The Japan Society Review 47
Book, Stage, Movie, Arts and Events Review

Issue 47 Volume 8 Number 5 (October 2013)

Nature vs Nurture?
Susan Meehan on Like Father, Like Son
My Father in a Suitcase
Sir Hugh Cortazzi investigates the mixed legacies of E. J. H. Corner

For fans of historical fiction, Lesley Downer’s Across a Bridge ofDreams offers a fast-paced ride through the years immediately
following the Meiji restoration. There are plenty of heroic battles
for those inclined to epics, tempered with poetic descriptionsof Japanese cities on the cusp of modernisation. Fans of thecharismatic Saigo Takamori will also enjoy Downer’s fictionalcounter-part, General Kitaoka.
We round off the issue with a theatrical flourish as Sir HughCortazzi re-lives the life and times of the enigmatic Professor
Risley - entrepreneur, innovator and acrobat.

October’s issue is themed around family and our reviewers
explore recent books and films that deal with familial
relationships; their joys, troubles and complications.
A particular highlight of the issue is Hirokazu Kore-eda’s newfilm Like Father, Like Son. For long-time fans of the director
this latest release further consolidates his reputation; making
spare, unadorned films that explore deeply complex humanemotions. The film will resonate with everyone who sees it andI encourage readers to go while it is still in UK cinemas.
Parent-child relationships are also at the heart of other reviewsin the issue, from an unlikely bond in the backwoods of rural
Japan, to a son reconciling himself with his father’s legacy.

Jack Cooke, October 2013

Contents
1) Like Father Like Son – Review and Director Q & A
2) The Woodsman and the Rain...........................................................

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

3) My Father in his Suitcase, In search of E.J.H.Corner the Relentless Botanist
4) From up on Poppy Hill (コクリコ坂から)
5) Across A Bridge of Dreams
6) Professor Risley and The Imperial Japanese Troupe

EditorSean Curtin
Managing Editor
Jack Cooke
Reviewers
Mike Sullivan, Susan Meehan and Christopher SearleSpecial Reviewer
Sir Hugh Cortazzi
New reviewswww.japansociety.org.uk/resources/the-japan-society-review

Like Father, Like Son- Review and Director
Q&A
Directed by
Hirokazu Kore-eda
120 minutes, 2013
Review by Susan Meehan
In his latest film, Kore­-­­eda
has once again excelled in
exploring the inexhaustible
theme of family, focusing
on a largely unstudied andfresh concern. He stretches
it and prods the question of nature vs nurture as far as it will
extend.
When six year old Keita Nonomiya starts taking all sorts of
exams to enter primary school, a blood test reveals that
he is not actually Ryota and Midori’s son. The news thatthey have the wrong baby comes as a devastating shockto the couple, though Ryota coolly says that it all makes
sense now. What does he mean? Would Keita be a moremusical child and a better fit for their stylish Tokyo flat if heshared Ryota’s genes? The accompanying music is full of
foreboding and one cannot help but feel anxiety for thefamilies involved. It is a troubling, heart-wrenching scene.
Ryota Nonomiya, played by Masaharu Fukuyama, is a
dedicated, hard-working architect. He tells his boss that hewill make sure that this unexpected family complication
won’t affect his work. He deals with the situation as if itwere one of the ‘missions’ he regularly sets Keita to singlemindedly accomplish or overcome.
Ryota seemingly has no qualms in choosing blood overthe beautiful, well-behaved boy he has nurtured with hiswife, but Midori (Machika Ono) is reluctant to let go of achild she has raised for six years.
The Saikis, the family who have been raising Ryusei, theNonomiyas’ genetic son, live outside Tokyo. The cheerful,scatty father works in an electrical shop and his wife sells
bento (packed lunches). They are a warm couple withthree children.
The complications and emotional difficulties are
innumerable. It is difficult not to make judgments about
the two different families. Which set would make thebetter parents? Who would be the most fun? Is fun as
important as the provision of opportunities and music
lessons? Is it fair to remove a child from siblings? Howmuch of what children pick up is due to environment andfamilial ways, and will their characters change when thesix year olds join other families? There are many shadesof grey.
The child actors are all superb. In an interview given by
Kore-eda on 12 October 2013 at the British Film Institute,
Southbank Centre he revealed that he chooses thechildren for who they are at the audition and encourages
2

