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

Editor: Sean Curtin
Managing Editor: John Toppon
Layout & Production Assistants:Arthur Comets/Abbie Martin..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Issue 32 Volume 6 Number 2 (April 2011)

Contents(1) Whaling in Japan: Power, Politics and Diplomacy(2) The Japanese House, Material Culture in the Modern Home(3) 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake(4) Confessions(5) The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
(6) 100 Years of Judo in Great Britain: Reclaiming of Its True Spirit(Volumes 1 & 2),(7) The Gardens of Japan

In this issue we focus on contemporary themes with books
exploring whaling, Japanese houses and the 11 March 2011
earthquake, Tsunami and nuclear accident. Our first review
looks at the conundrum of Japanese whaling, a topic often
in the international media. Professor Jun Morikawa explains
how Tokyo’s combative and controversial whaling policy has ....................................................................................................
evolved in recent decades. He clinically dissects the myths New reviews
surrounding the industry, tackling the contradictory dynamics www.japansociety.org.uk/resources/the-japan-society-review
at the heart of the debate. Why for instance does Japan invest Archive
so much political capital and financial resources in whaling, http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews_archive.html
when the vast majority of the public do not like whale-meat We are grateful to our regular reviewers:
and 1000s of tons remain uneaten every year? It is a gripping Sir Hugh Cortazzi Mikihiro Maeda
Susan Meehannarrative with the vested interests of bureaucratic, political William Farr
and industrial elites at the center of a convoluted web. The Fumiko Halloran Ian Nish
Ben-Ami Shillony
Adam Housebook succeeds in untangling complex intertwined elements ....................................................................................................
and makes sense out of the seemingly incomprehensible.
Whaling in Japan: Power,
Sir Hugh Cortazzi looks at Inge Daniels visually stunning
Politics and Diplomacy
and excellently researched work on the modern Japanesehome. Daniels charts the development of modern housing
by Jun Morikawa
in Japan, focusing on the lives of ordinary people and their(森川 純)
homes. There are some fantastic photographs of everyday
Japanese dwellings and Daniels succeeds in capturing the
C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd,essence of the Japanese home. William Farr looks at a work
August 2009, 256 pages,on the devastating Great East Japan Earthquake (東日本大ISBN-10: 1850659842
震災) which struck the Tohoku region on 11 March 2011,(paperback) £15.99
casting a long shadow over the country. This work originally
Review by Sean Curtin
started life in e-space as a collection of twitter responses tothe unimaginable horrors witnessed as the aftermath of theTokyo’s combative stance onearthquake and Tsunami and subsequent nuclear accident
whaling often seems at odds
unfolded before a disbelieving world. Susan Meehan delveswith its trademark consensual
into a film which morphs the rough and tumble of the approach to international affairs. This position seems evencontemporary Japanese classroom into an Elizabethan stranger when one considers that the vast majority of therevenge tragedy that would have made even Shakespeare public have little interest or enthusiasm for the topic, yetwince. A class teacher lacing her students’ milk with the HIV- the government vigorously pursues a highly controversial
positive blood of her lover is just one of the macabre scenes pro-whaling policy which tarnishes the country’s image.
in this gory, definitely not for the faint-hearted, flick. Our next Furthermore, very few Japanese actually like whale meat
review takes us back to the calmer waters of life in the tiny resulting in huge unconsumed mountains of it piling up. The
Dutch merchant colony at Dejima in Nagasaki bay during the most recent annual figures show a staggering 6000 tons of
Edo era. David Mitchell’s well received novel begins in 1799 uneaten whale being stored at great expense in 2010 (Japan
when Jacob de Zoet, a young Dutch clerk, arrives in Dejima. Time, 5 January 2011). Professor Jun Morikawa’s meticulously
It paints a fascinating picture of the period and is a highly researched book offers some illuminating insights on theseenjoyable read. Peter Brunning looks at Richard Bowen’s conflicting positions and unlocks the puzzling contradictions
impressive and well researched two-volume book on the which surround this contentious issue.
history of Judo in the UK. The history starts with the arrivalfrom Kobe of the Tani brothers in England in September Morikawa commences his in-depth investigation by
1900, the batten is later carried forward by Gunji Koizumi [小 methodically examining the official reasoning for the
泉 軍治] who arrived in the UK in 1906. Bowen’s meticulous current policy. Early on he clinically demolishes one of thework chronicles the lives of those who first brought Judo to government’s key justifications for its actions; the so called
these shores. Sir Hugh Cortazzi rounds of this issue by giving “traditional Japanese whale-eating culture” argument
us his take on a richly photo-packed book which describes a which Tokyo claims is a unique and integral part of its
cultural heritage. By carefully documenting the real history
selection of magnificent Japanese gardens.
of Japanese whaling Professor Morikawa demonstrates that
Sean Curtin......................................................................................................................................................................................................

