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

Editor: Sean Curtin
Managing Editor: John Toppon
Welcome to 2008’s first exciting edition of The Japan
Society Review. Within our new-look publication you
will find the usual wide-ranging selection of riveting
review articles on the latest Japan-related books andfilms. In this issue we have some fascinating pieces
spanning Japanese politics and literature to gardening
along with a look at some recent fictional books plus
our regular film feature and much much more! Thisissue marks our return to regular publication and in the
coming months the Reviews team will be providing
you with the latest and most up-to-date reviews.
Sean Curtin.....................................................................

Volume 3 No. 1 (2008) Issue 13

Contents(1) Governing Japan, Divided Politics in a Resurgent Economy(2) Under the Sun(3) Myth, Protest and Struggle in Okinawa(4) The Last Concubine(5) The Straw Sandal or The Scroll of the Hundred Crabs(6) Kamome Diner(7) Designing and Creating Japanese Gardens(8) One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each(9) The Japanese Way - Garden Designs

New reviews: www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews.html
Archive: http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews_archive.html...................................................................................................................................................................................

Governing Japan
Divided Politics in a
Resurgent Economy
by J.A.A. Stockwin

Blackwell Publishing,
Oxford, 2008, 298 pages
including index and tables.
Paper Back £19.99
Hard Back £55.00
ISBN-13: 978 -1405154154
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Professor Arthur Stockwin, who was until recently
Nissan Professor of Modern Japanese Studies in the
University of Oxford, is the leading British expert on
Japanese politics. His aim in this book has been “tomake at least partly comprehensible what to theoutside observer (and indeed to many Japanese
themselves) often appears to be the great muddleof Japanese politics.” His analysis is succinct and hehas managed to unravel most of the complexities ofJapanese politics.
This is the fourth edition of a work which was first
produced in 1975, but many important changes havetaken place in the way Japan is governed since thelast edition in 1999. Much of the book attempts toassess these changes. This entailed rewriting a large
section which now covers the political scene up to theappointment of Mr Yasuo Fukuda as Japanese Prime
Minister in 2007.
Stockwin identifies “six broad areas of crisis.” These
are crises “of political power and accountability,” “ofpolitical participation and non-involvement in politics,”“of the Constitution and political fundamentals”, “ofliberal versus illiberal ideas,” “of ageing society anddiverging life-chances,” and “of national status androle.” He considers that these crises are “all relatively
serious, actually or potentially,” but Japan as “amajor and dynamic economic power” has a basically
democratic structure and “the political system has
repeatedly demonstrated its capacity to overcome
crises and achieve reasonably satisfactory solutions toproblems.”
His analysis, which takes due account of economic andsocial as well as political factors, is based on carefulresearch and observation and his judgements are fairand objective. He occasionally allows himself to makesome shrewd and pointed comments, for instancethat “prime ministers in Japan may be categorized as
ranging from weak to moderately effective”. At thepresentation of his book at Daiwa House in London
recently, he gave the palm to Shigeru Yoshida, but also
praised Hayato Ikeda and Junichiro Koizumi.
After an introduction headed “Why Japan and its
Politics Matter” Stockwin gives useful summaries of
the historical, social and economic background. He
also discusses the attempts at political reform in the
1990s and writes about “the Koizumi Effect” in thetwenty-first century.
This section is followed by a chapter which tries toanswer the question “Who Runs Japan?”. In this hediscusses the theories of writers such as Chalmers
Johnson and Karel van Wolferen and notes that while
Japan has unique features it is not “uniquely unique.”In commenting on the changing character ofelections he explains the differences in the makeup of constituencies following the replacementof multi-member constituencies by a mixture of
single member constituencies and an element ofproportional representation. Groups supporting
individual candidates are not the equivalent of thelocal branches of political parties found in Britain.
He notes that Japan is “at once dynamic andconservative” and that “traditional styles of personal,“pork-barrel” politics remain embedded in theappeal and modus operandi of the LDP”. He regards
the DPJ as essentially another conservative party,
which is critical and fractious but which does notpresent a real alternative government of a different
complexion. Ideology now plays a limited role inJapanese politics and personality still counts morethan party. There is little sign that Japan is moving
towards a two party system.
In discussing domestic political issues he underlines
the problems facing Japan with its declining andageing population. He is concerned by the “clear
trend since the 1990s towards illiberal policies incertain areas” and considers that “central government
power is subject to insufficient restraint, whether
from opposition parties, Parliament, the judiciary, themedia or the voluntary sector ... recent governments
have shown worrying signs of riding roughshod over
opposition including the media”.
The chapter on the constitution provides valuable
background to the problems involved in amending
the constitution and includes the text of the changes
proposed by the LDP.
In his chapter on the political implications of foreignand defence issues he reminds readers that Japan’s
GDP is still more than double that of China and that
China is now Japan’s second largest trading partner.
He believes that the era of “Japan-Passing” in the
1990s is over and that “an innovative Japan brand” hasbeen developing. “If politicians could be persuaded tounderstand and develop the comparative advantages
that Japan now has, as a sophisticated post-industrial
society in a globalizing world, the future for thecountry could be bright indeed.” He is thus cautiously
optimistic for the future of Japan.
There is much food for thought in this stimulating
and informative book. It contains, with its numerous
tables, all the essential facts for understanding theJapanese political scene. It should be read and kept
for reference by all foreign diplomats and journalists
who have to attempt to interpret Japanese politics.