them to act and talk as they normally would. During
the filming process Kore-eda, influenced by Ken Loach,doesn’t give the children scripts. Instead he supplies themwith background information about the individual scenes
and prompts with suggestions.
The issues raised by the film are poignant and resonate,
lingering in the mind for a long time afterwards. It is a mostthoughtful piece of film-making, very different in style
from Kore-eda’s recent I Wish (Kiseki, 2011), but tacklingdifficult issues as he did in Nobody Knows (Dare mo
Shiranai, 2004) in which a parent’s abandonment of herchildren is the main theme. Kore-eda is one of the great
exponents of children and their inner lives, unobtrusive
like a David Attenborough in the wild.
Which father will Keita and Ryota turn into as adults? And,
conversely, what influence will their boys have on theirreal fathers? What kind of father’s imprint will Keita andRyusei be left with? The film leaves us pondering these
uncertain conclusions.
Special After-Screening talk with Hirokazu Kore-eda at
the BFI, Southbank Centre – Saturday 12 October 2013
At a special interview with Hirokazu Kore-eda, Jasper Sharp,
writer and film curator, introduced him as a consistently
innovative director.
His newest film, Like Father Like Son (Soshite Chichi niNaru) opened in September in Japan and quickly became
the country’s top-grossing film of the year. Hollywood islooking into a remake.
Sharp asked Kore-eda why he thought his film had done
better in Japan than this year’s Hollywood summer
blockbusters.
Kore-eda suggested that it was because it features
Masaharu Fukuyama, an artist and musician who is andhas been very popular in Japan; because the film won a
prize at Cannes and because the theme, about family, isclose to everyone’s heart.
As to whether the film has a factual basis, Kore-eda said
that in the 1970s in Japan there were quite a few casesof babies who were swapped at birth – and that he haddone considerable research into this theme. In the casesof 40 years ago, children invariably went back to theirblood families.
Sharp suggested that whereas Kore-eda’s film Nobody
Knows (2004) is about lack of parental control, Like Father
Like Son depicts what happens when there is too muchparental control.

‘During the casting of actors for Like Father Like
Son Kore-eda recounted that one of the young
boys said nothing other than, ‘Why?’ and ‘Oh
my God!” Kore-eda used this exact language inthe film.’
Kore-eda hadn’t previously thought of this. During theten intervening years from having made Nobody Knows
Issue 47 Volume 8 Number 5 (October 2013)

to Like Father Like Son, Kore-eda said that he had lost
his mother and had a daughter and that these changes
in his life’s circumstances may have attributed to thecontrasting focus of the films.
Sharp wondered how Kore-eda obtained such naturalistic
performances from his young actors. Kore-eda said that for
the last ten years he hasn’t used scripts with his younger
actors but has them improvise on set. He helps by talking
to them beforehand and whispering the context of thescene to be filmed.
He also becomes aware of the language the young actors
use themselves and tries to incorporate this and theirnatural behaviour into the films.
During the casting of actors for Like Father Like Son Koreeda recounted that one of the young boys said nothingother than, ‘Why?’ and ‘Oh my God!” Kore-eda used thisexact language in the film.
Sharp pointed out that at one point Kore-eda had wanted
to be a novelist. Kore-eda said that indeed he had gone touniversity with the idea of becoming an author but soon
discovered that university wouldn’t prepare him for that.
He spent all his five years of university in the cinema.
Sharp asked about Kore-eda’s friendship with the latecritic Donald Richie. Kore-eda went on to say that Richie
had been a great supporter and that their relationshipwent beyond that of filmmaker and critic. Richie would
write back to Kore-eda about each of his films and always
included a handwritten personal note. Kore-eda treasuresthese letters.
Kore-eda also mentioned the critic Tony Rayns and how
he values and is interested in what Rayns says. While mostcritics made references to Yasujiro Ozu when reviewing
Kore-eda’s Still Walking, Tony Rayns compared it to a Mike
Leigh film, which Kore-eda valued.
Kore-eda was grateful for these relationships, and said
that while he doesn’t make films for ciritcs, he appreciates
an objective assessment of his work.
In the Question and Answer session with the audience,
Kore-eda said that he is still hoping to made a film of Ri
Koran, a Manchurian-born actress of Japanese decent
who was launched into stardom during the Second
World War as a ‘Chinese’ singer and star of Japanese
propaganda films.
Asked which films or directors have influenced him,
he said that in his student days he watched and was
influenced by Fellini’s La Strada and Nights of Cabiria.
He also admires Ken Loach and the naturalistic
performances he achieves with his own young actors.
Kore-eda admitted to having copied some of Loach’s
techniques. While he sometimes is compared to thegreat master Ozu who is well-known for his studio-films,­Kore-eda suggested that he probably owes more tofilmmakers operating outside the studio system such as
Loach.
Issue 47 Volume 8 Number 5 (October 2013)

