’ illustrates how a seemingly noble
act can turn quickly sour, how love can be dangerously
possessive:‘I wondered what would happen if I held her
tight in my arms, in a lover’s embrace, melting into
one another, bone on bone… Her heart would be
crushed. The membrane would split, the veins tear
free, the heart itself explode into bits of flesh, and then
my desire would contain hers – it was all so painful andyet so utterly beautiful to imagine.’
The subsequent stories build on these same
themes and delve into the part of the human psychethat finds interest in the macabre, as well as theconnection between sadism and eroticism, love andhate. Another constant is the fear of the speed of deathand of non-existence (‘Why was everyone dying? They

had all been so alive just yesterday.’). Thematically, allof the stories fit snugly together to create a foreboding
collage of the futility of human relationships. And yet
there is a vein of quietly optimistic beauty that runs
through each page, preventing the collection fromleaving one numb.
The book is not without its faults. I found thevoice of the male protagonists far less convincing thantheir female counterparts; the voice differs very little
from story to story, and without a clear identificationof gender, I found I was sometimes confused as to therelationship of certain characters.
Some readers may also find the cruelty andviolence in these stories – sometimes renderedmore acute for being perpetrated by young girls– exaggerated, stepping outside the realms of thebelievable. Yet we have only to look at the recent
case of the schoolgirl in Sasebo, who beheaded herclassmate and cut off her wrist because she “wanted
to dissect someone”. Sasebo had already seen a similar
incident in 2004 when a schoolgirl killed her classmate,and in 1997 a 14-year-old student killed two of theirclassmates in Kobe, leaving the head of one at theschool gates. It may be uncommon, but the cruelty isthere, and nothing here eclipses that horrifying reality.
Prior to Revenge I hadn’t had a great success ratewith Japanese fiction by female authors. I found Kirino
Natsuo’s Out to be perfectly readable but misandristic
in theme and so angry as to be caricatured; in contrast,
I found Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen sickly-sweet andmelodramatic. It was a pleasant surprise then that I
found in Revenge something intriguingly dark in tone,
but also familiar and comforting, something sinisterbut not depressing. Some of the stories do stand headand shoulders above the rest – I found ‘Lab Coats’ theweakest of the bunch – and the breathless nature of thenarrative sometimes betrays the otherwise carefully
established atmosphere. Having said that, I also haveto admit that these stories are at times masterpieces ofthe sinister undertone. In all, this is a work that benefits
from its sparseness and implies a world and narrative
much wider than the one on the page. §Interested in writing for the Japan Society Review?
Please write to info@japansociety.org.uk with examples of your work and information about yourknowledge of and interest in Japan.