The Japan Society Review 42
Book, Stage, Movie, Arts and Events Review

Issue 42 Volume 7 Number 6 (December 2012)

Transnational writerSusan Meehan gets up close with Kazuo Ishiguro
The other side of the artist
Sir Hugh Cortazzi examines the etchings of Bernard LeachAs the dark December days draw in we might be forgiven
for thinking ‘the whole of England (is) like Norfolk on a grey
afternoon . . . flat and bleached of all colour.’ This is one of themany imaginative repostes given by author Kazuo Ishiguro in
his conversation with Celyn Jones, which opens this issue. Our
staff reviewer, Susan Meehan, was in the front pew at Friends’
House to absorb the wit and wisdom of both writers. Discussion
centered around Ishiguro’s last published novel, Never Let MeGo, but ranged across all manner of miscelleany, revealing a
few unexpected traits in this often misinterpreted writer.
In our first review, Tim Holm rediscovers a pilgrimmage
made by the ­ maverick Japanese photographer Daido
Moriyama in the early 1970s, applying his photographic­chiaroscuro to a tour of Tono in North-Eastern Japan. ­Re­examining the contents of this unsettling ­ photobook,
Holm finds Moriyama in a ­ playful mood, muddlingour ­ conceptions of the past with images that alternate­ etween stark documentary and veiled ­ memory. Thebcollection includes some of ­ Moriyama’s most iconic­images and is the first ever ­English edition to be printed.
Another highlight of our December issue is Sir Hugh’s­exploration of a famous potter’s first love in The ­Etchingsof Bernard Leach. Internationally recognised for his­outstanding pottery, Simon Olding reveals that Leachfirst journeyed to Japan to teach the art of etching.
You will find reproductions of these early artworks
on the ­ final pages of this issue, from landscapes­produced in China and Japan, to portrait studies and­decorative details later re-used in Leach’s ceramics.
For best results, read this issue crouched over the ­yuletide
log while the winter snows rage outside . . .
Jack Cooke, December 2012

1) Kazuo Ishiguro and The Man Booker talk2) Tales of Tono
3) Crossfire
4) Zero Focus
5) Arrietty
6) The Etchings of Bernard Leach...........................................................

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

Contents

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

Kazuo Ishiguro and
The Man Booker talk
7 November 2012
Review by Susan Meehan
What an extraordinary
event – Birkbeck’s Russell
Celyn Jones, Professor of
Creative Writing and former
Man Booker judge, was inconversation with Kazuo
Ishiguro in a large theatre at
the Friends’ House and all
for free.
The Booker Foundationand Man Group are collaborating with Birkbeck, Universityof London, to celebrate recent winners of the Man Booker
Prize through a series of conversations with them.
Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Japan and came over to leafy
Surrey from Nagasaki when he was five years old. Hisparents expected to stay in England for only a year or two.
Rather than integrating into British life, the couple would
observe their neighbours’ behaviour and comment on how
interesting all this was. Ishiguro admitted that this probably
had the effect of allowing a young Kazuo to see Britain froman anthropological point of view.
Last time I heard Kazuo Ishiguro was at the Purcell Room,Southbank Centre in 2002. On that occasion Ishiguro
went to great pains to dissociate himself from Japan. He
emphasized to the audience that he could not read or write
Japanese. He mentioned how in the 1990s he used to be
asked to take part in television discussions for instance, tocomment on the trade wars with Japan and to give his takeon other Japan-related issues. Realising that he was not a
spokesman for Japan, he deemed it best to begin declining
these invitations.
Ishiguro’s books, which had started off with Japanesethemes, also began veering away. He went on to portrayan English butler, a European musician, a detective trying
to solve the case of his parents’ disappearance in Hong
Kong and, more recently, a group of friends who meet at a
secluded English school called Hailsham.
At the Purcell Room talk in 2002, a woman asked Ishiguro
how, as a Japanese man, he had been able to write about
an English butler, to which Ishiguro, normally unflappable,
visibly flinched and reminded her that he had lived inEngland since the age of five.
At the Man Book event at Birkbeck on 7 November, inconversation with Professor Russell Celyn Jones, Ishiguro
seemed to have become reconciled to his Japaneseheritage. It was a privilege to hear him at this free and wellattended event at the Friends House on Euston Road.
Kazuo Ishiguro, or Ish, as he was called by Professor Jones,
won the Booker Prize in 1989 for his book, Remains of theDay. Three of his other novels have made it to the shortlist,
2