Asked about the music in his films, Kore-eda said that hetends to choose an instrument per film. If it is a kids’ film
he is likely to use a ukulele. In order to build atmosphere
he will rely on an accordion. In the film I Wish, which isabout trains and centred on kids, his motif of kids running
was best accompanied with rock music and for that hegot the band Quruli on board.

The Woodsman and the Rain
Directed by Shuichi Okita
2011, 105 minutes
Review by Mike Sullivan

This review may contain spoilers
Shuichi Okita was also thedirector and screenplay writerfor the 2009 hit Antarctic Chef
based on the autobiographicalnovels of Jun Nishimura. In
Okita’s films there are no profound statements oroverly dramatic scenes; we are just shown real life
with more than a small dose of humour. In Antarctic
Chef the simple act of cooking and the happinessthat small pleasures give are emphasised against theunusual background of a team of scientists based in
the Antarctic. In The Woodsman and the Rain [キツツキと雨] the interaction of a film crew and the inhabitantsof a small village are shown through the eyes of awidowed lumberjack and a young director.
The core of the movie hinges around the relationshipbetween the two main characters, the woodsman
Katsuhiko Kishi, played by Koji Yakusho [役所広司], andthe movie director Koichi Tanabe, played by Shun Oguri[小栗旬]. Koji Yakusho plays his character perfectly
and really anchors the movie. Katsuhiko is a recently
widowed logger with a son (played by Kengo Kora 高良健吾) living a life which is quite unconnected toothers. He just lives day to day and gets on with his job.
Koichi is a new director working on a movie based ona script he has written. However, he lacks confidence
in both himself and in the story that he needs to shoot.
Although it is not at first apparent, the two actually
have a lot in common and gradually develop a deepfriendship over the course of the film.
The movie opens with Katsuhiko alone in the woods
cutting down a tree, when a member of the filmcrew runs up the hillside to ask him to stop. It is avery amusing moment: a socially inept man from thecountryside trying to get on with his job, perplexedby a demand to keep quiet from a Tokyoite man
who has appeared as if from nowhere. It is a good
representation for many other moments in the movie
which contrast the behaviour of film crew and actors
with that of the villagers. A day or two later Katsuhikocomes across the same member of the film crew andKoichi’s vehicle stuck in a muddy road; unwillingly he3

is roped into driving them around as they search fora river for one of their scenes. Koichi is portrayed as asullen, lazy young man and understandably Katsuhikoquickly becomes frustrated with him and often
demands that he do something (without knowingthat Koichi is in fact the director).
Katsuhiko also has a son of a similar age to Koichi, andwith the same name. His son quits jobs easily andtheir relationship is characterized by a lot of anger
on Katsuhiko’s part toward his lazy child. It is easy to
see the link between how he views Koichi his son,and Koichi the director. However, after being roped
into being a zombie, with a comical result, and seeing
himself on the screen at a test viewing, Katsuhikobecomes enamoured with film making and fascinatedwith the zombie story. Koichi for his part has no
confidence in what he is doing and, mortified by thetest screening, attempts to flee. Recaptured by his filmcrew he is forced to carry on with the film, but thistime he increasingly has Katsuhiko by his side whose
enthusiasm is really infectious and whose support
helps Koichi discover some measure of confidence inhimself and what he is doing. Katsuhiko is also key togaining the help of the local villagers. We are given theimpression that, despite lacking enough extras, Koichi
and the film crew never thought about asking the local
people to help.
This humorous movie shows Katsuhiko’s development,
reconnecting with people as, simultaneously, Koichi
finds his feet as a director. Across the chasm of an age
gap they show how different generations can learn tounderstand each other. Koichi finds in Katsuhiko the
support that he never enjoyed from his own father. The
lack of confidence he has in himself and his own script
can be linked back to this, while Katsuhiko gives Koichi
the absolute faith and support which he doesn’t giveto his own son, something he begins to understand.
In the midst of this they find other things in common,and they both gain a new perspective on their lives.

