The Japan Society Review 39
Book, Stage, Movie, Arts and Events Review

Issue 39 Volume 7 Number 3 (June 2012)

Blossoms and Shadows
Three different readings from our regular reviewers
Images of Japan
Sean Curtin examines a new collection in print

In this issue we focus on the Meiji era, which spanned theperiod September 1868 to July 1912. Susan Meehan andothers explore the historical novel Blossoms and Shadows by
Lian Hearn, which is set at the genesis of the Meiji era. Hearn
states in an interview included at the end of the book that the
Meiji Restoration ranks along with the French Revolution andAmerican Civil War in terms of regional and global impact. It
certainly marks the emergence of Japan on the world stage asa modern country. Hearn has produced a substantive work ofhistorical fiction that brings alive the emergence of the Meiji
era. It opens in 1857 and encompasses over a decade, which
witnessed the dramatic twilight of the Bakufu (the Shogun’s
government) and the bright dawn of the Meiji. The novel isdivided into four parts and the depth of history covered is quite
breathtaking. Many of those who have read the book have foundreading the novel two or three times brings out the true scaleof this history-packed and elegantly crafted tale. In this issue Ali
Muskett and Mike Sullivan also give their take on this epic novel.

created in the West. The stunning visual prints illuminate thisvibrant period in Japanese history while collectively the pictures
help recreate the sense of energy, drive and colour of the time.
In Asia for the Asians; China in the Lives of Five Meiji JapanesePaula S. Harrell has produced a well-researched study of five
Japanese personalities of the Meiji era, who were closely
involved with Chinese modernization. She demonstrates that
Sino-Japanese relations have not always been confrontational.
During the Meiji era many influential Japanese tried to forge abetter understanding between the two nations. This in-depth
book demonstrates both have much in common and how
during the Meiji era bilateral ties were greatly enriched. Sir
Hugh Cortazzi casts a critical eye on Alistair Swale’s new work
The Meiji Restoration, Monarchism, Mass Communication andConservative Revolution, which examines the dynamics of theperiod. Sir Hugh also rounds off this issue with an examinationof Brian Burke-Gaffney’s new work Holme, Ringer & Company,
The Rise and Fall of a British Enterprise in Japan 1868-1940.
Holme, Ringer & Company were the dominant British firm in
Nagasaki during the Meiji period. It was initially controlled
by Frederick Ringer (1838-1907) and the firm remained in
the hands of the Ringer family, including sons-in-law, until
they were forced to leave or were arrested at the outbreakof the Pacific War in December 1941. Burke-Gaffney not
only tells the fascinating story of the Ringer family and theirbusiness interests in Nagasaki and Shimonoseki, but also
gives a good feel of what life was like in dynamic Meiji Japan.

Next we delve into Images of Japan 1885-1912: Scenes, Tales
and Flowers, which is a superbly researched and visuallystunning publication by Japan scholar Sir Hugh Cortazzi. It
gathers together a wide variety of rare and exquisite prints
from the latter part of the Meiji era. The primary link shared by
all the bright and colourful images in this visually rich volume
is that they were created for the European and American
communities living in Japan. As such these works of art offer afascinating window on the dynamic Meiji era. Sir Hugh Cortazzi’s
book represents the product of years of research and manages
to conjure forth the sense of excitement Meiji Japan initially

Sean Curtin, June 2012.................................................

................................................................................................................................................................................................

Contents

1) Blossoms and Shadows (Part 1)
2) Images of Japan 1885-1912: Scenes, Tales and Flowers3) Asia for the Asians; China in the Lives of Five Meiji Japanese
4) Blossoms and Shadows (Part 2)5) The Meiji Restoration, Monarchism, Mass Communication andConservative Revolution6) Blossoms and Shadows (Part 3)7) Holme, Ringer & Company, The Rise and Fall of a British Enterprise inJapan 1868-1940

EditorSean Curtin
Managing Editor
Jack Cooke
Staff Reviewers
Susan Meehan and Michael Sullivan
Special Reviewer
Hugh Cortazzi
New reviewswww.japansociety.org.uk/resources/the-japan-society-review

Blossoms and Shadows(Part 1)by Lian Hearn
Quercus Publishing, 2011
400 pages, £12.99
ISBN: 978-0-85738-297-9
Review by Susan Meehan