When We Were Orphans (2000), An Artist of the Floating
World (1986) and Never Let Me Go (2005).
The evening’s talk was mainly about Never Let Me Go but
touched other aspects of Ishiguro’s style of writing. What
was made patently clear throughout the dialogue, wasIshiguro’s tremendous humanity, empathy, honesty andreverence for human relationships.
The pair first looked at the naturalism in display in Never
Let Me Go including references to Woolworths, an English
seaside town and pubs in, ironically, a ‘counterfactual world
inhabited by clones’ according to Jones. Though it is a novel
rendered in simple language it is nevertheless other-worldly
and Jones wondered where the voice came from.
Ishiguro said that Kathy H, the narrator, is something that
he created and happened to use as the narrator. Ishiguro
tends to audition different characters in his head for the roleof narrator, behind which his own voice disappears.
While Jones admitted to feeling unsettled at not knowing
were Ishiguro himself is in the book, Ishiguro said he doesn’t
write as an alter ego. In fact, in his first novel, he took as
narrator, someone as far removed from himself as possible –a Japanese woman in the latter stages of her life. Admittedly
he is a little Japanese himself, he humourously admitted.
This distance allows Ishiguro to be less inhibited and allows
him scope to figure out what to say which he wouldn’t beable to do otherwise.
Writing Never Let Me Go, Ishiguro pretended that the wholeof England was like Norfolk on a grey afternoon, so all places
described in the book, no matter where their location,
would be described as flat and grey. He made sure to leaveout anything that was colourful or exciting about England,
bleaching out all colours.
Jones probed a bit more about Ishiguro’s Japanese family
and voice. Ishiguro came over to Guildford when he wasfive. His father was an oceanographer and his parents
expected to return home in a couple of years, but ended up
staying on in England long-term.
Ish can understand Japanese women from the 1950s,
thanks to having heard his mother talking Japanese when
he was growing up, and tends to be able to understand1950s women in Japanese films, while is completely thrownby the language used in samurai films.
The voice in his first novel, referred to above, was of anageing Japanese woman, undemonstrative and elliptical.
This voice has stayed with him through force of habit, hesaid, and is not artistically justified.
Jones brought up the theme often used by Ishiguro ofunreliable memory against the backdrop of politics, be it
World War Two or Japanese fascism, and wanted to further
explore this. Ishiguro explained that well-meaning people
may not have the perspective of the time they are living
in. Ultimately, things they were most proud of may
become what makes them most embarrassed in later
life. Ishiguro wondered how his generation would react
Issue 42 Volume 7 Number 6 (December 2012)

if found in that situation.
It is this idea of self-deception which fascinates Ishiguro,
as well as the battle that we face between wanting toremember yet at the same time not wanting to remember.
Nations go through this as well, which Ishiguro also finds
compelling. Most countries have dark periods that theywant or need to confront, but find it difficult.
Celyn Jones quoted JG Ballard who said, ‘The world isgoverned by fictions and it is up to authors to find reality.’
Jones asked Ishiguro what it is that makes us humans in thenovel, wondering whether it is art that can be produced as
evidence of our souls.
Ishiguro surprised me with his response which I foundpoignantly democratic and inclusive, by saying that art
is a consolation and not ‘a big deal.’ Ishiguro said he isinterested in all endeavours to make our lives meaningful
and it could be our involvement in politics or menial work
we do. Ishiguro sees people as having the determination
to say we’ve done something well and finds this aspect ofhumans very moving. Even a burglar will want to execute
his theft well.
This moral urge is what makes humans very different andspecial. It doesn’t have to be achieved through artistic
endeavour. There is a lot of dignity in striving to do things
well, not least in how people deal with their family andfriends.