My Father in his Suitcase, In
search of E.J.H.Corner the
Relentless Botanist
by John K. Corner
Landmark Books, Singapore, 2013
413 pages
ISBN: 978-981-4189-47-7
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Professor Corner was ‘one of
the most colourful and productive biologists andmycologists of the 20th century.’ In 1929 he became
assistant director of the botanical gardens in Singapore
where he produced Wayside Trees of Malaya, regarded4

as a classic field guide. After the war and employment
on a conservation project for UNESCO in the Amazon
he returned to Cambridge University where he wasappointed Professor of Tropical Botany in 1965 andwas elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
The late Dr Carmen Blacker wrote a biographicalportrait of Professor Corner for volume V of Britain andJapan: Biographical Portraits, which I edited and which
was published in 2005. This concentrated on Professor
Corner’s activities in Japan during the Japanese
occupation from 1942-45 and on his relationships
with Japanese scientists. In 1981 Professor Corner
had written a book entitled The Marquis, which took
as its main theme his experiences in Singapore andthe friendship, which developed between him andYoshichika Tokugawa [徳川義親]. I reviewed this book in
1982 and commented that ‘In essence it [The Marquis]
demonstrates that science, real education and moral
spirit know no frontiers.’ I also commented that thebook was ‘a tribute to a small number of outstanding
Japanese scientists who by their efforts and devotion
helped to preserve the records and achievements
botanical, zoological and historical of Raffles Museum
and Botanical Gardens in Singapore.’John Corner became estranged from his father at theage of 19 and they never met again before his father
died despite many attempts at reconciliation, but his
father left for his son a suitcase of papers about hislife. This spurred John Corner, despite his feelings ofresentment towards his father and the break-up of
his family, to try to find out as much as possible about
his father’s life and achievements. The result is aninteresting story. John Corner writes of his father in
the Prologue: ‘He was a difficult man with a temper
to whom I never felt close.’ Professor Corner, whoquarreled with some of his colleagues, was clearly not
an easy character.
The main interest for members of the Japan Societylies in what the book has to say about the Japanesein Singapore. It covers much of the story as set out by
his father in The Marquis, but throws some interesting
new light on life in Singapore during the Japanese
occupation.
Professor Corner and two other British civilian
employees of the colonial administration were notinterned with other officials and were employed on
specialist duties, but they were subject to close andsometimes humiliating supervision. In some of theiractivities their lives were often in danger. The factthat they were not interned with the other civilians
and did not have to suffer all the privations of theircolleagues caused much controversy in the immediate
aftermath of the war. Although officially exonerated
from accusations of collaboration with the enemy,
they were vilified by some of those who had beeninterned and had suffered much privation. John Corner
Issue 47 Volume 8 Number 5 (October 2013)

makes a convincing case that his father had behaved
honourably and that his actions had been done in theinterests of science and not to avoid incarceration.
Whenever there was a possibility of providing help tothe internees he did what little he could. No one today
can make an informed and objective judgement notleast because we cannot know all the circumstances.
We must also ask what we would have done if wewere in Professor Corner’s position in 1942? It is some
70 years since the Japanese occupation of Singapore
and this issue should now be laid to rest.
John Corner’s research in Japan and elsewhere about
the Japanese scientists who worked in Singapore andwho befriended and protected his father against the
military, show that they were humane and devoted toscience. The book reminds us, however, of the more
unpleasant aspects of Japanese activities in Singapore
especially of the kempeitai [憲兵隊 - Military Police
Corps, which was an arm of the Imperial Japanese
Army]. It has to be remembered that there wereJapanese plans directed by Field Marshal Terauchi,
Commander in Chief of the Japanese forces in South
East Asia, that prisoners were to be killed if Japan
were defeated. Fortunately the war came to a speedy
end after the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima andNagasaki and the plans were not implemented.