Blossoms and Shadows is
an absolutely riveting pieceof historical fiction whichbrings alive a fascinating
period of late nineteenth
century Japanese history.
The book begins in 1857 and spans ten years, which are
the twilight of the Bakufu (the Shogun’s government)
and febrile times. These were heady times indeed asWestern powers were expanding their power in Asia,
the Bakufu was crumbling and revolution brewing. It
is no accident that the book is set in Choshu, presentday Yamaguchi, for this domain, along with Satsuma,present-day Kagoshima, was vocal in wanting to keep
foreigners or barbarians out of Japan and the emperor,a figurehead in Kyoto, restored to power.
Opposition to the Tokugawa Shogunate was manysided and deeply divided. Alliances and loyalties also
shifted. Many young men in Choshu were activists loyal
to the emperor, brimming with a sense of adventureand destiny and willing to abandon their home ties
in order to influence change in Japan. The agitators
were not only from the samurai or warrior class, butalso included townsmen and peasants as volunteer
fighters.

‘From this kernel the story sprawls out
ambitiously, portraying a historically-based
account of events gripping Japan at large.’
Japan, which had been kept largely closed to the restof the world from the late 1630s onwards was gradually
being prised open. By 1854 the Treaty of Kanagawa
had been signed opening the ports of Hakodate
and Shimoda to the United States, and treaties weresigned with Russia and the Netherlands in 1855.
Extraterritoriality was granted to Americans in Japan
in 1857 and commercial treaties were signed with theUnited States, Britain, Russia and France in 1858.
The book is replete with characters, some of whosenames change depending on whether they’re using
their adoptive family’s name, and events. It can’t beread half-heartedly and I admit to having reached page
234 and then re-commenced the book in order toread it with more care and attention. This was certainly
worth the effort.
For those unfamiliar with Japanese history the book2

might prove difficult in places but the reader owes
it to the author to persevere for it is Hearn who hasdone all the graft, i.e., years of research which she hasthen distilled and made accessible to us through thisbook. Making the effort with Hearn’s novel pays off as
the reader is rewarded with a richly layered story set inremarkable times.
Hearn centres the book on a doctor’s family living in thevillage of Yuda in Choshu. From this kernel the story
sprawls out ambitiously, portraying a historically-based
account of events gripping Japan at large. The Itasaki
family itself can be perceived as being subversive,
mirroring Choshu’s attacks on the status quo.
Yunosuke Itasaki, the doctor and head of household,is an extremely enlightened man for his times being
compassionate and with ambitions for his daughter
Tsuru beyond marrying. Unusually for the times, he has
her help him by preparing medicines and stitching up
wounds.
Unlike many of his contemporaries who were
frightened of foreigners, Yunosuke is descended from afamily of rural physicians and studied in Nagasaki withmen who had worked with Siebold (1796-1866), thefirst European to teach Western medicine in Japan, andMohnike (1796-1866), another German physician who
implemented the first nationwide smallpox vaccinationin Japan. Yunosuke admired foreign scholars and had
a collection of Dutch medical instruments, showing areadiness to move with the times.
Tsuru is a wonderful character; encouraged to becomea doctor on the one hand, her mother tapped into
other sensibilities by giving her a magic fan which
unlocked her imagination. Tsuru herself is revolutionary
and embodies the period described by Hearn. She is amodern female yearning to be a doctor and for morethan a wifely role. Alas, things don’t pan out as hoped
for and I wonder how far society and the position of
women in Japanese society have improved since.
Shoin Yoshida [吉田 松陰] is one of many illuminaries
who feature in the book and who really existed. He wasa brilliant intellectual who taught many of the illustrious
individuals who went on to become leading lights inthe new government (succeeding the Shogunate) such
as Hirobumi Ito [伊藤 博文] and Aritomo Yamagata [山縣 有朋], both of whom went on to become prime
minister. These figures add to the book’s breadth andinterest.
The book is divided into four parts. Hearn is wonderfulat conjuring up place and in conveying the story of
the Itasaki family. She has chapters dedicated to thewedding of Mitsue, Tsuru’s older sister, and of Tsuru
herself. She also devotes chapters to historical activists
such as Shinsaku Takasugi [高杉 晋作], Genzui Kusaka[久坂玄瑞], Shoin Yoshida and Ryoma Sakamoto [坂本 龍馬], and to other famous individuals such as Lord
Sufu, Yoshinobu Tokugawa [徳川 慶喜] and Thomas
Glover. Deftly weaving major historical events into her
Issue 39 Volume 7 Number 3 (June 2012)

Images of Japan 1885-1912:
Scenes, Tales and Flowers
Admittedly the love scenes can be a little contrived, by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
book, love, passion and intrigue are not missing either
and keep the reader’s interest from ever waning.

even funny at times . . .’ It was like sleeping with myself.
I was both man and woman. I became him, and when it
was over and we had fallen into the ecstasy that is near
death, I was more myself than I had ever been.’ Tsuru
turns out to have ‘insatiable lust’ on occasion, surfacingfrom ‘the lake of desire.’

