japansociety
Japan Book Review

Volume 1 No. 4 July 2006

Editor: Sean Curtin
Managing Editor: Clare Barclay

In this sizzling July issue, we aim to lift your spirits a little after
Japan's World Cup disappointment. We have a fine selection of newreviews including two gripping tales of romance, a pair of stimulating biographies, a groundbreaking historical analysis and much more. We
also feature our very first theatre review as part of our efforts to expand thereview project. By sheer coincidence, Yukio Ninagawa's brilliant new interpretation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus mirrors Japan's performanceagainst Brazil: a hopeful beginning followed by a brutal massacre a hopeful beginning followed by a brutal massacre (fortunately Shakespeare's
homeland fared a little better).
On the website and in print we will soon be featuring plays, films andother events. Visit the website regularly to keep up to date with the latest
developments and a huge array of web-only reviews (while you are there,
please participate in our members survey and win a fabulous night out).
The review-related Japanese Perspectives project is still being developed,
but we hope to launch it soon, so stay tuned.
Wishing you all a good summer.
Sean Curtin
New reviews: www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews.html
Archive reviews: http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews_archive.html

Contents(1) Kawada Ryokichi Jeannie Eadie'sSamurai(2) Falling Blossom(3) East and West(4) Foreign Images and Experiences ofJapan: Volume I: First Century AD-1841(5) The Blue Furoshiki(6) Titus Andronicus(7) Japan's Love-Hate Relationship with
the West(8)ASEAN-Japan
Cooperation:
A
Foundation for East Asian Community

Kawada Ryokichi - Jeannie Eadie's Samurai: the Life and Times of a Meiji
Entrepreneur and Agricultural Pioneer,
by Andrew Cobbing and Masataro Itami,
Global Oriental, 2006. £35, ISBN 1-901903-02-8 and 978-1-901903-02-7, pp 288, including appendixes, notes, bibliography and index.

Falling Blossom: A British Officer's Enduring Love for a Japanese Woman,
by Peter Pagnamenta and Momoko Williams,
Century, (Random House Group) 2006, £12.99, ISBN 9781844138203 (from Jan 2007) ISBN 1844138208, pp 314, including notes andacknowledgements.
Reviews by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
In Britain there are now many interracial marriages and the prejudices against
such unions have largely disappeared especially in the case of marriages between
British and Japanese. The same is largely true of enlightened circles in Japan.
Where prejudices do continue they are more likely to be based on classconsciousness than on racial grounds. But in the first hundred years or so after
the end of the Tokugawa era there were strong objections against such unions
especially among the new Japanese elite. There were, however, a number of wellknown and successful interracial marriages as well as some failures. One
outstanding example of a successful Anglo-Japanese match was that between
Baron Sannomiya Yoshitane who became Grand Master of the Ceremonies to theImperial Household in the late Meiji period. Another was that of Mutsu
Hirokichi, son of Mutsu Munemitsu, Japanese Foreign Minister, with Ethel laterjapansociety

Japan Book Review: July 2006

known as Countess Iso Mutsu. Ethel was the daughter of
Hirokichi's landlord in Cambridge. His father forbade themarriage but when Hirokichi was appointed Japanese Consul
in San Francisco he persuaded Ethel to join him there
although they had not met for some years. They eventuallymarried and Hirokichi became Counsellor in London
responsible for Japanese participation in the Anglo-Japanese
exhibition at Shepherds Bush in 1910. Some other matches, asKoyama Noboru has explained in an essay in Britain andJapan: Biographical Portraits Volume IV (Japan Library, 2002),
ended in failure. Some British diplomats, officials and othersin the Meiji period, such as the outstanding diplomat Sir
Ernest Satow, had Japanese mistresses or common law wives
which they hid from the prudish eyes of Victorians in Britain.
Some others, who made their home in Japan such as CaptainFrank Brinkley, insisted on marrying their Japanese
mistresses. Lady Arnold, the Japanese widow of Sir Edwin
Arnold, became a pillar of the Japan Society in London in theearly decades of the twentieth century.
There were sadly a number of cases where there was real
love and affection on both sides but which ended inunhappiness if not tragedy. These two books tell two suchstories, based on letters which were fortunately preserved.
Both are moving accounts of tragic love affairs - some mightcall them tear-jerkers. In both cases the woman was the loser.
It is tempting in these days when we rightly attach
importance to equality of the sexes to condemn the men
involved for at the very least insensitivity, but we cannot
know all the circumstances and should perhaps reservejudgement.