From up on Poppy
Hill (コクリコ坂から)
Directed by Goro Miyazaki(宮崎 吾朗)92 minutes, 2011
Review by Mike Sullivan

This review may contain spoilers
The latest Studio Ghibli movie is based on the manga
series of the same name by Tetsurō Sayama and
Chizuru Takahashi, the screenplay was written by Hayao
Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa. It follows a common theme
in Studio Ghibli movies of innocent romance and thecoming of age of teenagers, this time set in 1960s
Yokohama. As might be expected this film also evokes
feelings of nostalgia with an undertone of sorrow, withreferences both to the past and the future.
Umi Matsuzaki is a sixteen year old high school student
who every day wakes up before the other membersof the household, which includes her siblings, a sisterand a brother, as well as boarders, and raises a signal
flag in the garden for her deceased sea captain father.
She then prepares breakfast for everyone else before
setting off for school. She is shown as a very responsible
and independent person, taking care of the runningof the household for her grandmother, but at thesame time there is an obvious empty gap where hermother and father should be. Her grandmother as wellIssue 47 Volume 8 Number 5 (October 2013)

comments on how sad it is to her that Umi sends up
the signal flags every day to help guide her long deadfather home and she wishes for there to be someone
in Umi’s life.
Unbeknownst to Umi, every day a passing tugboat
answers her signal flags, from her garden she can’t
see it, and from that tugboat a young man disembarks
every day to cycle to school. His name is Shun Kazama,
he is one of the school newspaper’s journalists andalso a ring leader in the campaign to save their old,but beloved club house. By chance Umi is invited tohelp with the newspaper and thus starts to get toknow Shun. She begins to understand his passion tosave the clubhouse and in the process starts to realize
a life outside of her deceased father and running her
grandmother’s household. This is shown as she starts
to make mistakes with her chores and suggests a plan
to renew the student’s clubhouse which she gets
actively involved in.
As the story develops we learn about how Umi’s
mother and father didn’t have permission to marry andeloped. At the time of Umi’s birth they lived in a verysmall and simple flat and as a small child Umi hungthe signal flags from a window. In the Korean War her
father’s ship hit a mine and sank, after which it seems
that the whole family moved in with her grandmotherwhile her mother carried on pursuing her career inmedicine, staying short term in America. After Shunhears her story it sets off developments for Shunwhich Umi couldn’t have expected and which makeboth of them question not only the past, but also theirown feelings. In the meantime the grand clubhouse,a relic of the past, is threatened with demolition inorder to construct a new building; students are torn
between regarding it as an old, unwanted building
or as a historical monument which represents theheart of Japanese culture. After all of the students
work together to clean it, repair it and repaint it, they
overwhelmingly decide to keep it and to fight against
the Board of Education’s decision to tear it down.

From up on Poppy Hill is a movie which touches upon anumber of different perspectives and meanings. Besides
the main story around Umi and Shun we constantly see
reminders of how Japan was going through a processof renewal. The student’s argument over the clubhouseis reflective of an argument nationwide: when an old
building is cared for, looked after, then it becomes
beautiful and keeps people rooted within their cultural
past, however if it is allowed to fall into disrepair thenof course people will vote to tear it down. The students
are outraged when the Board of Education decideto demolish the building without even looking at
it after all their hard work to renovate it. This implies
a criticism of the eagerness for new buildings in the
1960s and afterwards. It is an interesting point that thestudents are well organized, have meetings and votes
on matters important to them and actively lobbying5each other, as well as the chairman of the Board of
Education. It is again an undertone which reminds usof the intense, yet well organized, student protests of
the 1960s in Japan. Authority in this movie is relatively
unrepresented; the students criticize the headmasterbut he is only seen once. The Board of Education is also
relatively invisible apart from the chairman.
Another constant theme in the movie is the obvioustransformation Japan was going through. This partof Yokohama is shown as very traditional and at the
beginning of the movie you are almost misled into
thinking it could be 1920s-era Japan as wooden boats
are moored to a wooden jetty, cars are relatively absent
and Umi is seen cooking using vegetables stored in acellar. As the movie progresses more and more cars
can be seen, out at sea there is a constant flow of hugecargo ships and smaller tugboats. When the students
go to Tokyo we see the forerunner of the city of todaywith electric signs everywhere as well as seeing Tokyo
Tower. As such there is a clear linear line from the small
wooden boats shown at the beginning of the movie
to a huge and modern liner ship at the end.
It is a very beautiful movie with a clear representation ofJapan when it was at a crossroads, there are still links to
the horrors of World War Two and the Korean War, but
at the same time there is a new hope represented by
Umi and Shun. Their past and present is complicatedby factors entirely out of their control; however it
has to be resolved and the movie makes it very clearthat these two children on the cusp of adulthood areJapan’s bright future.