Under The Sun
by Justin Kerr-Smiley

Reportage Press, 2007 243 pages.
Hardback £16.99
ISBN13: 978 - 0955572937
Review by Susan Meehan
In Under the Sun, Justin Kerr-Smiley’s debut novel,2

we are introduced to young
Flight Lieutenant Edward
Strickland. Strickland, whose
study of Greats at Oxford iscurtailed by the onset of theSecond World War, develops,
over the course of the book,from a young RAF Spitfire
pilot, into a more worldly
individual coming to termswith the loss of love, friends
and comrades.
Deployed to the South Pacificin the closing stages of WorldWar Two, Strickland, flying sorties over the Carolines,
is shot down by a Japanese submarine countering his
attacks. Plummeting to the sea and to certain death,
he is noticed and rescued, however, by a group ofJapanese soldiers stationed on a remote island, anxious
at all costs to remain concealed, and unsure as to what
to do with the captured enemy.
While Under the Sun makes for compelling and tense
reading at times, once the theatre of war moves from
Europe to the South Pacific, the clichés and episodesof florid language become too many to list andStrickland seems more like a character out of James
Clavell’s Shogun than a believable war hero.
Like Clavell’s 17th Century Pilot-Major, John Blackthorne, whose trading ship runs aground off theJapanese coast, Strickland narrowly escapes deathby his captors, who then proceed to protect andlook after him despite endangering themselves indoing so. In both cases the non-Japanese becomesan accepted and integral part of the group in which
he’s landed.
The world inhabited by Strickland and the Japaneseisland-garrison is a bit too idyllic at times, somewhat
reminiscent of Asterix the Gaul’s enclave, “... one small
village ... still holds out against the invaders ...” It isfanciful to think that the island harbours no dissenters
who may want to harm Strickland.
Then there is Commander Hayama, a textbook
character personifying a range of cliché which, one
would hope, are no longer prevalent – though fierce
he is also sensitive with exquisite fine tastes. Brutal
to Strickland initially, Hayama not only gives an
outward appearance of sensitivity with his feminine
face and smooth skin, but this entomologist manqué
spends his free time either collecting or cataloguing
his butterflies, changing into his kimono to play theviolin, writing haiku, burning incense or praying to hisancestors for illumination.
The language is cringeworthy at times; the friendshipbetween Hayama and Strickland is rendered thus,“... their friendship had survived the ordeal and theirsouls were now forged together like the steel of a
Volume 3 No. 1 (2008) Issue 13

samurai’s sword. Whatever the gods decreed, theywould face it together.”
Even more overworked is the following passage, “...
the sun rose like a nymph from the deep, naked andtender as a newborn, flames flickering and falling fromher shoulders in a burning watery garment, the sea
coiling and writhing like a serpent beneath her feet”.
And there seems to be a certain lack of imaginationin the depiction of Inoue. Hayama’s orderly, the goodJapanese, happens to be a Christian from Nagasaki,
almost implying that a Buddhist would be incapableof the same kindness. Perhaps in order to make up for
this, we later read that, “Karma was not only a tenetof Buddhism but also of Christianity. St Paul had said
precisely this in his letter to the Galatians when hewrote, ‘whatever man sows, he shall reap.’ The two
faiths had many aspects that complemented eachother. They were like two halves of the same fruit andin the middle were the pips, the seeds of faith.”Contrived situations including a shark attack andseppuku continue apace and the typos (Hamaya
instead of Hayama, repetition of words: to to, written
written etc) don’t help either.
Still, an interesting read and a percentage of theproceeds goes to a good cause!