The history covered is quite incredible. That Choshuclansmen revolted against the Shogunate in 1865 andwere able to defeat it with their superior discipline andequipment is simply extraordinary, as is the story of
the Choshu Five who came over to study in England in1863. The 150th anniversary of this event is sure to becelebrated widely in Japan and the UK in 2013.
On 3 January 1868, seventeen year-old Mutsuhito
published an edict restoring all power to him, theemperor, and abolishing the shogunate. The abolitionof the Bakufu, the restoration of the emperor and thecreation of a new political organisation is known as the
Meiji Restoration. Emperor Mutshuhito (1850-1912)
who called his reign Meiji (enlightened rule), witnessedfundamental change and modernisation in Japanesesociety. Choshu through such figures as Hirobumi
Ito, Aritomo Yamagata and Koin Kido [木戸 孝允]
dominated politics until the end of the century.
As Lian Hearn states in an interview included at theend of the book, the Meiji Restoration is up there with
the French Revolution and American Civil War in termsof impact. The next instalment in the story of Japan
featuring the last rebellion of the samurai in 1877
would make for another fascinating book.

Blossoms and Shadows and the historical period itspans came to mind when I read a review of Patricio
Guzmán’s film Salvador Allende recently. All you needto do is substitute Chile with Japan in order to get apotted appraisal of what happened in Japan during thetwilight of the Bakufu and the death rattle of the samurai,‘What happened in Chile over a period of two decades
does not have to do with a particular circumstanceor a particular reality. It has to do with human nature,with dreams, hopes, cowardice and the most amazing
callousness. And all this is universal enough to speak
to anyone who wishes to listen.’ (Pamela Biénzobas on
Patricio Guzmán’s 2004 film Salvador Allende in ‘Sensesof Cinema,’ 8 February, 2005)
One of my few criticisms of the book is that it could
do with a catchier title. I hope Blossoms and Shadowswill also encourage readers to pick up Japanese history
books.

Issue 39 Volume 7 Number 3 (June 2012)

The Sainsbury Institute for the
Study of Japanese Arts andCultures, 2011
140 pages, £6.95
ISBN-13: 978-0954592134
Review by Sean CurtinThis is a superbly researchedand visually stunning publication by Japan scholar Sir
Hugh Cortazzi. It gathers together a wide variety of rareand exquisite prints from the latter part of the Meiji era. The
primary link shared by all the colourful works presented
in this visually rich volume is that they were created for
the European and American communities living in Japan.
As such these works of art offer a fascinating perspective
and window into this dynamic period of Japanese history.
The driving force
behind a large volumeofthese
artistic
works was Takejiro
Hasegawa (長谷川武次郎) ‘an enterprisingpublisher in Tokyo’who started off byproducing translationsof Japanese fairy
tales for the foreign
resident’s
marketin the mid-1880s.
These books became
highly popular which
resulted in the range,
topic and scope of
the publications being
rapidly expanded.
Sir Hugh provides samples of the various genres covered byHagegawa’s publications as well as looking at other books
generated in the wake of the foreign resident book boom.
He utilizes his extensive knowledge and expertise of Japanto assemble and interpret these works. This is a mammoth
undertaking and this book represents the product of years of
research conducted by Sir Hugh. The result of this scholarshipis that the book conjures forth a sense of the excitement
Japan initially created in the West.
Sir Hugh writes, ‘The aim of this volume is to present examplesof Japanese illustrations on crepe and ordinary paper
produced for the amusement and perhaps edification of
the foreign community in the second half of the Meiji period(page 6).’ He charts the origins and history of this type of
publication and explores its various genres. Japanese paperof the period was easily torn, so the more robust crepe, whichgave the printed pictures a highly textured feel, was used.
3