Across A Bridge of Dreams
by Lesley Downer
Bantam Press, 2012448 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0593066829
Review by Christopher Searle
I found it impossible not tocompare Across A Bridge ofDreams with Lian Hearn’s
2011 novel Blossoms and Shadows – also an epic
tale of forbidden love at the time of the collapseof the Tokugawa shogunate [reviewed in issue 39- June 2012]. While Hearn’s book spans roughly
1857 to 1867, Downer’s is set in the aftermath of the
shogunate. It opens in 1873, five years after the 1868
Meiji Restoration, which instituted the emperor as
figurehead and substituted the shogunate with a newform of government.

Across A Bridge of Dreams centres on the story of Saigo
Takamori, one of the most romanticised and pivotal
samurai of the 19th century, who also provided a6

model for ‘The Last Samurai’ in the 2003 film featuring
Ken Watanabe and Tom Cruise.
With the demise of the shogunate in 1868, the new
government was largely formed of men from Satsuma(present-day Kagoshima in southern Japan) andChoshu (present-day Yamaguchi). Many were samurai,
representatives of the old elite, who ended up helping
to legislate their own class out of existence, much to
the disillusionment of the southern samurai.
The contradictions of the revolution were enfleshed in
the person of Saigo Takamori, the basis of Downer’s
character, General Kitaoka.

‘ . . . the descriptions of modernising Tokyoand Ginza are very atmospheric as are those ofKagoshima – the satsumas sparkling in the snow,
the volcanic ash, shochu, palm trees, Sakurajima
and the distinctive Kagoshima accent are allvividly evoked by Downer.’As the book opens, Taka, General Kitaoka’s youngest
daughter with his mistress, is 13 years old. General
Kitaoka, a gallant and brilliant samurai from Kagoshima,
has moved to Tokyo with Fujino, a larger than life geisha
from Kyoto, and their children. Kitaoka is in Tokyo inorder to serve in the new government. When he canno longer bear the series of reforms being enforced,
which are stripping the samurai of their privileges,
he returns to Kagoshima where he becomes a chiefagitator, outspoken against government actions which
are hurting the samurai.
Early on in the tale, in parallel to the political intrigue,
Taka develops a fondness for Nobu, a lad from Aizu
in Fukushima in northern Japan who is hired as her
manservant. Nobu reciprocates these feelings but
realises that Taka, the daughter of a samurai from
Kagoshima is an unattainable, illicit love. Nobu is also
from a samurai family, but from the Aizu clan, archenemies of the samurai from Kagoshima who have
only too recently trounced them.
Before long Taka and Nobu are torn apart. Nobu issent packing from the Kitaoka’s Tokyo home by Taka’s
brother – wary of Nobu’s evident love for her – on,inauspiciously, Tanabata – the one day of the year,
according to legend, that the separated lovers, theWeaver Princess and Cowherd, are able to cross theRiver of Heaven and meet if the weather is clement.
After a few intervening years during which Nobu has
been recruited and trained by the Army Cadet School
and Taka engaged to be married, Nobu arrives in
Kagoshima in April 1877 with the Imperial Army. Their
purpose is to extinguish General Kitaoka’s feisty antigovernment rebellion. While Nobu’s fellow northernsamurai are raring to take revenge on their old enemy
in Kagoshima, he is torn because of his feelings for
Taka, who is also now in Kagoshima, and her family.
Issue 47 Volume 8 Number 5 (October 2013)

The battle between the government forces andKitaoka’s men results in a bloody five months up to
September 1877. Up on Castle Hill, a brave and heroic
but resigned and tragic General Kitaoka resolutely
says, ‘We fought to uphold the samurai way of life andwe failed. But we can still show the world how samurai
die.’While both Downer and Hearn make use of fortuitous
encounters and coincidences to maintain the plot’s
momentum, Downer relies on this device a little too
readily, exhausting one’s capacity for suspension ofdisbelief. She also contrives to draw on her knowledgeof geisha – by expanding on descriptions of Fujino andher milieu – and on her knowledge of Japanese-style
poems, in what at times can feel a little forced.
All in all, while a well-researched and generally
engaging novel, given the story’s romance and largely
thanks to Kitaoka’s (or Saigo Takamori’s) entrancing
and colourful life, Across A Bridge of Dreams is rather
long-winded at times and not as erudite as Lian Hearn’sbook. Neverthless, the descriptions of modernisingTokyo and Ginza are very atmospheric as are those ofKagoshima – the satsumas sparkling in the snow, thevolcanic ash, shochu, palm trees, Sakurajima and thedistinctive Kagoshima accent are all vividly evoked byDowner.
It won’t disappoint those in search of Japanese ‘light’
historical fiction or a fix of the compelling Saigo
Takamori.