‘His parents didn’t live like immigrants in
Guildford as they thought they would return toJapan any day.’
I was extremely touched by this compassionate take on lifeand surprised as some of his novels are about musicians andartists, and in Never Let Me Go there is a sense that artistic
talent and achievement is a reflection of the soul.
Jones returned to the notion of Japan in Ishiguro’s work
and wondered how his career would progress, reminding
us that his first three books had been about Japan, and that
Ishiguro has something that has always intrigued writers, a
confluence between East and West.
As a teenager Ishiguro said he wanted to be a singer/
songwriter in the mould of Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen.
He would go to open mics [a live show where audience
members may perform at the microphone] and folk clubs.
His songwriting was his apprenticeship in writing fiction.
When he was 21-22 he went through a Japanese phase.
Up until then he felt that Japan was secure in his headbut at 21 realised that Japan was not there for him any
longer, and that it had changed. His Japan was his world ofchildhood. When a child moves home, there is an incentive
to remember and, furthermore, his memories of Japan were
nourished by parcels he was sent, full of comics and toys.
His Japan was a rather precious place as he was growing up– it contained his best-loved toys and his grandparents, andwas not a world that he could revisit on a plane.
Issue 42 Volume 7 Number 6 (December 2012)

In his early twenties, he felt he had to preserve this world
which no longer had a physical presence and that is why hecame to write about it. Up until that age, he had never been
an avid reader and had no ambition to be a writer until thatage. To help with his project he consumed lots of Japanesefilms from the late 1950s and early 1960s to remind him ofJapan as it was at the time he’d left.
Ishiguro felt he had fulfilled his Japanese project, whichcoincided with him realising that he could not act as a
spokesman for Japan.
Jones wondered what Ishiguro thought of the film
adaptations of his books, Remains of the Day and Never Let
Me Go.
Ishiguro claimed to love both films and said he’d acted
as a kind of consultant on for both. While he has written
screenplays, Ishiguro said he would never write ascreenplay of one of his own books.
Ishiguro feels there is a strong alliance between literary
fiction and high-end films. He said that high culture, bywhat he means more thoughtful literature, for example, isfighting an increasingly hard battle to remain relevant. The
fact that a lot of recent good films have been adaptationsof thoughtful books is very positive and Ishiguro said heis very glad that the film industry is paying attention tobooks.
Responding to a question at the end of his conversation,
Ishiguro revealed that each novel hasn’t necessarilychanged him as a person as had been anticipated by thequestioner. As he writes very slowly, he wondered how
much change was merely the fact that five years had
elapsed during the writing of a book! He also said thatwhile it would be easier if he could stick to one methodof writing, it changes each time. Sometimes he plans anovel, on other occasions he won’t. The creative process
just keeps changing.
In reply to a question about his living across cultures, headmitted to not being able to compare his childhoodand background to anything else and is aware of otherauthors who can cross cultures equally well without
having had his kind of background. His parents didn’t live
like immigrants in Guildford as they thought they would
return to Japan any day. Ishiguro saw them observe
British culture through the eyes of Japanese people witha deep interest in England but without the feeling ofinvestment towards a life in Surrey. It made him awareof rules and regulations in and differences between both
cultures, resulting in a tendency to look at things throughan anthropological lens.
Another question centred on the character of Ruth in
Never Let Me Go who the questioner regarded as deceitfuland problematic, leading her to ask Ishiguro how difficult
she was to write as a character.
Ishiguro said he doesn’t think of his characters much inisolation. He tends to focus on how relationships andcharacters evolve from this. Ruth, he admitted, is most3