it is not actually a national tradition with a centuries old
history but is in fact an atypical practice conducted in a few
remote areas. He notes, “the phenomenon that allowed
whale-eating to actually move beyond geographic andsubcultural boundaries to become part of the national
Japanese culture existed for only an extremely brief
period of 20 years, from the post-war reconstruction era
in the late 1940s to the early 1960s (page 29).”

The Institute of Cetacean Research plays a crucial rolein sustaining Japan’s whaling policy

After the war there were severe food shortages and ageneral lack of a nutritional diet. Under these exceptional
circumstances and for a limited period whaling played apart in helping feed the war-ravaged nation. However,this relatively short-lived postwar phenomenon does notequate to what Tokyo claims is an “indigenous whaleeating culture” or a “unique culinary culture.”
The author also identifies an illuminating contradiction,
while Tokyo demands that the international community
pay “mutual respect” to its perceived “traditional whale
eating culture” it simultaneously denies such respect to its
own indigenous Ainu people who inhabit the northern
island of Hokkaido. They are not allowed to conduct theirtraditional salmon fishing practices in Hokkaido’s rivers.
Salmon fishing was an integral part of their culture but
today Tokyo prohibits them from following their “uniqueculinary culture.” The state only allows the Ainu to fishin the rivers on “a few designated ceremonial occasions(page 17).” This fact makes Tokyo’s claim of culturalimperialism seem far less credible.
Next, Morikawa blows a significant hole in the official narrativeof Japan’s so called “magnificent whaling history” by carefully
chronicling the historical development of what was a relatively
minor regional industry. Also, until recent decades it was
mainly limited to the country’s coastal waters, he concludes,“The history of large-scale whaling in Japan’s coastal seas was
short, amounting to no more than 80 years (page 23).” Thiseffectively ended in 1987 with the closing down of the last two
major whaling companies on economic grounds because “thewhaling industry was financially not viable” (page 26) and there
was no real market for whale meat. Market forces effectively
buried the industry and its tombstone would have read 1987 if
it were not for the substantial intervention of bureaucratic andpolitical elites which had a vested interest in reviving the deadindustry’s corpse.
2

The Fisheries Agency (水産庁), an external arm of the
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF),
played a crucial role the resurrection. It did this primarily
to safeguard its own bureaucratic power and prestige. If
the industry had been allowed to die a natural death, thenit would have lost a considerable amount of its budget aswell as a major slice of its authority, something that wasanathema to its bureaucrats. Morikawa contends that
the Fisheries Agency and its associated political elites
decided to pump life back into the moribund sector
primarily to preserve their own bureaucratic power andprestige, other considerations were secondary. Morikawa
comments, “It is crucial to remember that the Japanese‘national consensus’ on the whaling issue has beencreated, approved and ceaselessly reinforced by a verysmall number of interest groups…(page 65).”
According to Morikawa, it appears that Japan’scontroversial whaling policy is not conducted on behalfof the public or in order to preserve an important historic
tradition or vital national interest, but rather it is done forthe benefit of a tiny band of bureaucrats and politicians.
It is this group that has constructed the pseudo-traditions
surrounding whaling, presented it “as if it symbolizes
Japan’s national interests and cultural traditions (page 6)”
and elevated “whaling far beyond its actual importance(page 79).”
Not surprisingly, a large portion of the book focuses on
this minute but immensely powerful band of behind-thescenes players that are actually responsible for shaping
and sustaining Japan’s pro-whaling stance in the faceof overwhelming public disinterest and ever growing
mountains of uneaten whale meat.
The pro-whaling cabal comprises bureaucrats, mainly
from the Fisheries Agency, along with politicians andindustrialists with strong ties to the fishing industry andrelated bodies. The author provides an in-depth overview
of this interlocking web of vested interests. He explains
how retiring senior bureaucrats from the Fisheries
Agency slide into top posts in well-funded pro-whaling
bodies such as the pivotal Institute of Cetacean Research(日本鯨類研究所). On this body, Morikawa observes,“The ICR plays a crucial role in keeping Japan’s awkward
pro-whaling position afloat with its contributions on thetheoretical, educational and financial fronts, as well as its
involvement in whale meat marketing and the mouldingof public opinion (page 47).”			
Since the mid-1980s the Fisheries Agency has been theprime mover shaping Japan’s foreign policy on whaling
and not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), which
has rather astonishingly been relegated to the sidelinesof this high profile and contentious international issue.
This is an extremely unusual situation given the fact thatwhaling has been designated as a national economic
issue and dealing with it takes up a substantial amount of
MOFA time. Morikawa observes, “the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs became unable to control the arbitrary actions of
the Fisheries Agency, which resulted in a worrisomely
Issue 32 Volume 6 Number 2 (April 2011)