The amazing diversity and mixture of styles of Hasegawa’s
publications often makes these types of prints difficult toAsia for the Asians: China
in the Lives of Five Meiji
Japanese by Paula S. Harrell
Columbia University, Merwin Asia,
Portland, Maine, 2012406 pages
ISBN: 978-1-97385-20-0
Review by Hugh Cortazzi

categorize. Sir Hugh mainly groups the works by genre to
give an impression of the variety the artists produced but
he concedes that at times the border between one genre
and another becomes blurred. He also includes a selectionof early photos produced for foreigners, these started life
as postcards before evolving into printed publications.
Like the prints, these early photographs capture some ofthe exotic appeal that captivated early travellers to Japanand made the country an object of fascination in the West.
The great charm of this work is the stunning visual
prints that are gathered together in this single volume.
They shed a fascinating light on this vibrant period
in Japanese history and collectively the pictures help
recreate the energy, drive and colour of Meiji Japan.
Depending on personal taste, each reader will find theirown favourite chapters. I particularly enjoyed Chapter 5‘Catalogue of a Japanese Exhibition,’ Chapter 6 ‘Calendars,’and Chapter 7 ‘Books of Photographs.’ On calendars Sir
Huge observes, ‘Although calendars are not, strictly speaking,illustrated books, Hasegawa Takejiro’s crepe paper calendars
feature some of the most attractive prints ever producedby his team of artists, engravers and printers (page 57).’
While on the Japanese Exhibition publication he notes,‘Now rare, the catalogue consists of 33 double-sided
colour prints of famous scenic places and daily life inJapan. It is the equivalent of a travel brochure designed
to attract foreign visitors and one of few crepe books
to include images of contemporary Japan (page 51).’
Each Chapter contains a beautiful selection of prints andphotographs which seem to capture the feel and essence ofthe era. Sir Hugh deserves to be commended for his tirelessscholarship in gathering these rare works together, putting
them in their historical context and for once more bringing
them into the public domain.

In this interesting study of five
Japanese personalities of the Meiji
era, who were closely involved
with Chinese modernization, Dr Harrell shows that therelationship between Japan and China was not always
confrontational and that there were many influential
Japanese who worked in their differing ways for better
understanding between Japanese and Chinese. Dr Harrell,
who is a China-Japan scholar specializing in twentiethcentury and contemporary history, brings to this carefully
researched book a new insight into some of the Japanesepersonalities who worked in China during, and subsequentto, the Meiji period.
Dr Harrell emphasises that the five personalities in her study
as well as other Japanese, who spent years in China either as
employees of the Chinese government or in other capacities,
were not sent there by the Japanese authorities but went
there by their own choice. Their choice reflected the extent
of the debt Japanese culture owed to China and to the factthat Confucian philosophy was embedded in Japanesethought. But Japan’s success in modernization often led toa somewhat patronising tone in their assessments which inturn inevitably rankled in Chinese minds.

‘The Japanese defeat of Czarist Russia in 1905
was seen by the Chinese as an Asian triumph.’
The first personality covered by Dr. Harrell is Prince Atsumaro
Konoe [近衛 篤麿] who became the first president of theDõbunkai (Comon Culture Society – 同文会) in 1898 ‘topromote greater understanding of China in Japan.’ Konoe
was part of the Meiji Emperor’s inner circle and head of
the House of Peers. Both within Japan and on his visits to
China he spoke with authority. He saw the need for politicalchange in China on the lines of the changes made in Japanfollowing the Meiji Restoration. Harrell notes (page 313)
that ‘He was convinced that a strong partnership between
the two rising Asian nations was in their mutual interest
at many levels, particularly as a counterweight to Western
dominance in Asia. This was the message of Asia for the
Asians. He liked to call the new policy an Asian Monroe
Doctrine.’ The Japanese defeat of Czarist Russia in 1905 wasseen by the Chinese as an Asian triumph. ‘Thousands ofChinese students flocked to Tokyo to learn the lessons ofJapan’s success.’ But Asia could not be isolated from the restof the world.
Unokichi Hattori [服部宇之吉], who is Dr Harrell’s second