flawed as a human being but fundamentally decent.
When her time is running out, Ruth goes about putting
things right and fixing whatever had gone wrong in her
relationships. For this reason Ishiguro sees her as a positive
and affirmative character not concerned about wealth or
selfish things at the end but about relationships. At heart,humans really care about friendship and love.
Ishiguro sees Never Let Me Go as his most cheerful novel,
much to the amusement of his audience. He explainedthat the backdrop is sad but that the story is not about
flaws and that all the characters are decent.
And on this note, this most thoughtful, magnanimousand humane of individuals got ready to sign books for along queue of fans.

Tales of Tono
by Daido Moriyama
Tate Publishing, 2012
192 pages, £12.99
ISBN 978-1-84976-094-2
Review by Timothy Holm
Published to coincide with ajoint Daido Moriyama + William
Klein photo retrospective at
the Tate Modern art gallery in
London (although not directly
related to that exhibition), this is the first time Tales ofTono has appeared in an English edition. It was originallyreleased in Japan in the 1970s following a trip to the townof Tono by famed Japanese photographer Moriyama. For
those readers unfamiliar with his work, it may be prudent
to begin with a very brief biographical overview leading
up to this photobook.
Born in 1938 in Osaka, Moriyama began working as anamateur photographer in the late 1950s. Moving to Tokyoin 1961 to pursue his new profession more seriously, heinitially found work as an assistant to the legendary Eikoh
Hosoe, whose dark, high-contrast black and white styleundoubtedly had an influence on Moriyama’s subsequent
output.

softcover book with dimensions measuring only 17 x 11.4
x 2.2 cm. The cost to the consumer is a mere 13 pounds
in the UK, and may be found for less at online bookshops.
Considering what many original and out-of-print works
by Moriyama go for these days at auction sites, it is asignificant bargain.
It is debatable whether or not the size of the book is thebest way to show off Moriyama’s photography. Eachpicture is given its own page with black borders on the
top and bottom of the image. It might have been better
if the photos were presented sideways in a landscapeformat, but that could also disturb normal reading habits.
A word must also be said about the book’s actual contents.
It consists of 12 pages of colour photography at the frontof the book, followed by the main ‘text’ as it were: 137
duotone (B&W) photos, all taken in or near Tono, a smallcity located in Iwate prefecture in northeastern Japan(the same area that was most affected by the March 2011
earthquake and tsunami).
At the back of the book can be found a lengthy, informative
essay by Moriyama about his trip, as well as commentaryby the translator and a short afterward by Simon Baker,
curator of photography at the Tate. All together, it adds
up to about 35 pages of writing, but this is where you arelikely to spend the bulk of your time with the book.
As Moriyama mentions in the section of his essay called‘Why Tono?’ – the inspiration for the title and content of
this particular series of photos came about in responseto The Legends of Tono, a collection of 119 brief folktales
from the region compiled by Kunio Yanagita in 1910. (Itwas later translated into English by Ronald A. Morse andpublished by The Japan Foundation in 1975). Many of
the stories involve some kind of ghostly or supernaturalpresence which permeates the atmosphere, lending Tonoa certain reputation in the minds of Japanese people.
Because of this, Moriyama had long held a desire to visit
Tono and take photographs there. He says, “it [is] a placethat evokes a mysterious world, strangely combining
narration and lyricism, reality and fantasy (page 160).”

For most of his career, Moriyama has worked as afreelancer, and as his work became more and more
appreciated over the years, many public exhibits of his
photos have occurred around the world. But Moriyama
himself claims that he prefers photobooks over printsof his photos. Yet he has also said in interviews that thestructure and organization of each book is not importantto him. The main thing is the physicality and collection of
the photos into a single volume which may be owned byanyone with a certain amount of interest and funds.