fragmented diplomatic approach (page 54).” While MOFA
diplomats have to defend the whaling position in public,
I have found many are prepared to concede in privatethat the policy does not represent an issue close to the
public’s heart or a genuine national economic issue.
Many complain it is a time-consuming and highly costly
distraction from substantive national issues. Opinion polls
show overwhelming disinterest in the topic and “thegeneral public seems to spend very little time thinking
about the whaling issue at all and its knowledge is shallow
at best (page 74).”
One of whaling’s longstanding foreign policy objectives
has been to exert influence over the International Whaling
Commission (IWC), which is the global body that regulates
whaling. Since the 1970s the majority of IWC members
have largely taken a conservational and anti-commercial
whaling stance which resulted in a 1986 moratorium oncommercial whaling. This halted the annual factory-styleslaughter of tens of thousands of animals and was later
followed by the establishment of the Southern Ocean
Whale Sanctuary in 1994. Japan has invested considerable
resources in trying to reverse this trend and create a prowhaling majority at the IWC. To this end it has used avariety of methods to achieve its goal. Most controversial
has been the use of Overseas Development Aid (ODA) to
get countries with no whaling or maritime history to join
the IWC to create a pro-whaling, pro-Japan majority.
Using financial incentives Tokyo has persuaded a large
number of new member countries to join the IWC since2000 including landlocked nations with absolutely no
seafaring connections such as Mongolia and Mali. For
example in 2007 Prime Minister Shizo Abe persuaded
landlocked Laos to join the IWC after pledging $1 million
in aid (page 88). Morikawa methodically documents how
Tokyo has got a large number of developing countries
to join the IWC through the use of ODA (chapter 5), he
comments, [the] “increase in pro-whaling IWC member
states, entering at a rate of three to five a year since 2000,
is a direct result of Japan’s efforts…(page 86).” As a result
the IWC has become a more pro-whaling body and while
Tokyo has not yet created a majority, it has succeeded indeadlocking the organization. The 2010 IWC meeting in
the Moroccan city of Agadir had to be suspended for ayear due to the impasse created over the proposal to easethe ban on commercial whaling (23 June 2010, Japan
Times).
A subservient Japanese media greatly helps keep the prowhaling forces in the ascendancy by giving the whaling
industry a positive press, stressing its supposed cultural andpseudo-historical merits while failing to give a rounded
picture of the facts. The author laments, “the virtual absenceof any investigative reporting on the whaling issue (page72).” Morikawa and others have demonstrated that thehistorical facts are at odds with Tokyo’s official whaling
narrative yet the media continues to perpetuate the stateconstructed myth. This propaganda can even be found in
the country’s English language newspapers that generally
take a more critical line, for example the Japan Times
Issue 32 Volume 6 Number 2 (April 2011)

reported, “whaling is deeply rooted in Japanese history
and is an important part of Japanese culinary culture.
There is a section in the ‘Kojiki,’ which dates from the earlyeighth century and is the oldest extant chronicle in Japan,that indicates whale meat was dedicated to the legendary
Emperor Jimmu, the first emperor of Japan, suggestinga long relationship between Japan and whaling (Japan
Times, Sunday, 20 February 2011).
Yet despite a pro-whaling media, enormous sums spenton PR and expensive whale meat promotion campaigns,
the Japanese public remains overwhelming disinterested
in the topic while massive quantities of uneaten whale
meat continue to stack up in vast warehouse complexes.

Could whale-watching ever replace whaling in Japan?