4Issue 39 Volume 7 Number 3 (June 2012)subject, ‘had studied China his entire school career’ and ‘hada thorough knowledge of Chinese philosophy, history andtraditional institutions.’ His experiences in Peking during theBoxer rebellion had a profound effect on him. After studyin Germany he returned to China to become head of theteacher training division at the newly established Peking(Beijing) University, but the terms of his contract were vague
and he was often frustrated. He regretted that the Chinese‘failed to understand the real Japan.’ Hattori noted that the
Chinese were using an increasing number of Japaneseterms and idioms both because of the significant presenceof Japanese advisers and because ‘hundreds of Chinese
students educated in Japan were . . . taking posts in new
government agencies.’ He doubted, however, whether ‘truly
close relationships’ at a personal level could be developed(page 119). Hattori and other Japanese employed by the
Chinese authorities were sceptical whether China was able
‘to govern itself.’
Misako Kawahara [河原操子] was the only woman among
the five. Her main concern was women’s education.
Naniwa Kawashima [川島浪速] was employed to advise on
police reform. He lived in China for twenty five years andwas a dedicated student of Chinese history and language.
He was vehemently anti-Western and thought that war
with the United States was inevitable. He favoured ‘thesecessionist aspirations of China’s ethnic minorities’ andpressed his views in no uncertain terms on the army generalstaff in Tokyo. In 1926 he told a Tokyo audience that after
years of experience of the Chinese character he had ‘cometo the painful conclusion . . . that the Chinese people are
beyond hope’ because they were like ‘loose sand [p.223].’
Dr Harrell’s last subject is Nagao Ariga [有賀長雄], renowned
as an international jurist who became constitutional adviser
to Yuan Shikai [袁世凯]. Ariga argued strongly againstgroup V in the 21 demands [二十一條] which Japan madeon China in 1915. The Japanese leadership in the genro[extraconstitutional oligarchy that dominated the Japanese
government] accepted the arguments and Takaaki Kato
[加藤 高明], then Foreign Minister, had to resign. Ariga’s
importance lies more in his role in establishing the JapanRed Cross and in relation to the Hague Peace Conferences
than in the China context, but Dr Harrell’s portrait of him iswell drawn.
It is impossible in a short review to do justice to these five
portraitsortobringoutadequatelythesalientpointswhichDr
Harrell makes about the Japanese role in the modernisationof China. Students of Far Eastern History who study these
five portraits will realize that attempts by Chinese, Japaneseand Western scholars to summarize the background to
Sino-Japanese antagonism often over simplify what was acomplex and multi-layered relationship.

Issue 39 Volume 7 Number 3 (June 2012)

Blossoms and Shadows(Part 2)by Lian Hearn
Quercus Publishing, 2011
Review by Susan Meehan
400 pages, £12.99
ISBN 978-0-85738-297-9
Review by Ali Muskett

Blossoms and Shadows by
Lian Hearn (real name Gillian
Rubinstein), is set in 19th
century Japan, and is narrated by fictional character Tsuru.
The daughter of a doctor, Tsuru is raised in a world of
medicine where, due to cultural restraints of the time, she
is allowed only a glimpse of the life she desires. Working
alongside her father, Tsuru helps to mix medicines andstitch up wounds. She dreams of one day sewing up
sword wounds on the battleground, but observes that no
warrior would want to be ‘stitched up by a girl.’ At the endof the day, she knows she is just a woman, and can neverbe accepted as a doctor in this man’s world. Women are
expected to marry and have children, not develop an
intense curiosity about the inner workings of the human
body, and a longing to ‘cut them open.’ But life alongside
her father has nurtured a dream in Tsuru’s mind; a dreamthat some day women and men will work side by side.
Marriage to a doctor whom she loves ought to provide
a way into the world Tsuru imagines, but only leads tomore frustration. Tsuru’s passion and persistence cause
her life to take an unexpected turn, treading the fineline between sanity and madness, tradition and the riseof modern Japan. Playing a game of forbidden love anddeception, Tsuru tastes the world of men, but it is nota world she can remain a part of. While slightly slow tostart, it is this twist in Tsuru’s tale that brings Blossoms andShadows to its peak. Florence Nightingale is mentioned,
and there is hope that Tsuru may take on the task of‘reforming the nurses,’ but this comes to nothing and, after
the excitement and intrigue of the middle of the book,the story simply peters out to a rather disappointing end.
The time immediately before the Meiji Restoration of 1868
was a turbulent time for Japan, featuring wars and politicalunrest. Setting a novel in this period is no mean feat, but
Hearn clearly seems to have done her research. About halfof the main characters in the book are fictional, the otherhalf historical, but that doesn’t make the story any lessfeasible. Reading Blossoms and Shadows is like zooming
in on a thick, dusty history book and finding a story that
one can actually relate to. The great figures, like Sakamoto
Ryoma, are well known and much documented. But Hearn
gives the story of the ‘opening’ of Japan a more personal
touch by trying to focus the tale on one family. Althoughfictional, this human story of love and war is quite plausible.
5Tsuru’s story is interspersed with occasional chapters fromthe points of view of historical figures such as Shinsaku
Takasugi (高杉 晋作– an activist and military reformer),
Botoni Nomura (a loyalist poet and nun), Seiichiro Shiraishi(a wealthy merchant and supporter of Choshu activists)
and Shoin Yoshida (吉田 松陰– a teacher and reformer),but the necessity of these chapters is questionablegiven the strength of the fictional characters’ stories. In
fact, closing the book with such chapters detracts fromwhat could be a really touching piece of historical fiction.