was established he was made a Baron. Ryokichi went to Tokyoin 1874 and as a result of his father's interest in Japan's first
shipbuilding yard Mitsubishi Engine Work [sic] he was sent in1877 to study shipbuilding as an apprentice engineer at the
Lobnitz , Coulbourn & Co shipyard in Glasgow. It must havebeen a lonely and tough life for Ryokichi, but he was a
conscientious and hard working apprentice who earned thecommendations of his superiors. One day in January 1883 hewent into a bookshop near Glasgow Central Station where hesought help from a young female assistant, Jeannie Eadie. Thischance meeting led to a growing friendship. Jeannie lived withher mother in a tiny house in Pollok Street Glasgow. She was a
devout Christian and regular churchgoer. When they could
not meet Jeannie would write simple letters to him. The
friendship developed from affection to love, but there is no
indication that this led to their sleeping together. Indeed thisseems most unlikely in view of Jeannie's religious beliefs. But
Ryokichi hoped to marry her and to persuade her to come backwith him to Japan. Jeannie clearly had doubts about whether
this would be feasible and she was worried about what would
happen to her mother. When they finally parted on Ryokichi's
return to Japan in 1884 he promised to try to persuade hisfather to agree to their marriage, but Baron Kawada Koichiro
adamantly refused and forced his son to marry a suitable
Japanese bride. There were children but the marriage was nota happy one. Jeannie eventually married a man considerably
older than herself.

Kawada Ryokichi was born in 1856 in the province of Tosa
in Shikoku. He was the son of a lower-ranking samurai much
involved in farming. This was the basis of his later
commitment to agricultural development, but he was a keen
student and was sent to Osaka to study English. His father,
Kawada Koichiro, worked with Iwasaki Yataro whoestablished the Mitsubishi trading company and what
eventually became Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK). Koichiro
became a very successful businessman and when the peerage

2

b

b

The account of the love affair is largely based on the 89
letters which Ryokichi preserved and which were only
discovered in 1979. But the authors through much meticulous
research have provided a full account of Ryokichi's life andgive an interesting picture of the societies in Japan and in
Scotland in which Ryokichi and Jeannie lived.

Falling
Blossom

Kawada Ryokichi - Jeannie Eadie'sSamuraiJ

Falling
Blossomcovers a later period. It
traces the story of
Captain Arthur Hart
Synnot, DSO, a tallmoustachioed veteranof the Boer War andscion of a distinguishedmilitary family fromCounty Armagh, who
was posted to Tokyo as
an army language
student in 1904. Therehe fell in love with
Suzuki Masa, who was
working in the Japanese
officers club. Masa,
whom Arthur called
Dolly, was a pretty andat 26 a mature young woman, the daughter of a barber fromshitamachi who had had a brief and unsuccessful marriage.
The authors describe her as having 'a gentle smile, a rather
modest downcast look, and a delicate almost childlike
complexion.' Arthur asked Masa to become his housekeeper
and she helped him with his language studies. Quite soon
Arthur was sent to Manchuria where he was part of the British
observer mission with the Japanese army fighting theRussians. He kept in touch with Masa writing to her onjapansociety Japan Book Review: July 2006

J

Japanese paper in his elementary Japanese. Masa kept all his lettersand these provided the basis for the story of a love affair which lasted
until 1918. Arthur asked her to marry him and come with him to
Ireland, but she was reluctant fearing that she would not fit in or be
accepted by his family. But she did agree to spend some time with
Arthur when after he was posted away from Japan he managed to geta staff appointment in Hong Kong. Later he had to return to his
regiment and served in Burma where he was unhappy and Masa
could not join him. When the First World War broke out Arthur wasserving in India where Masa would have had a difficult time with thememsahibs. Arthur perhaps inevitably felt that he should be with thearmy in France and in due course he found himself in the trenches.
He was awarded a bar to his DSO and eventually promoted toBrigadier General. He had tried on a number of occasions to gethimself appointed as Military Attache in the British Embassy inTokyo, but perhaps because the authorities were aware of his
attachment to Masa he was never successful. He looked forward
instead to leaving the army when the war ended and joining Masa
back in Japan, but this was not to be. In 1918 Arthur lost both of his
legs in one of the final battles of the First World War. He managed topull through and learn to get around on artificial limbs, but he wasclearly daunted by the prospect of a long sea journey and wondered
how in his legless state he could cope with life in Japan. So perhaps
it was understandable that he decided to marry the nurse who looked
after him so kindly and who would fit in more easily into his family.
Masa, who had had two sons by him and who had been supported
by Arthur's modest remittances, reacted furiously to Arthur'smarriage. Eventually she accepted the inevitable and they continued
to correspond. His younger son died early, but his elder son, who was
known as Suzuki Kiyoshi and who died in Manchuria in Russian
captivity in 1947, deeply resented his father's behaviour. Arthur diedduring the Second World War while Masa lived on into the 1960s. She
had carefully kept all the letters Arthur had sent her in Japanese. He
had learnt to write elegantly formed characters and had kept up his
knowledge of the language despite his long periods away fromJapan.