							Morikawa concludes the book by looking at four possible
scenarios for whaling’s future in Japan. In the first thestatus quo is maintained, in the second Japan takes a moreaggressive and confrontational approach, the third sees agradual transition away from whaling to a limited form of
the industry while the fourth envisages a complete moveaway from whaling to whaling watching. The author isuncertain which one of the four paths will be followed. The
sheer cost of sustaining the whaling industry and publicdisinterest might suggest that options three and four
would be the most likely. However, after the devastating
Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011, which
it is estimated cost the aquaculture industry ¥100 billion,
the government ploughed some of its limited resources
into maintaining whaling. This indicates that despite thefinancial constraints and other difficulties Tokyo remains
determined to pursue its whaling policy, making any of
the four scenarios possible.
This is an excellently researched book which meticulously
explains the conflicting dynamics of Japan’s whaling policy
and makes a seemly illogical strategy comprehensible.
Its broad analytical framework greatly enhances ourunderstanding of the topic making a substantive
contribution to the field. Professor Morikawa is to becommended for having produced this insightful and firstclass piece of work.

3

The Japanese House,
Material Culture in theModern Homeby Inge Daniels
Photography by Susan
Andrews, Berg, Oxford
and New York, 2010, 243
pages including notes,
bibliography and index,
copious illustrations incolour, £60
ISBN 978-184520-517-1
Paperback
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Until the Second World War individual Japanesehouses retained some elements of the aesthetic
which so pleased and inspired Edward Morse [authorof “Japanese Homes and their Surroundings” – 1885],
Bruno Taut [author of “Houses and People of Japan” –1938] and others. In the war huge swathes of Japanesecities were destroyed by bombing and fire. Japan’s
housing stock had to be almost completely replaced.
Except in some country areas and in a few exclusive
urban districts, the old style individual house generallyceased to exist.
Japanese people also began to seek western stylecomforts and found the sparse heating provided byhibachi (火鉢) and kotatsu(炬燵) inadequate. Japan’s
population expanded. Space was at a premium
and most living accommodation was cramped. The
1960s and 1970s was the era when, to quote thenotorious and exaggerated phrase of the late Sir Roy
Denman “Japanese were work-aholics, living in rabbithutches.”
It has been a long standing tradition in Japan thathouses which are not meant to last more than twenty
or at most thirty years should be regularly rebuilt andmodernised. This has meant in a country so prone toearthquake and natural disaster the replacement of alarge proportion of wood frame houses by stronger
structures. The need to cram more people into alimited space also meant the development of modern
housing blocks, called “mansions” in Japanese todistinguish them from the tawdry apartment blocks
put up in the immediate post-war era.
This book attempts to describe the development ofmodern housing in Japan and focuses on the lives ofordinary people rather than on the elite. It contains
much of interest to the general reader who wants tolearn more about modern Japan. The photographs,
which are not captioned, provide a valuable andinteresting commentary on the text.

and practices.” She notes (page 20) that “Japanese
homes are highly gendered.” Such sociological jargon,
as in these simple examples and in the outlines of thechapters, quoted below, is likely to appeal more to theacademic sociologist than to the ordinary reader.
Chapter 1 “focuses on how inter-family relationships areshaped inside the home.” Chapter 2 “examines the socialand spatial connections between the inhabitants andtheir surroundings.” Chapter 3 examines “the complex
domestic spiritual technology consisting of domestic
altars, auspicious material culture and graves that isthought to protect the domestic against malevolent
influences.” Chapter 4 dissects “the stereotype of theminimal Japanese house” typified by tatami, shōji,tokonoma. Chapter 5 deals with “ordering practices
in domestic spaces in everyday use particularly
highlighting the dialectic relations between display
and storage.” Chapter 6 examines “anxieties regarding
the disposal of large numbers of objects that are kept
in storage and on display in Japanese homes.”
There are some eye-catching headings such as“we would rather have a nice English garden” and“everyone needs a garage” – (in Tokyo before you can
own a car you must prove that you have the space tokeep it off the road). We tend to think of Japanese life
as much more communal than ours, but Inge Danielsemphasises “the dearth of neighbourly contact.”“Those living in apartment blocks seem to have theleast contact with their neighbours.” She also draws
attention to the tension between generations.
The following photographs show how traditional
Japanese elements in the home are married not always
aesthetically with western elements:

We always wondered what Japanese did with theirmountains of photographs and souvenirs! Despite
Japanese aesthetics emphasising restraint, Japanese
may have even more of a problem than we have indealing with the clutter of modern life.This book mightmore appropriately have been called “The Japanese
Home” rather than “The Japanese House.”