The Meiji Restoration,
Monarchism, Mass
Communication andConservative Revolution
by Alistair D. Swale

Hearn admits herself that ‘The idea of writing a novel
set in this time seemed utterly beyond me’ and whenreading Blossoms and Shadows it’s hard to imagine how
she ever kept track of all the characters (as a reader, it’sa challenge, but there is a handy list in the front of thebook). It would be impossible to write a novel set in sucha time and not allude to historical figures, but perhaps
it wasn’t necessary to include quite so many charactersin this already ambitious novel. The reader could get
bogged down with trying to remember who’s who, andin the end not really enjoy the story itself. Tsuru’s struggles,
both personal and professional, are enough of a hook tomake this a page turner, without adding the weighty
confusion of all of those additional historical figures.

ISBN-10: 0230593860

To the average reader, this novel may feel a bit too
heavy, bursting at the seams with historical details,
long names of Japanese people (including many namechanges along the way), and unexplained Japanese
vocabulary (a glossary might have been a good idea).
However, for someone with an interest in Japaneseculture, it ought to be quite pleasurable reading.
Blossoms and Shadows is a slow-burner though, andrequires some persistence, commitment and serious
interest in Japan to make it to the end of this hefty tome.
It’s worth adding that, if you approach Blossoms andShadows expecting it to be similar to Lian Hearn’s otherbooks, you might find yourself more than a little bit
disappointed. Blossoms and Shadows has a very different
tone compared to that of Hearn’s popular historicalfantasy series, Tales of the Otori. However, Hearn’s ability totransport the reader to a world where trees chirp with thesound of cicadas and geisha entertain behind the paperthin walls of tea houses has not been lost. Her writing, attimes slightly weaker than in previous novels, is engaging
for the most part. Blossoms and Shadows, probably best
described as literary historical fiction, tries to be a story ofromance, war and revolution. This is a little too much for
one novel, and Hearn might have considered splitting thestory into another series, or perhaps scaling the story rightdown to focus much more on just the fictional characters.

Blossoms and Shadows is not a bad piece of fiction atall, but it sadly did not live up to Hearn’s other novels.

6

Palgrave Macmillan, 4 Nov
2009)
216 pages, £52.00
Review by Hugh Cortazzi
This book by Alistair Swale
who is a senior lecturer
at the University of Wakato New Zealand is not for
the general reader interested in learning about
this important period in Japanese history. It seems
to have been written for fellow historians alreadywell versed in the history of the Meiji Restoration.
The first chapter deals with ‘Japan within the Worldsystem: Urbanization, Political Stasis and Western
Economic Expansion’. Swale then considers what heterms as ‘The Meiji Coup d’État’. Subsequent chapters
cover ‘Mass Media and the Development of Civil Culture’,‘The more thorough fulfilment of the Restoration’ andthe Imperial Household, the Popular Press and theContestation of Public Space, The concluding chapter isentitled Conservatism, Traditionalism and Restoration.
Swale asserts that the Meiji Restoration was not so much an‘instantaneous event’ but more ‘a far-spanning movementthat had profound roots in the social conditions andintellectual discourse of the late Edo period’. He asserts that‘the Imperial Household possessed what the Shogunate
did not: the capacity for charismatic inspiration, a religious
dimension that would enable incongruent forces anddisparate elements to be recast into a new whole as if
they had always been destined to be so conjoined.’ Henotes that the experiences of the West ‘had a decidedly
cautionary impact on many Japanese students’. He stresses
that it was not inevitable that the ‘political configuration’of the new Japan would be liberal or ‘universalist’. It
was ‘perfectly possible to establish a quasi-oligarchicalpolitical structure along with an anti-individualist
ethos within the compass of the national community.’
As the quotations cited above show this is a densely
written book. It is not made easier by the author’s tendency
to use long sentences which have to be read more thanonce before their meaning is apparent. This sentenceon page 10 is an example: ‘Maintaining traditions“authentically” requires the retention of the matrix oftheir production more or less intact, something that isquite impossible when the culture of the village artisan
and the relatively self-referencing folklore of the ruralcommunity gives way to mass migration of the populace
to urban centers which form the focus of development
in mass communication and the centralized coordination
Issue 39 Volume 7 Number 3 (June 2012)

ofastandardized

national

educational

system.’