Myth, Protest andStruggle in Okinawa
by Miyume Tanji
Routledge, 2006, 234 pages
including index, maps,
glossary and abbreviations.
Hardback £85.00
ISBN13: 978 - 0415365000
Review by William Farr
Tanji sets out a strong andquite explosive thesis rightfrom the beginning of Myth,Protest and Struggle in Okinawa as she argues
that the struggling relationship of the Okinawan
population with its Japanese overlord and American
military presence is one that has been fraught (and
often fought) with difficulty. A nerve is struck straightaway in the book as Tanji recounts an incident in1995 where three American marines kidnapped andthen gang-raped a young Okinawan girl. Okinawa
was plunged into the international spotlight, which
exposed the fact that American forces enjoyedextraterritorial privileges, and incidents of this sortrarely ended in a just outcome.
The Okinawan people have seen their own land andpeople used and abused, with little or no respect forrights and privileges, and when the Okinawan people
Volume 3 No. 1 (2008) Issue 13

have sought help from the Japanese government they
have often been ignored. Until the late nineteenth
century Okinawa, known then as Ryukyu, was under
the authority of the Satsuma domain in Southwest
Kyushu after it was invaded in 1609. At that time
Ryukyu was a tributary of China. Negotiations laterby the Japanese government with China over thevalue of Okinawa, placed it firmly within Japaneserule, but negotiations had also discussed thesplitting up of the Ryukyu kingdom. Islands were
to have been given as gifts to the Chinese. This
sets the tone early in the existence of Okinawa [forthe Japanese] as an elaborate bargaining chip andbuffer against the outside world.
Okinawan princes and rulers tried to retain powerover their diminishing strength at the handsof Japanese rule, but all this was at a cost to thecommon Okinawans. In the 1920s for example,
Okinawan peasants facing famine conditions
turned to eating the wild-growing cycad palm tree.
If not processed properly, the leaves are extremely
poisonous. As a result many Okinawans died in whatbecame known as ‘palm tree hell’.
In 1947 the American military viewed Okinawa as“justly acquired by the sacrifice and casualties ofAmerican youth in the Battle of Okinawa” (p55). Over45,000 acres of land was occupied, mostly farmland
as it was cultivated and flat - important for thecreation of military runways. The farmers of Ie-Jima(Ie Island) believed that if they co-operated with
the invading American forces, the Americans would
help them re-build. The people of Ie-Jima were infact glad the Americans had won, as they thought
the Japanese military treated them with contempt.
Re-building did not occur and the American forces
continued to claim more land – often using armed
soldiers. This was because at the time Okinawa wasseen as being strategically important for regional
security against the communist bloc.
After World War II, Okinawa had an uncertain future,occupied by American forces with the Japanese
government having no central control over theland. Okinawan schoolteachers wanted the land toreturn to Japanese rule, an opinion that divided thecountry. In many ways the Okinawan people did notwant to return to the abuse suffered under Hirohito,
yet occupying American forces were proving to
be no better. For the farmers of Ie-Jima in 1953
and 1954, a slogan of ‘Bulldozers and Bayonets’summarized their often helpless struggle against
occupation.
Myths surround the Okinawan people, such as theidea that they took part in collective suicides in WorldWar II. Images from World War II programmes cometo mind, of individuals throwing themselves fromcliffs rather than be captured by invading American
forces. Yet these collective suicides where whole3