The author (page 18) states rather ponderously that her“study aims to expose the tensions and frictions that
occur at the intersection between domestic ideologies
4

Issue 32 Volume 6 Number 2 (April 2011)

of Japanese geography. Hauntingly, this first author
2:46: Aftershocks:
Stories from the Japan also foresees the fallout that subsequently occurred to
the normal flow of goods, as Japanese schools dug up
Earthquakeby The Quakebook
Community(www.quakebook.org),
edited by Our Man in Abiko,
Enhanced Studios Ltd,
2011, 102 pages including
photography and artwork,
US$11.99,
I S B N: 0956883621 and also
(Kindle Edition, 1435 KB,
ASIN: B004VP3KHK)
Review by William Farr
Originally called Quakebook on Twitter, 2:46 is acollection of stories about the tsunami and earthquake,
which exploded onto the book scene in March of 2011.
This was a result of one individual’s simple question to
Twitter users: “What can we do?” Whilst many people
the world over sat and watched the unfolding disasteron TV and newspapers not knowing how to help, 2:46
got crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing refers to using
people’s collective knowledge as a resource to getthings done. Soon, over 100 individuals, all over world
with contacts in all types of industries responded
and “Quakebook” was born. People, who prior to
the earthquake had absolutely nothing in common,joined forces over Twitter and each wrote 250 words,
or contributed artwork or photographs about theirexperiences of the earthquake. The first draft wascompleted within a week, and the book evolved in its
first incarnation into a digital book for Amazon Kindle
and other electronic readers. 2:46 was rolled out for
download without major companies taking their usual
cut. All fees and costs, and the price of the book wentstraight to the Japanese Red Cross. The book is now
available in physical form, and there are continuing
efforts by the Quakebook Community, such as thebook being available in Japan now in bilingual format.
Copies have made it as far as the British Embassy inTokyo, and the Japan Centre in London. And the workis spreading.
The book itself is made up of short, often intensely
personal views on the earthquake. For example, the“First Experience” written by Yoshiko Ikeda talks abouta photograph, reprinted in the book, of a girl sat on
the side of the road head buried in her hands. A simple
caption, written by the journalist who took the photo,states that the girl had lost her family. Devastating.
The author goes on to talk about how places we havenever heard of before suddenly become known to theinternational community. Ishinomaki, Rikuzen-takata,Nobiru, Fukushima, are all places now spoken of bypeople who before the disaster had no prior knowledge

Issue 32 Volume 6 Number 2 (April 2011)

and removed topsoil, beef was not tracked properly as
it went onto the market place, and shipping containers
turned up in Holland and were then impounded due
to high levels of radiation.

Some authors are not in Japan at all, but still contributeincredibly moving pieces. Others were in Japan at thetime of the quake such as Sandra Barron, who wepresume to be a journalist, but then returns to Los
Angeles whilst the danger passes. Guilt is clear in thispiece, but the author is not alone, as a University friend
who is now in financier in Tokyo upped sticks andmoved his whole family home to California whilst thetragedy was unfolding. Sandra Barron’s family worried
about her wellbeing, but she also rightly believes thather presence in Japan at the time of the earthquake
would have been a drain on resources such as waterand electricity, logic hard to argue with.
The wealth of perspectives is the strength of the book,from known voices such as Yoko Ono Lennon, Jake
Adelstein, and William Gibson, to other people withsomething to say who are not famous but are genuine
everymen. At times the stories seem to contradict, as
not all people agree on how to grieve; at other times
they are all in chorus. This is what makes this book sopowerful: there are no answers here, there is solace,there is thoughtfulness, and reflection.
Jake Adelstein’s “Muenbotoke” in particular is anincredibly insightful piece, juxtaposing news report
extracts of the earthquake with his own experiences asa journalist of death and dying. Adelstein remembers
reporting a double suicide where the couple inquestion simply gave up. No connections, no family,
nobody except Jake Adelstein really took an interest
in what happened to their ashes. Where would theirresting place be? Who would visit the temple? The
couple, muenbotoke [無縁仏], refers to individuals
without a connection who have no one to claim theirashes, and are literally a Buddha with no ties. Adelsteinrightly points out that we need to respect the memoryof people who will have disappeared without trace,and need to be remembered.
At an extremely early stage in the unfolding disaster,
2:46 dealt with so many angles of potential problems,
opinions and thoughts for loved ones, with the delicate
grace and intelligence that betrays the breadth of
the human condition. This breadth is exactly what
one would expect when people from all walks of life
come together to speak out for people who are left
without a voice. Quakebook has been like a large stone
dropped into what was prior to March 11th 2011 a stilllake, but the ripples of its impact are moving outward
in ever increasing circles. Spread the word and buy
2:46, as the disaster is not gone and continues for5the displaced, the homeless, and the orphaned. As
the editor, Our Man in Abiko says in the introduction:“Those of us who live in Japan are in a state of war.
But not a war against a nation, or even nature. We arefighting defeat, worry and hopelessness. The question
is: “Are we strong enough to overcome?”