It is clear from the number of references cited that theauthor has researched his subject widely, but I was
surprised by a number of omissions. For instance whenwriting about Fukuzawa Yukichi he does not refer to thestudy of Fukuzawa by the late Dr Carmen Blacker nor to
the translation of Fukuzawa’s autobiography by the lateProfessor Kiyooka. There is no indication that he is awareof the writings of Andrew Cobbing on Japanese students
in Britain. Nor is there any mention when discussing theEmperor Meiji of Professor Donald Keene’s monumental
study of the Emperor.

Blossoms and Shadows(Part 3)by Lian Hearn
Quercus Publishing, 2011
400 pages, £12.99
ISBN: 978-0-85738-297-9
Review by Michael Sullivan
By the start of the nineteenth
century Japan had been in
isolation for centuries, thearrival of American ships
forced the opening up of the country to foreign trade,
visitors, technology and ideas, with resultant chaos andchange at a quick pace. Tsuru is the daughter of a doctor,
her family’s connections allow her to meet many of theyoung men of the time who, although they are inspiredby foreigners and eager to learn their ways, at the sametime wish to expel them from the country. Meanwhile,across Japan a deep flaw becomes apparent in the waythat the country is governed as arms are taken up in revolt
against the Shogun for seemingly allowing foreigners to
do what they want, amid claims that the protesters areloyal to the relatively powerless Emperor. It is a situationthat leads to great confusion amongst people at every
level of society; foreigners are bad yet good, while rebellion
to the government (the Shogun) is perceived as supportof the government (the Emperor). In this turbulent time
Tsuru sees at first hand the attempts of the young men of
Japan to learn about this new, wider world, to learn newtechnologies of war and to change the government.
However, she isn’t limited to just watching as she herself
struggles to fit in within a rapidly changing society,although talented as a doctor she is not allowed to
become one. Fortunately, as the daughter of a doctor
and the wife of a doctor she does receive training, but it
doesn’t mean she can ever be accepted as a real doctor, ordoes it? As the struggle for power between rival factions,and between Japanese and foreigners, spirals into more
and more violence, society itself is stretched to breaking
Issue 39 Volume 7 Number 3 (June 2012)

point and turned upside down. Men dress as women andwomen dress as men, and abandoned by her husband
who goes to follow a war that she is forbidden from being
involved in, Tsuru finds herself becoming an entirely
different person. Surrounded on all sides by war, thedeaths of loved ones, the abandonment by her husband
and the discovery of a forbidden love, Tsuru has to cometo terms with herself and with the birth of a new Japan.

Holme, Ringer & Company,
The Rise and Fall of a
British Enterprise in Japan
1868-1940 by Brian BurkeGaffney
Global Oriental, 2012
236 pages, €90 / $125
ISBN: 978-90-04-23017-0
Review by Hugh Cortazzi
Ask anyone interested inrelations between Britain
and Japan what British merchant was most closely
associated with Nagasaki the reply is likely to be thatof Thomas B. Glover, described by his biographer as a
Scottish samurai. But Glover & Co went bankrupt in 1870
and Glover moved to Tokyo, only returning to Nagasaki
following the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war. The
dominant British firm in Nagasaki in the Meiji period
was Holme, Ringer & Company which was controlled
by Frederick Ringer (1838-1907). The firm remained in
the hands of the Ringer family including sons-in-law
until they were forced to leave or were arrested on theoutbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941. BurkeGaffney in this book tells the story of the Ringer family andtheir business interests in Nagasaki and Shimonoseki.
Frederick Ringer was born in Norwich where he died
and was buried. He had firm views and imposed his
own rules on the company. He insisted that ‘all Japaneseemployees maintain their integrity by wearing only
Japanese clothing and footwear and, similarly that
foreigners refrain from unsightly forays into Japaneseculture and society.’ He frowned on interracial marriage.
One partner working with the Ringer subsidiary in
Shimonoseki, Neil B. Reid, had to hide his liaison
with a geisha and only had limited contacts with hisnatural son. The latter took the name Fujiwara Yoshie
and went on to found the Fujiwara opera company.
The Ringer family residence known as niban[Number two] at Minamiyamate in Nagasaki ispreserved in Nagasaki’s Glover Garden and has
been designated an ‘Important Cultural Asset.’
Ringer’s business interests covered a wide range
7