Professor Risley andthe Imperial JapaneseTroupeby Frederik l. Schodt
Stonebridge Press,
Berkeley, California, 2012304 pages
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Frederik L. Schodt, who
has written other books
about popular Japaneseculture, gives a colourful
account of the life andtravels of Richard RisleyCarlisle, who used the stage name of Professor Risley,although he had no connections with any university andthe title of professor was not conferred by any academic
institution. He was born around 1814 in New Jersey. He
became associated with the circus and the theatre andquickly became prominent as an acrobat performing
feats including throwing off his feet, extended above
him, his son into the air, who after a summersault landedon his father’s upturned feet.
Issue 47 Volume 8 Number 5 (October 2013)‘They managed to get the necessary Japanesepassports for their group. This was quite a featas these were the first passports given to private
Japanese citizens.’
Schodt follows Risley’s travels to the western
United States, Europe and Australasia, Hong Kongand Shanghai. On 6 March 1864 Risley reached
Yokohama accompanied by an equestrian troupe often performers and eight horses. On 28 March thefirst western style circus opened in Yokohama. As
Schodt explains: ‘Audiences in the small Yokohama
settlement were limited, with the special permissionof naval captains Risley was able to expand his reachby staging performances for the sailors of the British
fleet in port.’ But ‘after a month or so, Risley’s circus
ran out of steam.’ Yokohama was too small and mostof his performers left him. He managed to recruit anAustralian friend and his wife but could not continue tokeep up his circus. Instead he used his entrepreneurial
spirit to set up an ice importing concern and later went
into the dairy business, but this failed. His real metierwas show business.
He saw that the traditional Japanese misemono(spectacles), kyokugei and kanawaza (acrobatics)
which Japanese were beginning to despise would
greatly appeal to western audiences and he began
to assemble a troupe of top Japanese performers. He
needed financial backing and joined with three othersin concluding a contractual agreement on 1 November
1866 before the US consul in Yokohama. One ofhis partners was Edward Banks, who had been US
Marshal in Yokohama and spoke some Japanese. They
managed to get the necessary Japanese passports fortheir group. This was quite a feat as these were the first
passports given to private Japanese citizens.
Schodt follows Risley and his troupe to the UnitedStates and on to Europe where they went first to
Paris for performances to coincide with the 1867 Paris
exposition. In Paris their audience included the young
Tokugawa Akitake who was representing his uncle,
the last of the Tokugawa Shoguns, at the exposition.
Their acts included the butterfly trick, top spinning,rope dancing, ladder acts and various other acrobaticfeats. In London they ran into some competition fromanother Japanese troupe known as the Gensui troupe
who reached London before them.
The Japanese attracted a lot of attention especiallywhen they wore Japanese clothing. Western
languages and customs seemed strange to them andtheir belongings were sometimes stolen or lost in fires.
They and Risley were occasionally involved in disputes
which came to court. The members of the troupe did
not bring their wives and often visited prostitutes.
After two years abroad and visits to Spain and Portugal,eight members of the troupe returned to Japan. Nine7

remained with Risley in the US and revisited Britain
where they again ran into competition from the Royal
Tycoon group led by Tannakker Buhicroson whose‘Japanese Village’ in Knightsbridge was the main
theme in my book Japan in Late Victorian London:
The Japanese Village in Knightsbridge and the Mikado,
1885 (SISJAC, Norwich, 2009 – and reviewed in issue23, November 2009). The group gradually parted
company. Risley returned to the United States and was
eventually committed to a lunatic asylum where hedied in May 1874.

8

Schodt’s book is based on meticulous research and his
account of Risley’s life and of Japanese acrobats andentertainers in the US and Europe in the late 1860s will
fascinate readers interested in the spread of Japanese
popular culture abroad.

Issue 47 Volume 8 Number 5 (October 2013)