Confessions(告白)
Directed by
Tetsuya Nakashima(中島哲也)
2010, 106 minutes
Review by Susan Meehan

If you think that a teacher revengefully lacing students’milk with her late former lover’s HIV-positive blood is
as macabre and horrific as it gets, the final scenes ofConfessions will have you hooked and gripped to yourseat in uneasy disbelief.
The film, based on a novel by Kanae Minato (湊かなえ),
starts off by stylishly zooming into a class of photogenic
Japanese middle school students sipping cartoned
milk. If it weren’t for the fact that it’s a rowdy class withstudents listening to music, texting, chatting, yawningand walking around it could be the perfect advertisement
promoting the benefits of milk. The stereotypical imageof all Japanese school classes being a model of rectitude
is soon put to rest.
Takako Matsu (松たか子), an actress much in vogue at the
moment having won acclaim for her roles in the 2009 film
Villon’s Wife and the 2004 film The Hidden Blade, is castas the attractive young teacher and single mother, Yuko
Moriguchi, bidding farewell to her class of thirteen year
olds. It is the end of the school year and she announcesthat she won’t be coming back, much to the delight ofmost of her unsympathetic class.
The students pipe down when Ms Moriguchi reveals thatthe death of her little girl, Manami, was not an accidental
case of drowning; she was, in fact, killed by two of Ms
Moriguchi’s students who, being minors, won’t facejustice. In this, the first of the film’s five confessions, sherefers to the killers as Boys A and B; the first, a prodigy by
all accounts and the second, a bit of a no-hoper. Having
separately spoken with the boys about the death of her
little girl, she realises that A is desperate for recognition
and that B was lured into helping him, hoping to makea firm friend. The tainted blood is her way of wreaking
her revenge on the boys who, protected by the Juvenile
Criminal Code, won’t be tried.
6

The scenes that follow this dramatic introduction
consist of the remaining ‘confessions’ – those by thekillers, by Mizuki – Boy A’s girlfriend of sorts –- and by
Boy B’s mother. These declarations, albeit grim, areperfectly straightforward and devoid of Rashomon-styleambiguities and mistruths.
It is here that the film falls victim to every cliché to dowith psychopaths hell-bent on viciously decimating
vulnerable children, school or university companions
and in so doing distils as many stories of young
alienated murderers as possible evoking memories of
the Columbine High School massacre of 1999 and theVirginia Tech massacres of 2007 and 2009 to name a few.
Gruesome and difficult viewing at times, it might be justthe thing for a nihilistic teen!
Whereas Naoki, Boy B, falls into meltdown and stops
attending class, Shuya, Boy A, is able to face the bullying
he is subjected to at school and becomes friendly with hisclassmate Mizuki, a somewhat suicidal misfit. Mizuki seems
the one redeeming character in the film, a thoughtful
observer who sends letters to Ms Moriguchi, keeping
her abreast of developments at school, and comes tocomprehend Shuya and the demons and loneliness thathave been driving his attention-grabbing exploits. While
she feels sorry for Shuya, I felt singularly indifferent to all
characters, except at a push, the empathetic Mizuki.