from shipping, the tea trade, flour mills to kerosene
tanks. These latter were for Samuel, Samuel &Co. from whose Japan trade The Rising Sun Oil
Company developed into Shell Oil Company.
Frederick Ringer had a particular attachment to the
Nagasaki Hotel whose company he founded andwhich opened its doors in September 1898 only a
few months after the opening of the Royal Hotel in
Norwich to which Frederick Ringer returned before hedied. The Nagasaki Hotel was designed by the British
architect Josiah Conder who has been described as thefather of Japanese architecture. It had fifty-six rooms‘furnished with large brass beds and teak furniture . . .
[and] private telephones’ but it charged four yen a night‘or the average cost of a month’s room in a Japanese
inn.’ It opened at a time when the port of Nagasaki
was still booming, but Nagasaki’s importance soon
declined sharply and the Nagasaki hotel became anever increasing drain on Ringer’s resources. Eventuallyin February 1908 the hotel and its contents including a
stock of fine wines were sold. They had a problem when
it came to disposing of the expensive tableware which
was marked NH. Fortunately the Nara Hotel which
opened in the same year came forward as a buyer.

Vanya Ringer was killed in action during the war.
Michael Ringer was captured in Sumatra and suffered
as a Japanese prisoner of war. After the war was overand he had become a British Indian Army Major hewas summoned to give evidence at the International
Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) in December
1946 about Japanese treatment of prisoners of war.
Surviving members of the Ringer family were regular
visitors to Japan after the war. They had to makenumerous representations to gain compensation for
their properties in Japan which had been confiscatedand vandalized. Holme, Ringer & Company continued
to maintain a small office in Shimonoseki/Mojifor many years after the war. The last manager
and British consular agent was Perry. S. Mihara.
This book supplements the picture of life for expatriates
in Nagasaki given in Burke Gaffney’s Nagasaki: The
British Experience, 1854-1945, Global Oriental, 2009[see the review in JSR issue 23]. For anyone with aninterest in the history of the British community in Japanin the Meiji period this book makes fascinating reading.
NOTES:‘As Belgian consul in 1895 Frederick Ringer
found himself involved as judge in a murdercase.’¹ Britain maintained a consulate at Nagasaki until theoutbreak of war and a post in Shimonoseki for sometwenty years at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Burke Gaffney relates how Holme, Ringer & Company
came to open a branch in Shimonoseki. This arosefrom the company’s interests in shipping and fishingincluding whaling. The company’s subsidiary ‘Woriu
Shokwai’ came to represent British interests in thestraits between Shimonoseki and Moji in Kyushu.

² Under the ‘unequal treaties’ dating from 1858
jurisdiction over nationals of the treaty powers wasvested in the consular representatives of the treaty
power.

Burke-Gaffney has some amusing stories about thejealousies between consuls and merchants who for theirpart were only too glad to become honorary consuls
for countries such as Belgium and Denmark which
could not afford to appoint career consuls.¹ As Belgian
consul in 1895 Frederick Ringer found himself involved
as judge in a murder case.² Fortunately for Ringer there
was evidence that the woman who was alleged tohave been murdered had in fact committed suicide.

³ I included brief references to these incidents involume VIII of Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits
just published. See chapter 39 on ‘The Death of James
Melville Cox . . . and Arrests of British Citizens in Japan
in 1940 and 1941’. Burke Gaffney gives a fuller account.
Venice International Film Festival in September 2011.

Frederick Ringer envisaged that his family would
continue and develop his business in much the same
way as other family businesses in Japan went on fromgeneration to generation. But Nagasaki’s importancein shipping and trade declined. It became instead oneof Japan’s main ship-building centres and Shimonoseki
could not be a substitute for the firm. Moreover theenvironment for foreign firms deteriorated rapidly in the
1930s as the military came to dominate Japanese life.
In 1940 the Ringers were accused on the flimsiest of
grounds of spying and members of the Ringer family
were arrested. Vanya Ringer was tried, fined and given asuspended prison sentence.³ The firm was forced to close.
8

Issue 39 Volume 7 Number 3 (June 2012)