villages were killed were never the result of warped
collective thinking, but rather compulsory deaths,
imposed by the military. This was changed in theofficial version of events through the interventionof Monbusho (the Education Department) into there-writing of Japanese history textbooks in the early
1980s, where events such as the suicides and what is
now known as the ‘Rape of Nanking’ were effectively
deleted from history.
At times like this the Okinawan protest movement
has often burned the familiar Japanese national
Hinomaru flag, as in 1987 at an annual sports event
in Yomitan village. Here the flag was burnt in protest
at continued pressure to use the flag for public
events. For many Okinawans, the Hinomaru flag still
symbolizes the old Japanese army and the military
as it was under Emperor Hirohito.
After World War II the Okinawan people have sought
to adapt to the hard regime of the US military –and have since rediscovered their own method ofprotest and provocation in an effort to reclaim theirown island and identity. Some have even sought
to exploit the situation by focusing on business
opportunities.
The Okinawan population has faced difficulties in thedevelopment of its own personality. Various factions
grow, some die but all in Tanji’s view are complex
and contextually organic. Within each group various
battles are fought to find a voice, and more often
than not the dominant US military has achieved its
aim through a divide and conquer approach.
The Okinawan struggle (Okinawa toso) is not clearcut and the people’s movement is “fragmented,
untidy, and marked by conflicting ideas, definitions
and methods of protest” (p178). The huge American
military industrial complex dominates the post
World War II experience of the Okinawans, but fromthis Okinawa has started to piece together its own
collective history from its own sources, ignoring
revisionist history.
This is an intellectually tight and well-crafted piece ofwork. The book may be of value to readers interested
in the re-emerging idea within international andintra-national politics of small nation-states growing
beyond the larger unions they are a part of, especiallythrough burgeoning cultural identity. Tanji points
out that the crashing of a cargo helicopter into the
Okinawa International University campus in August
2004 brought about protest as 81 per cent of the
Okinawan population called for the air base nearby
to close. The struggle for the Okinawan people isclearly not over yet, but perhaps a singular voice ofprotest is becoming a reality.

4

The Last Concubine
by Lesley Downer
Bantam Press, 2008, 480 pages.
Hardback £12.99
ISBN 13: 978 - 0593057537
Review by Anna Davis
Lesley Downer’s first novel
chronicles an unexpectedromance that grows in thegulf between old and newin nineteenth century Japan.
Romantic love, a namelessconcept in the society of the day is an interesting
theme, but the real page turner is the historical
backdrop, taking us from the secretive and elegant
women’s palace to the bloody samurai battlegrounds.
“It was a challenge to write a love story set in a society
in which there was no concept of romantic love – andwithout ever using the word ‘love’!” admits the author.
The backdrop to her story, however, is a seemingly
effortless creation and left me thirsting to know more
about the era.
Sachi, our heroine, begins life as a peasant in a small
village. At the age of eleven she is spotted by thejourneying princess and taken off to the women’spalace where we are given a fascinating glimpse
into the lives of the three thousand women who live
within its walls. Sachi slips into this evocative worldof beauty, envy and female companionship, into a lifethat revolves around one man – the shogun. At fifteen
Sachi becomes his concubine. As her lifelong friend
Taki tells her, “It is the greatest thing that could ever
happen to a girl.”
However, this quiet glory and the inner calm of lifein the women’s palace is quickly whisked away fromJapan’s last concubine. Black ships have arrived fromthe West, civil war ravages and eventually reaches eventhe sheltered women’s palace. As Sachi flees from thepalace, acting as a decoy for the princess, she is rescued
by a dashing warrior. Here enters our hero, who becomesthe unsuspecting subject of an enduring love affair.
Sword play, friendship, disguises and dedication all
rear their heads as Sachi and her female companions
struggle to create a new destiny in a country thrown on
its head. Amidst the drama, Sachi must also confront
and explore a shocking revelation about her past thatleaves heroine and reader puzzling over who the lastconcubine really is.
Many of the characters really did exist (the shogun,
the princess and the three thousand women of thepalace, to start) and Lesley Downer has weaved her
story into a concrete time and place. She is the firstto admit that there is not extensive documentation
about the women’s palace. However, she has tempered
the various settings with her own imaginings andVolume 3 No. 1 (2008) Issue 13

understanding; Lesley is a woman who knows Japan.
She lived in the country for over ten years. To research“Geisha: The Secret History of a Vanishing World”
she spent six months living amongst the geisha andsharing in their lives.
With the historical references and beautiful settings
so firmly laid down, the evolution of a love that could
hardly be identified as such is the story’s most complex
element. The unexpected and fleeting romantic
moments must have felt so to the characters as well as
the reader, and Lesley Downer has done a good job toensure the consistency of this improbability.
Enjoy the love story along the way but read this for the
sheer beauty of the era, the drama and glory, and forthe glimpse into a little-known world as seen througha fusion of history and imagination.