Peter Pagnamenta and Momoko Williams at the Daiwa Foundation

The authors have carefully researched the background to the livesof the two lovers and draw an interesting picture of life as it would
have been experienced by Arthur and Masa.
The outcome for the two women, one a young Scottish girl and theother a pretty but faithful Japanese girl, was a sad one. Both stories
are absorbing and well worth reading as such, but both books also
throw much interesting light on social history.

japansociety Japan Book Review: July 2006

East and West China, Power, and the
Future of Asia,
by Christopher Patten
Times Books/Random House, 1998, 304 pages, including
bibliographical references and index, ISBN: 0812930002
Review by Sean Curtin
Chris Patten, now the Right Honourable Lord Patten ofBarnes and a recent Japan Society guest speaker, wrote thisthought-provoking book shortly after standing down as thelast ever British Governor of Hong Kong in 1997. Even though
it is rapidly approaching a decade since Britain's mostprosperous colony was returned to China, Patten's insights on
his five years of dealings with the Middle Kingdom are not
only still highly relevant but also enhance our understandingof the dynamics governing today's turbulent Tokyo-Beijingrelationship.
Somewhat unexpectedly the book offers a glimmer of hope
for China-Japan relations by providing a firm baseline withwhich to compare Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi's strained relationship with Beijing. Tensions with the
Chinese leadership largely stem from the Premier's
controversial visits to the contentious Yasukuni Shrine, which
honours 14 Class-A war criminals who China views as
responsible for the deaths of millions of Chinese. However,Patten's own difficulties with Beijing puts this bilateral friction
in much better perspective and actually demonstrates that
Chinese diplomacy today is far more progressive andsophisticated than it was a decade ago. True, there are echoesof the past in Beijing's criticisms of Koizumi, but the language
and arguments are infinitely more moderate and refined,reflecting the country's increasingly prominent position on the
global stage.
Compared to the endless barrage of harsh insults hurled at
the then Governor Patten, who amongst other things waslabelled "mad" "evil" and "the poisoned tango dancer," therhetoric about Koizumi's shrine pilgrimages seems balanced

3and restrained. New variants of some of the harder-edged
Chinese diplomatic tactics Patten experienced during thenineties are still recognizable today, but in considerable toneddown formats, offering the prospect that Beijing and Tokyo
will eventually be able to resolve their many differences.
Besides analyzing his choppy relationship with Beijing,
Patten also explores wider issues such as the so called "Asianvalues" argument. He passionately believes that democracy,
universal human values and individual rights are not alien
concepts in the Far East as the Asian Values theorists insist. Heviews proponents of the Asian values thesis as being merely
apologists for authoritarian and undemocratic regimes.
Interestingly, Patten shows that having a poor political
dialogue with Beijing does not necessarily affect bilateral tradeflows. He illustrates this point with US-China relations, whichflourished during the nineties at the zenith of Washington's
anti-China rhetoric. There are clear parallels today withbooming China-Japan economic links which perfectly coincidewith abysmal political ties. Chinese President Hu Jintao
characterizes Sino-Japanese bonds as "hot economically, butcool politically."
In his 1st June
speech to the Japan
Society, Lord Patten
touched on many ofthese themes aswell as a few
additional ones hedevelops in his newbook, "Not Quite
The
Diplomat"(soon to be featured
in Japan Book
Review).
He
reminded society
membersthat"China's rise creates
Lord Patten at the Annual Dinner
a whole new world"and predicted that"the way Japan handles its relations with China will also havean important impact on how the US and the EU deal with
China."
Lord Patten spoke warmly about his relations with Tokyo
while Governor, echoing comments in his book in which heobserves that Japanese firms were so efficient at winning
contracts in Hong Kong that sometimes it felt like "a Japanesecolony." He enjoyed excellent relations with Japanesediplomats in the territory and informed the audience that thecurrent Japanese Ambassador to the UK, His Excellency
Yoshiji Nogami, was an old colleague from his time as
Governor, when the Ambassador was the Consul General ofJapan to Hong Kong (1994-96).
Generating some laughter near the end of his speech, Lord
Patten confessed that he had first visited Japan as a young
British politician and his status as a junior lawmaker had
obliged him to participate in the unforgettable Hanamaki
noodle-eating contest in which, much to his regret, he flunked
out after just six bowls. His Japan Society speech, very much
reflects the contents of his book: a stimulating and witty pieceof work with excellent insights and analysis.