The Tono that Moriyama depicts in this photobook also
evokes a mysterious world where reality and fantasy
commingle, as his pictures are never very clear andseem to have been taken in a forgotten time and place.
However, it should be noted that Moriyama does not
attempt to hide traces of the modern world (as it wasin the 1970s) from his camera’s eye. Automobiles, utility
poles, vending machines and so on can be found here,
but there is a sense that these signs of modernity have notyet overwhelmed the more rural aspects of the landscape.
Memories of a lost past are never far from view. No demonsor spirits appear in a literal way, but spirits in other forms
do seem to remain, as in the haunting photos of animals
and pictures of old photographs and paintings. Shadows,
graves, and folk traditions leave an indelible mark on theviewer’s mind as well.

This is certainly true of Tales of Tono, a small jacketed

Moriyama goes on to talk about his life-long search for

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Issue 42 Volume 7 Number 6 (December 2012)

the ‘original landscape’ of our memory, and what exactlythat means to him, but it should be left to the readers
themselves to discover whether or not he was successful
in his quest to find that landscape in Tono.
This may not be the best place to start if you know little tonothing about Moriyama, but for established aficionadosof his admittedly acquired taste, this is surely one of his
most cohesive and fascinating books, and the photos still
have the power to resonate even four decades after they
were first produced.

Crossfireby Miyuki Miyabe
Kodansha Europe, July 2007
416 pages, £8.99
ISBN-10 4770030681
Review by Michael Sullivan

Crossfire is the third novel
by Miyuki Miyabe to be
publishedin
English.
Originally this was a bestseller
in Japan and was adapted
into a movie in 2000 called
Pyrokinesis [クロスファイア]. It was directed by Shusuke
Kaneko [金子 修介], and starred Akiko Yada [矢田亜希子]
and Hideaki Ito [伊藤 英明]. Miyabe is a full time writer andhas received numerous literary prizes including the Naoki
Prize.
Crossfire is an apt name for the plot of this book, specificallyin regard to the innocents who lose their lives because ofcrossfire. Junko Aoki is an amazing person who can create
fire through willpower alone; her powers are so great that
she routinely has to find a safe place where she can releaseher power to stop it building up. Believing herself to be
an instrument of justice, a punisher of those who would
commit crimes, she is also very dangerous. By chance she
happens across a crime, a kidnapping involving a couple
which leads her on a journey of death destroying all those
implicated in the crime, and everyone in the way. The ideaof right and wrong becomes blurred as she can’t let anyone
get in her way, and leaves behind her a trail of corpses
and burned out buildings which attract media, and police
attention. Detective Chikako Ishizu has a grown up son, andhas struggled for years just to achieve her position. However,being in the arson squad normally keeps her behind a deskand she has to constantly assert her own independence
and will. When the first burnt corpses turn up a link isdrawn with a similar murder some years previously, it gives
her the chance to examine the scene and begin her own
investigation. The plot thickens when a young girl who
could be another possible candidate for pyrokinetic powers
is discovered, and it turns out that there is an organisation
Issue 42 Volume 7 Number 6 (December 2012)

which would like to train her to work for them, and their own
brand of justice. At the same time this secret organisation
seems to have ties with the police, and is actively seeking
out Junko to recruit her. As the story progresses all of thecharacters, and the secret organisation, seem to be linked
in a circle which is gradually becoming tighter. Junko
finds herself being recruited by the organisation to train
a pyrokinetic candidate, and detective Chikako works toprotect the young girl and to find Junko, while having toface the possibility that people with extraordinary powers
exist. The link between all of them appears to be leading toan unavoidable showdown.
This novel is well written, and the most striking features are
the powers Junko possesses, which seem to be triggeredby emotion. The angrier she is, the more power she has,and the more power she has the more she loses control. It is
hard not to draw parallels with Japanese anime, movies, etc,
where quite often there is a theme of repressed emotions
leading to angry outbursts, specifically on occasions
where other people can get hurt because of a loss ofcontrol. This is very pertinent in regards to Japanese society
where everyone is very careful to hide their feelings, but
in moments of anger, or alcohol intoxication, can commit
regrettable deeds. Detective Chikako represents a theme ofmasculine domination in the police, she got her promotion
because there had been pressure to appoint more female
detectives. While she is determined to show herself worthyof the position she isn’t given many opportunities to do so.
At the same time she has to fight with her own reluctanceto believe that people with extraordinary powers exist,
while facing increasing evidence that they do. It is easy to
be drawn into the plot of this book as there are deeper
meanings in the story beyond the surface, while plenty of
mystery is created by the existence of a secret organisation.
It is shown that as strong as Junko is, her isolation fromothers has created a person missing love, while Chikako in
her quest to prove herself has to confront some unpleasanttruths.