The Straw Sandal or
The Scroll of the
Hundred Crabs
by Santō Kyōden
Global Oriental, 2008,
166 pages.
Hardback £35.00 (Japan
Society members can orderdirect from the publisher at
a discounted rate).
ISBN 13: 978-1905246649
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
This book was launched at Daiwa House in London
on 22 January. Peter Kornicki, Professor of Japaneseat Cambridge University, and Dr James McMullen,
a former pupil of Carmen and a lecturer in Japanese
literature at Oxford University, spoke about the bookand about Carmen as a teacher and scholar. Sadly
owing to ill-health Carmen could not be present but Dr
Michael Loewe, her husband, who has known Carmen
since their days at Bletchley Park during the war andhas for many years worked with Carmen, spoke on
her behalf. Many members of the audience including
scholars, former pupils and close friends paid tribute toCarmen’s many outstanding qualities. I felt honoured
to chair this meeting and noted in my remarks her
great contribution to the Japan Society which shehelped to resuscitate after the war and for which she
acted as the first post-war editor. All her friends wantto thank Marie Conte-Helm and the Daiwa Foundation
for generously hosting this event.
Carmen explains in her preface that during the war
she came across in a book shop in London a copy of
W.G. Aston’s History of Japanese Literature publishedin 1899 and saw in it a reference to Santō Kyōden andhis “masterpiece” Mukashi-banashi Inazuma-byōshi
Volume 3 No. 1 (2008) Issue 13(A Tale of Times Long Past: Lightening on the Cover).
She “proceeded to read about the ghosts, suicides,
and terrific combats found therein.” She longed to findthe original book in Japanese but doubted whether
she would ever find a copy in war-time Britain. One
day, however, Arthur Waley, the great oriental scholar
and translator, invited her to look at his books and she
saw there a copy of Kyōden’s masterpiece. When she
expressed particular interest in it, Waley told her toborrow it, adding “keep it as long as you like” and she
still has it.
As anyone who has tried to read books written in the
Edo period will know, these can be very difficult tounderstand. They are likely to be written with abstrusecharacters and phrases, and contain references toChinese and Japanese literature. By the time she
acquired Waley’s copy Carmen had not progressedvery far with her study of Japanese. Neverthelessshe began to translate the book working in her digs
with lighting which was barely adequate for reading
English texts let alone small Japanese characters.
The text lacked a commentary and notes so it would
have been a mammoth task to translate it even for
one accustomed to Edo period Japanese. But she
persisted in her efforts, although eventually she had
to put it aside and did not return to it until many years
later. It is a tribute to her scholarship and persistencethat despite her debilitating illness she managed
finally to finish the translation with help from her
friends and former colleagues who all encouraged her
to continue to work on the text.
As Peter Kornicki pointed out at Daiwa House,
Carmen’s translation is felicitous. It reads smoothly anddoes not sound like a translation. She clearly enjoyedthis piece of Edo period “blood and thunder” with
its series of unlikely coincidences, escapes, murders,suicides and fights. As Kyōden said in his introductionof 1805, “the novel is based on a playbook for the puppet
theatre” in which melodrama so often featured.
Kyōden was a successful writer, but the authorities
exercised a close censorship over publications andsome of his satirical pieces attracted their attention. He
was sentenced to spend fifty days under house arrestand in handcuffs. As a result of this punishment he
no longer featured the pleasure quarters in his stories(although he no doubt still frequented them). Instead
he turned to melodrama for his themes. Even so hecould not set these in contemporary Japan for fearof offending the narrow-minded Bakufu officials but
had to place them in the fifteenth century, although
he did not bother to conform to historical facts. For
instance, guns which did not reach Japan until the
Portuguese arrived in the sixteenth century feature in
the Straw Sandal.
Paul Norbury has included with the text many of theoriginal black and white illustrations and these add
5greatly to the attractions of this charming little bookwhich will, I hope, find the readership it deserves
among all who are interested in Japanese literature.