Outwardly appearing a reformed character, Shuya winsa competition for his essay on the importance of life andreads it to his schoolmates during an assembly; in theseclosing scenes Yuko Moriguchi makes a return, thwarting
Shuya’s final cataclysmic gambit. All is unravelled in athrilling complex twist.
All in all Confessions is a cleverly crafted film with somefine performances and atmospheric soundtrack; gorythroughout, it is not to be watched by the faint-hearted.
On a final aside, while dispelling the fiction of orderly
Japanese students, the film, in introducing the subjectof AIDS, seemingly cannot conceive of the virus having
been contracted in Japan and refers to Dr Sakuramiya, Ms
Moriguchi’s former lover, as having become HIV-positivefrom dalliances abroad. One step forward in referring to
AIDS but a few steps back for thinking it can’t be homegrown.
Issue 32 Volume 6 Number 2 (April 2011)

The Thousand Autumnsof Jacob de Zoet
by David Mitchell
Sceptre/Hodder andStoughton, 2010, 469 pages,
ISBN 978-0-340-92156-2
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
This readable historicalnovel set in Japan has
been well reviewed in thenational press. Many Japan Society members will haveread about it and some may already have read thebook. Anyone interested in the life of the tiny Dutch
merchant colony at Dejima in Nagasaki bay during
the Edo era is likely to be fascinated by Mitchell’s
depiction of the scene. Mitchell, who was advisedby among others Professor Tim Screech of SOAS, hasclearly done his research with care and attention todetail, but readers need to bear in mind that the bookis fiction and not history.
The story begins in 1799 when Jacob de Zoet, a young
Dutch clerk, comes out to Dejima with a new chiefappointed to weed out fraud and corruption. The
chief soon becomes as corrupt as his predecessors
and Jacob suffers for his honesty. The membersof the colony come to life as the story progresses
especially the cantankerous doctor to the colony
who is teaching western medicine to Japanese
students. The Dutch relationship with the Japaneseinterpreters is also described in fairly convincing
terms. However I found the romantic attachment of
Jacob to a Japanese woman who is being trained as a
midwife unconvincing. Her kidnapping on the ordersof Abbot Enomoto and the nefarious practices of his
monastery seem far fetched. The term abbot suggeststhat Enomoto was a Buddhist, but the practices healleges took place were certainly not Buddhist.
One of the most convincing episodes in the bookis that of the visit to Nagasaki of a naval vessel HMS
Phoebus alleged to have taken place in 1800. Captain
Penhaligon of the Phoebus with his painful gout
could well have existed.
HMS Phaeton did visit Nagasaki in 1808 flying a Dutch
flag and took Dutch hostages while its demands for
supplies were being considered. The port’s garrison
was under strength and the magistrate had noalternative but to meet the British demands. He took
responsibility and committed ritual suicide. British
ships again entered Nagasaki harbour in 1814 with
instructions this time to contest the Dutch trading
monopoly. On board was a former Dutch chief factor
enlisted to persuade his fellow Dutchmen to standdown, but Henrik Doeff, the chief factor in Dejima
at the time, stood firm and warned the British that
Issue 32 Volume 6 Number 2 (April 2011)

the Japanese would react violently to any attempt
to force the issue. In the novel the two episodes
have been conflated and alleged to have taken placeat an earlier period in the Napoleonic war before
Sir Stamford Raffles for Britain had taken temporary
control of the Dutch East Indies. The doctor to the
Dutch colony who became such an expert on Japanin the early 19th century and taught Dutch medicine
was Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1868) who
arrived in Nagasaki in 1823. He had a daughter Ine(or Oine) by his Japanese mistress.