Zero Focus [ゼロの焦点] directed by Isshin
Inudo
2009, 131 minutes
Review by Susan Meehan

Zero Focus, set for the mostpart in photogenic Kanazawa
is a slick and classy film madeby Isshin Inudo. It is based on
the best-selling crime novelof the same name written by
Seicho Matsumoto [松本 清張].
The book is very popular in Japan, and has been made into a5

TV drama no fewer than six times, and into a film now twice[the first movie version appeared in 1961].
This most recent film was made in 2009, to celebrate thecentenary of Seicho Matsumoto’s birth, and is describedby Inudo as ‘a new film about post-war Japan.’ It is acted
extremely well and boasts beautiful cinematography. Inudo
admits to being more interested in the depiction of Japan in
the late 1950s, and the lingering impact of the Second World
War rather than in the story’s riddle itself.
The film is set in 1957. Tokyo-based Teiko, acted with great
sensitivity, luminosity and subtlety by the versatile Ryoko
Hirosue [広末 涼子], falls for businessman Kenichi Uhara’s
calm exterior and good looks. Before long they are married
and Kenichi has to return to Kanazawa to wrap up his work
there. He intends to return within a week so that he can settle
into married life with his new bride. He doesn’t return.
Teiko, filled with foreboding and realising how little she knows
her husband, embarks on a journey to Kanazawa to solve themystery of his disappearance. Her only clues to his life there
are two of his photographs - one is of a stately mansion andthe other of a ramshackle house.
The views from the train as Teiko approaches snowy
Kanazawa, skirting the sea, are breathtakingly beautiful. As
Teiko meets her husband’s colleagues, the mood is achingly
suspenseful and ominous, especially as a dead body has justbeen found at the foot of the cliffs.
Teiko meets her husband’s boss at Toyo Advertising andhis wife. Each one, in separate conversations with Teiko,frustratingly says that the other knows more about Kenichi’slife in Kanazawa. They immediately seem rather suspect.
Teiko gradually begins to learn more about Kenichi who, ten
years her senior, had more fully engaged with the experienceof post-war, defeated Japan. He worked briefly as police
officer in Tachikawa, Tokyo during the American occupationof Japan, often keeping watch over the activities of the‘pan pan’ girls, Japanese women who would dress up in
glamorous Hollywood style, hoping to catch the attention of
the American GIs. Discontent at having to enforce American
rules and norms, Kenichi moved on and ended up working
for the most part in Kanazawa.
Kenichi is not the only one to have reinvented himself after
the war. The sophisticated-looking wife of his boss at Toyo
Advertising, had, in fact, been on the other side of the law, as apan pan girl, also based in Tachikawa, Tokyo. She won’t admit
to this part of her life which she finds intensely embarrassing.

When unearthed, these connections to life in occupied
Japan and Tachikawa eventually lead to resolving the initialdisappearance of Kenichi and the subsequent crimes. By theend of the film, six people have died.
Through discovering the mystery of Kenichi’s death and his
involvement with two women from his past, whose lives
have had different outcomes (remember the photographs?),
Teiko comes to understand more about her husband andwhat drew him to her.
She realises that he has been cruelly deprived of life, just as
he was about to start all over again with her. Now it is Teiko,
who has to resume or restart her own life, which had been
temporarily turned upside down during her sleuth-likeinvestigations into Kenichi’s death. Ironically, had he lived
there is no certainty that he would have told her about his
past, so she has ended up learning more about him than
may have otherwise been possible.