Kamome Diner (Kamome Shokudo/Ruokalla Lokki)
Directed by Naoko Ogigami
Released in 2006, 102 mins
Review by Fumiko Halloran
The Japanese movie “Kamome Diner” (The Seagull
Diner) sparkles with humour, friendship, crosscultural communication, delicious food, insights into
life, and enigma, all wrapped up in a Japanese dinerin Helsinki, Finland.

Sachie, a Japanese woman who is in Finland for reasons
unknown, opens a family-style diner in Helsinki. No
Finns, however, come into what they see as an exotic
diner because they don’t know what to expect. Finally
one day a teenage boy wanders in for coffee and tries
to strike up a conversation in Japanese with Sachie. He
is crazy about Japanese animation. Unable to answer
the boy’s question about an animation song, Sachie
spots another Japanese woman in a bookstore andasks her about it. Midori knows the song and ends up
moving into Sachie’s apartment and helping in the
diner. Yet another, older, Japanese woman comes
into the diner. Masako is stuck in Helsinki because herluggage has been lost by an airline. The three women
work as a team and finally a few Finns come to try
Sachie’s cinnamon buns and eventually sample her
Japanese food.
The story has no dramatic turn of events but rather
a series of small episodes of interaction between
and among Japanese and Finns that sends a strong
message: regardless of different cultures, we are all
humans sharing similar emotions and sentiments.
This is opposite to the theme in the American movie,“Lost in Translation”, which depicts Americans inTokyo totally bewildered by Japan and suffering froman acute sense of alienation.
My favourite scene is a drinking contest between a6belligerent Finnish woman and Masako. At the end of
the bout, the three Japanese take the drunken Finnish
woman to her home. She starts telling the story of
her life to Masako in Finnish, and Masako listens withsympathy. When the three leave the house, Masako
tells the other two that the woman’s husband walked
out on her and that she was lonely and wanted
her husband back. Sachie and Midori ask Masako
if she understands Finnish. Masako cheerfully says
“Iie” (No).
Sachie is an enigma. In her late 30s, she’s single, nevertells her friends why she is in Helsinki, why she opened
the diner, or how she’s getting on with her life. She
is quiet, efficient, friendly and caring, yet holds backfrom disclosing anything about herself. We learn that
she is a student of Aikido who easily wrestles a large
Finnish man to the floor when the three women
discover that he has sneaked into the diner to steal a
coffee maker. He turns out to be the previous ownerof the eatery whose business failed, and the coffee
maker is actually his.
Sachie is played by Satomi Kobayashi whose superb
acting moulds the story and characters with subtlety
and restraint into a seamless movie. Based on a novelwith the same title by Yoko Mure, the director, Naoko
Ogigami, has succeeded in making an excellent movie
that could potentially have been difficult because
it is in both the Japanese and Finnish languages,
and is played by Japanese and Finnish actors. I saw
the movie with English subtitles during the HawaiiInternational Film Festival in Honolulu in November
2007. In this version, the audience was treated to athree-language cross-cultural experience. The theatre
was packed and there was constant laughter andwarm feelings among the audience.
Cast: Satomi Kobayashi, Hairi Katagiri, Masako Motoi,
Tarja Markus, Jarkko Niemi.

Designing and Creating
Japanese Gardens
by Penny Underwood
The Crowood Press, 2005,
192 pages, including
bibliography and index.
Hardback £25,
ISBN 13: 978 - 186126 7832
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
I recently reviewed a bookwith a similar title publishedin 2007 by Kodansha International (Japan-UK Review
Volume 2 No 4, August 2007). This was “Create
Your Own Japanese Garden: a Practical Guide” byMotomu Oguchi and Joseph Cali. Had I known ofPenny Underwood’s book I would have reviewed
Volume 3 No. 1 (2008) Issue 13