100 Years of Judo in GreatBritain: Reclaiming of Its
True Spirit (Volumes 1 & 2)
by Richard Bowen
Indepenpress Publishing Ltd,
2011, (Vol. 1) 428 pages, £20
ISBN-13: 978-1907499319(Vol. 2) 506 pages, £20
ISBN-13: 978-1780030104
Review by Peter Brunning
The late Richard Bowen was an accomplishedstudent and instructor of judo. Bowen was also an
indefatigable researcher into the history of judo inthis country. He amassed a considerable archive ofletters, photographs and other documentary records(which are now held in the Richard Bowen Collection
at the University of Bath). His two volume history isa pleasingly written and the combined work runs tonearly 1000 pages.
The history starts with the arrival of the Tani brothersin this country from Kobe in September 1900 aboard
the Wakasa Maru. Yukio Tani [谷 幸雄] and his brotherhad been invited to England by E.W. Barton-Wright
who had established a “School of Arms” in Shaftesbury
Avenue London. Barton-Wright had worked andlived in Japan and developed an integrated style ofunarmed combat which he called “Bartitsu,” on which
he lectured to the Japan Society in 1901.
Tani broke with Barton-Wright around 1903 and thenparticipated in challenge contests in music hall, fromwhich he earned (and lost) a considerable amount ofmoney. The book discusses some of his contests andalso the various judo schools that were established in
London at that time (those at Golden Square and in
Oxford Street).
In 1918 The Budokwai [武道会] club was formed by
Gunji Koizumi [小泉 軍治] who had arrived in thiscountry in 1906 and later established a business inJapanese lacquer ware. Bowen calculates that by the7end of its first year the club was in debt to Koizumi
to the extent of some £4000. Tani was engaged as
its chief instructor. There are fascinating descriptionsof Budokwai personalities (E.J. Harrison, T.P. Leggett)and of significant events in its history e.g. the visit ofBritish based judoka to Germany in 1929 and, more
controversially, to the same country in 1933.
The narrative brings out very well the personalities ofsome of those involved; the diplomatic secretary to
the Budokwai (Harold Tricker) and that of Koizumi, its
inspirational founder and guiding light, who strongly
believed that judo and judo training had an ethicaldimension.
The second volume opens with the very moving
final pages of Koizumi’s diary, shortly before his
premeditated suicide in 1965. It then takes up thehistory of The Budokwai and the club’s somewhat
hand to mouth existence during the interwar period.
At one stage Koizumi resigns before he feels the Clubshould stand it its own two feet (Bowen says it was
many years before he formally “unresigned”). In 1929
Tani felt he had been badly treated by the club andit was left to Tricker to pacify him. There are tales ofvisiting Japanese personalities of the formation ofinternational judo organisations. There is little on judo
after the 1950s and hints that Bowen himself thoughtthat competitions were given too much emphasis inmodern British judo, to the detriment of the characterbuilding element.
The work contains many references to material in the
fascinating archive at the University of Bath, which isevidence of Bowen’s huge achievement in assemblingmaterial on the development of this martial art in thiscountry. In the text that we have, the love of a good
anecdote sometimes gets in the way of the purely
narrative or historical needs of the work. I am surethat the author would have revised and re-arrangedsome of the material and provided a much-needed
index had time allowed. What we do have, both in
the book and in the archive, is a source of informationand insight for which anyone who has an interest in
judo and for that we can be very grateful.

8

The Gardens of Japan
By Helena Attlee
With photographs by Alex
Ramsay135 pages, Frances Lincoln
Ltd, London, £16.95
ISBN978-0-7112-2971-6
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
This is not a guide to Japanese gardens, nor is it a historyof Japanese gardens. It consists of photographs withbrief descriptions of selected gardens. The photos
are well and artistically taken, but as there are only
a few for each garden covered they inevitably do no
more than show limited aspects of particular gardens.
Anyone who wants some nice pictures of Japanesegardens as a souvenir of a visit to Japan may enjoy thisbook which would be a good addition to their pile ofcoffee table books. But it is not a necessary addition toa library of books about Japan and the serious studentof Japanese gardens can find many publications
which provide a better coverage of the art and designof gardens in Japan.
The most famous park-type gardens, the sankei [三溪園], namely Kairakuen [偕楽園] in Mito, Kenrokuen [兼六園] in Kanazawa and Kōrakuen [後楽園] in Okayama
plus the Ritsurin-kōen [栗林公園] in Takamatsu are
represented, but of the famous gardens of Tokyo only
the Higashi-gyōen [東御苑] is covered in the book.
This is a pity as there are other Japanese gardens inTokyo well worth visiting.
There are so many wonderful gardens in Kyoto thatany selection is likely to leave out favourites, but it ispuzzling that among the imperial gardens only the
Katsura Rikyū [桂離宮] is covered with six photos (itneeds a whole book to do anything like justice to it).
The Shūgakuin [修学院離宮庭園], the Sentō gosho[仙洞御所] and the imperial palace gardens are notincluded. While Enshū Kobori [小堀 遠州] is mentioned
as a famous garden designer no mention is made of
the famous painter Sesshū [雪舟 等楊] who is said
to have designed the garden of Sesshūji within the
precincts of Tōfukuji. Some of my favourite gardens
in Kyoto such as the garden of the Chishakuin [智積院], introduced to us by the late Sir John Figgess, thegarden of the fabulous Hiunkaku [飛雲閣] in NishiHonganji, the Shōrenin garden [青蓮院], very close
to the Miyako Hotel are not listed and have not been
photographed for this book. Perhaps the saddest
omission (and top of my list) is the delightful Shisendō[詩仙堂] which the late Sir John Pilcher introduced to
the Prince of Wales, whose favourite Kyoto garden it
is said to be.

Issue 32 Volume 6 Number 2 (April 2011)