‘In order to recreate old Japan for the film, muchof it was shot on location in Korea, which has old
buildings similar to those found in 1950s Japan.’
Photogenic Kanazawa itself is one of the film’s major
protagonists. Situated by the Sea of Japan and with majestic
mountains and cliffs it is incredibly beautiful. It was also thesecond largest city after Kyoto to survive destruction after
the Second World War, so is the perfect place to begin life
afresh and distance oneself from the horrors of war and its
destruction.
Isshin Inudo was present at the Japan Foundation’s screeningof the film at the ICA on 3 February 2013 and answered anumber of questions from the admiring audience. Aware
that most of his Japanese viewers would be familiar with thestory itself, in making the film he focused on the film’s artistry
and scenery. He also focused on the era itself.
In order to recreate old Japan for the film, much of it was shoton location in Korea, which has old buildings similar to thosefound in 1950s Japan and which retains a mood, reminiscentof that era.
In 1957, the year the story is set, an announcement was madeby the Japanese government, stating that the postwar era
was over. Perhaps, said Inudo, the story is called Zero Focus as
Matsumoto was focusing on zero as the new starting point
for postwar Japan from 1957 onwards.
Inudo wanted to focus on people who, even in 1957, were
continuing to live under the shadow of the war, and who had
been the foundation of today’s Japan. He wanted to showwhat suffering and sacrifices they had experienced.
In terms of gender politics, Inudo pointed out that themurdereress of the story only kills men. Admittedly, she does
drive one woman to her death but this is the only victim she
had any regrets about. It is almost as though she is taking
revenge on male-dominated Japanese society, which had
been responsible for starting the war.
A fabulous, atmospheric and thoughtful thriller!

6

Issue 42 Volume 7 Number 6 (December 2012)Arrietty[借りぐらしのアリエッティ]
Directed by Hiromasa
Yonebayashi

The relationship between Shō and Arrietty is very touching
and represents the meeting of two worlds, through theireyes we see that whether a person is little or big their heart
is bigger than their size.

2012, 91 minutes
Review by Michael Sullivan
In 1952 The Borrowers was writtenby Mary Norton, since then it has
been adapted for the screen several
times in America and the UK. As recently as December
2011 a version of The Borrowers starring Stephen Fry was
released by the BBC. The adaptation by Studio Ghibli marksa continuation of British themes in Japanese anime movies
which began with Laputa [天空の城ラピュタ] in 1986, with
its similarities to Jonathan Swift’s Laputa as described in
Gulliver’s Travels, and other full adaptations such as Howl’sMoving Castle [ハウルの動く城] in 2004, which was basedon Diana Wynne Jones’ book of the same name. Arrietty
was the top grossing movie of Japan for 2010 and won
Animation of the Year at the 34th Japan Academy Prize filmawards.
Shō moves to the house of his great aunt Sadako to rest in
preparation for an upcoming operation, upon arriving henotices a cat chasing something in the bushes and sees a
Borrower, a 10cm 14 year old girl, Arrietty. Along with herparents, Arrietty lives underneath Sadako’s house and they
make their living by ‘borrowing’ what they need. By thispoint in time two other Borrower families have either gone
missing or left, and the family have not seen any others of
their kind for a long time. When during the night Arrietty
goes on her first borrowing expedition with her father toget sugar and tissue paper, she is startled to find Shō awake
and watching her. He tells her not to be afraid, but theyleave. Her father tells her that humans must never everdiscover their existence. Despite this prohibition Arrietty
seeks out Shō again and their friendship develops, however
their friendship puts the little family’s home in danger andeventually they must decide whether to stay or head out
into the wild.
Although on first appearances this appears to be a film aimed
at kids, actually it is suitable for adults as well. The story is very
gentle in comparison to previous Studio Ghibli movies, andslow paced, but this allows room for appreciation of the richartistry of the animation. In one scene a doll house in Shō’sroom is described as being made in England with attention
to the smallest detail, and this equally reflects the impressive
visual attention given to the scene by the film’s animators.
The music was composed by French musician Cécile Corbel
who also sang the movie’s theme song in Japanese, English,
French, Italian and German. Originally she sent a fan letterto Studio Ghibli with a copy of her album and it was after
hearing this that it was decided to invite her to work on themusic for this film. Her music perfectly fits every scene andat times it is hard to decide which is more enchanting, theanimation or the music.
Issue 42 Volume 7 Number 6 (December 2012)