them together, particularly as Penny refers to someJapanese gardens in Britain including one in Dorset,
another in Hampshire and the Kyoto garden in
Holland Park. I feel a special connection with the Kyoto
garden, as it came about after I had approached the
Chairman of the Kyoto Chamber of Commerce andIndustry for funds for a Japanese garden as part ofthe 1991 Japan Festival in the United Kingdom whichmarked the Japan Society’s centenary.
I pride myself perhaps wrongly that when I heapedpraise on gardens in Kyoto and suggested that thegarden be called the Kyoto Garden, this helped toinduce the Chamber to make the generous donations which made possible the designing andbuilding of the garden in Holland Park. I also believe,
again perhaps wrongly, that the 1991 Festival andthe creation of the Kyoto Garden was at least a partial
catalyst for the establishment of the flourishing
Japan Garden Society in Britain. In this context I wasdisappointed that the author makes no mention of
the Japan Garden Society or its real achievements
in reviving Japanese gardens in Britain and bringing
together enthusiasts and experts as well as designers
and suppliers of materials for building Japanesegardens here. As I said in my review in the August
issue, the best advice to anyone interested in creating
a Japanese garden in Britain is to get in touch with theJapan Garden Society, join it and read their excellent
quarterly journal Shakkei.
My task here is, however, to review this book rather
than promote the Society of which I am the honorary
President. One of their expert members might bebetter qualified than I am to review this book.
Penny Underwood’s book is not only a practical guideto making a Japanese garden but also a general
introduction to Japanese gardens. It covers muchthe same ground as the volume which I reviewed
previously. The most useful chapter is, I think, Chapter
8 “Planning a Japanese Style Garden in the West” inwhich she stresses the importance of finding the rightsoil and of course, ambience. But her comments on
structural features (chapter 7) and on maintenanceconsiderations (chapter 9) are valuable, as are herviews on plants and planting (chapter 5). Her final
chapter on the gardens of Japan inevitably is notcomprehensive and will disappoint the well travelled
professional. This said, the coloured photographs inthe book are generally very good.
It is unfortunate that the author did not have her
text read by someone competent in the Japanese
language. Occasionally she uses macrons, but
often when really needed she leaves them out. For
some Japanese words which she uses I could not
identify the characters in my Kenkyusha dictionary.
Her bibliography also struck me as inadequate.

Volume 3 No. 1 (2008) Issue 13

One Hundred Poets,
One Poem Eachby Peter McMillan
Columbia University Press,
2008, 194 pages.
Hardback £23.50
ISBN 13: 978 - 02311143981
Review by Takahiro Miyao
This is a fascinating bookabout Japan’s traditional“waka” poems, written by an
Irish poet who is currently
teaching at a Japanese university. The subtitle of thisbook is “a Translation of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu,”
where the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu is a set of one
hundred “waka” poems written by various poets fromthe seventh century through to the early thirteen
century and compiled around 1237 by the famouspoet and scholar Fujiwara no Teika (1162-1241). “Waka”
is a poetic form expressed in lines of 5, 7, 5, 7 and 7
syllables, which is called “tanka” in modern Japan.
Peter McMillan has successfully made it an artistic
work, in which the hundred poems are displayedin the author’s English translations, accompanied
by calligraphic versions in Japanese and symbolic
drawings of the individual poets. Furthermore,
Japanese typed and romanized versions of thepoems are included in an appendix for the reader’sconvenience. The design of the book itself is quite
attractive, as a caricaturized but still artistic figureof Fujiwara no Teika is shown on the book cover,reflecting the aesthetic sense of the author who has agallery specializing in contemporary Japanese art.
As McMillan clearly states in his introductory chapter,the purpose of his translation is “to provide a readable
and poetic translation that … will open to a wider
readership who will find in these versions somethingof the depth and beauty of this magical collection.”In other words, his translation is neither a detailed
explanation nor a purely artistic remake of the original
Japanese poems, but rather a poetic English expressionof the original waka with correct interpretation“faithful to the heart of the original.” This approachhas turned out to be fruitful in producing an excellent
translation of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, as pointed
out by Donald Keene, who contributes a foreword to
this book, in which he praises McMillan’s translationand states that “[it] has restored the importanceand beauty of a collection of poetry too often
dismissed as merely ‘pretty.’”
When I interviewed McMillan in person a couple ofmonths ago, he told me that “waka” is probably one of
the most natural ways of expressing Japanese minds
and feelings, and certainly more so than “haiku,” which
may be a little too rigorous by the Japanese standard,7due to the strong influence of Zen Buddhism frommainland China. That might be one of the reasons
why the Imperial family is keeping the tradition of the
New Year Poetry Reading Ceremony (utakai hajime)with strong support and active participation by theJapanese public, and “waka,” now known as “tanka,”is quite popular and widely accepted, especially by
Japanese women, as part of the contemporary literature,according to McMillan.
No one would fail to notice McMillan’s love forwaka and respect for Fujiwara no Teika, and to be
impressed with his deep understanding of theJapanese waka tradition and his excellent artistic
skills to represent it in English. In a sense this book isalready a classic to be treasured in this field. Eileen
Kato, who accompanied McMillan to visit the graveof Teika in Kyoto near the completion of this book,concludes in her afterword that “this translation forthegeneralreaderhas
beenalabourof love” and she is “happy at last to see [the Hyakunin
Isshu] available in this unpretentious, reliable andsatisfyingly poetic translation.”
This review was produced in collaboration with the
Global Communications Platform and first publishedon the Platform: http://www.glocom.org