The Etchings of Bernard
Leach by Simon Olding
Crafts Study Centre, University of
the Creative Arts, and the Leach
Pottery, St Ives, 2010
135 pages
ISBN 978-0-954374-8-9
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
This book was launched at Daiwa
House in London on 23 November 2010 with an explanatory
talk by Professor Olding. Dr Julian Stair, a potter and writer,
took the chair. Professor Olding, who wrote the introductory
essay, reminded his audience that while Bernard Leach isbest known as perhaps the leading British craft potter of thetwentieth century he first went out to Japan to teach the artof etching. In the early years of the twentieth century Leach
had studied fine art and the technique of etching at the
Slade and the London School of Art. He worked under theguidance of Frank Brangwyn about whose connections withJapan Libby Horner has written an interesting biographicalportrait in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume
VII published by Global Oriental for the Japan Society in2010 [See our review in issue 29].
During his studies Leach who was influenced by William
Blake, Whistler, Ruskin and Augustus John, produced anumber of fine etching of urban and rural scenes. One ofhis most famous etchings was one produced in 1908-9 ofcoal heavers in Earl’s Court Road.

After five terms at the Slade and the London School ofArt, Leach welcomed Brangwyn’s peremptory command“Get out! Go to nature.” He found this in Japan where he7arrived in 1908 and was soon inspired to depict aspectsof the Japanese landscape in his etchings. He was also
clearly influenced by Japanese artists such as Hiroshige andHokusai both in the composition of his landscapes and the
movement which he depicted in some of his etchings.

Leach drew figures with similar dexterity. These included
self-portraits such as that on the cover of the book as well asof a number of women with whom Leach came in contact.
Perhaps the most charming etching of all in this collection is
the following of his son David Leach dated 1920.

One of his closest friends in Japan was the artist and potter
Kenkichi Tomimoto [富本憲吉] who came from a village
near Nara. One of Tomimoto’s favourite motifs was a simple
Japanese cottage or barn. The following etching by Leachin 1912 is of a farmhouse in Tomimoto’s village.

Some of his etchings were forerunners of designs which hedeveloped for his pots such as this.
Leach’s feeling for the Japanese landscape is particularly
apparent in this sensitive etching of 1918 of the lagoon at
Taganuma, Abiko.

Leach also produced some fine etchings during his timein China such as the following of Chen Mun Gate, Peking
in 1918.

Leach gave up producing etchings in the early 1920s
preferring to concentrate on pottery and drawing of which
he was a master. But he used his etchings as gifts to friends
until the end of his life.
This book brings together the etchings which have survived
at the Craft Study Centre to which Stella and Nick Redgrave
donated 65 of the surviving metal plates which Leach hadcollected and stored at St Ives. According to one sourcesome were kept under his bed and others in sacking in theattic.
The author hopes that the publication of this collection of
Leach etchings will lead to the discovery of other etchingsin private collections. Anyone attracted by Bernard Leachas a potter will want to have a copy of this well produced
publication.

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Issue 42 Volume 7 Number 6 (December 2012)