The Japanese Way - Garden Designsby Maureen BusbyJGS Publishing, 2008, 127pages,(188 colour photographs and 111 line drawings &water colours).
Hardback £25.00
ISBN 13: 978-0955818806
Review by Colin Ellis
Maureen Busby was an exceptional individual who
took up garden design in her fifties after a very
successful first career in education. In the 12 years
before her sudden and untimely death in 2006 she
had become a highly respected garden designer
and was elected a member of the Society of Garden
Designers in 2001. This book is exceptional too.
Between 1994 and 2006 Maureen Busby worked as asole practitioner on about 130 garden design projectsof which some forty form the principal content of thisbook. Those in the book range in size from a window
box to a half acre garden and each is presented
using a common format - client brief, site appraisal
and interpretation of the brief. Each project is wellillustrated using before and after photographs, plans,
plant lists and the watercolour concept sketches thatshe prepared for each client. However, her clients
rarely asked for a Japanese garden but rather for“something minimalist,” “something restrained and8understated,” only occasionally for “something witha Japanese feel.” This book illustrates her success inmeeting those wishes in the Japanese way.
In his introduction Graham
Hardman, Chairman Japanese Garden Society, draws
attention to the depth ofknowledge and understanding that Maureen Busby
brought to focus in her
work. She firmly believedthat nature must be closely
observed and understood
before it can be interpreted
and she enjoyed illustrating
this principle by quoting
the 17th century Japanese poet, Basho, “Learn abouta pine tree from the pine tree. Learn about a bamboo
stalk from the bamboo stalk.” As Sir Hugh Cortazzi
observes in his Preface “...she had the aesthetic
understanding needed to design and build in a nonJapanese environment gardens which are a true
reflection of Japan.”
The projects are divided into six sections: Rear
Gardens, Town Gardens, Courtyard Gardens, Roofand Balcony Gardens, Front Gardens and Show andExhibition Gardens. This last category includes thetwo gardens that she designed and constructed at
the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) flower shows(Hampton Court and Chelsea). Each was awarded thevery prestigious RHS Gold Medal.
The book is well written and beautifully illustrated
and works at many levels just as gardens themselves
do. People who like looking at gardens will enjoy it,people who design gardens will admire it, people
who seek solace in gardens will find it, and thosestudying the art of good design will learn from it. For
although this is not on the face of it a “how-to-book”
there is a very great deal to be learnt from it.
In Britain if you are interested in gardens in theJapanese style and hope one day to make one of yourown then this is very much a book for you but you
should also join the Japanese Garden Society andthere make direct contact with the leading specialist
designers and suppliers of whom Maureen Busby
was one. The Society also publishes to its members
an excellent quarterly journal Shakkei devoted togardening in the Japanese style.
Copies of this book are available (price £25 plus p&p)
from The Secretary, The Japanese Garden Society,‘Woodzened’, Longdene Road, Haslemere, Surrey
GU27 2PQ. Alternatively you can telephone
08450944584 or email enquiries@jgd.org.uk.

Volume 3 No. 1 (2008) Issue 13