4Foreign Images and Experiences ofJapan: Volume I: First Century AD-1841
Compiled, edited and in part translated by William McOmie, Global
Oriental, Folkestone, 2005, 494 pages including glossary, bibliography and index, Black and white plate section, ISBN 1-901903-46-X.
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
This is the first comprehensive survey covering the observations and reports of foreigner visitors about Japan. It will bea very useful reference book for students and researchersinterested in the reactions of foreigners to Japan over some1800 years. Professor McOmie has trawled widely and withscholarly care through all the sources. His study of Russian,German and Dutch sources has yielded much unfamiliar
material.
The book is divided into two parts. In the first 97 pages hesurveys chronologically the various foreign visitors to Japan
who have left records of their impressions. McOmie is particularly interesting on the Russian visitors to Japan and notes(page xv) that "Russian records strongly suggest that they
were more successful in forming a genuine friendship with theJapanese, if only on an individual basis." He pays due attention to the most famous commentaries such as those of Frois,
Caron, Kaempfer, Thunberg, Golovnin and von Siebold, butalso quotes extensively from less well known sources.
The second part deals thematically with the observations offoreign visitors and includes copious quotations. These enable
readers to follow the changes in attitudes as the centuries
passed and to compare for instance what struck a Jesuit in thesixteenth century with the observations of 18th century visitors.
Although foreign observers were often critical of aspects ofJapan they were frequently impressed by "the great refinement" of Japanese social graces. Valignano, the Jesuit visitor in
the sixteenth century, stressed Japanese punctiliousness about
their honour. Thunberg, the Swedish doctor with the Dutch on
Dejima in the eighteenth century summed up his view of theJapanese, in a long string of adjectives, as being "in general
intelligent and provident, free and unconstrained, obedientand courteous, curious and inquisitive, industrious and ingenious, frugal and sober, cleanly, good-natured and friendly,

japansociety Japan Book Review: July 2006

upright and just, trusty and honest, mistrustful, superstitious,
proud, and haughty, unforgiving, brave and invincible."
Japanese cleanliness drew praise from many, but Japanesetraits which aroused many critical comments were theirpromiscuity and their cruelty. McOmie quotes (page 254) a
Dutch source of 1833 Overmeer Fisscher who found temples"given over to drunkenness and debauchery." Kaempfer (page248) was shocked to see "well-dressed and painted boys…who
could be had by rich clients travelling past for a repugnant,damned sum of money." Frois and Kaempfer both mentioned
the outcasts from Japanese society the eta and the hinin.
Some of the most interesting descriptions quoted by
McOmie are those of the cities which the foreigners visited.
Nagasaki was "one of the most attractive cities" (page 365)
with the natural beauty of its bay, but the Dutch settlement on
the artificial island of Deshima was seen for what it was "aprison" even if a rather comfortable one. Siebold was "put off
by the outmoded dress and mannerisms of the Dutch penned
up in the island (page 371)." Osaka and Kyoto impressed
many of the visitors. Edo (now Tokyo) was seen from the
beginning of the seventeenth century as the great city it had
become. Velasco (1609-10), the Spanish governor from Manila.
considered (page 378) the streets of the city as "far broader,longer and straighter than the streets of Spain. They are kept
so clean that you might well think that nobody ever walks
along them."
McOmie devotes a chapter to the "theme of the 'oppositeness' of Japanese culture vis á vis Western culture." Frois, thesixteenth century Jesuit, (page 387) "reported a much greater
frequency and acceptability of killing human beings in Japan
than in Europe, but a great reluctance to kill animals." Foreign
doctors such as Thunberg gave a very negative assessment ofJapanese medical knowledge.
The final chapter on "Audiences and Inspections" contains
some interesting accounts. The Jesuit Frois found the dictator
Oda Nobunaga cordial and welcoming, but later Dutch
envoys who were granted audiences with the Tokugawa
shoguns found the process pretty excruciating. Siebold (page463) complained about the empty ritual of calling on absent
lords: "Nowhere did we find the masters at home."
It would be interesting to know how far the observations ofthese foreign visitors reflect the real position as seen by
Japanese historians and how much value the foreign accounts
are to historians who are studying Japanese social history. But
it would have been a huge and difficult task to do the necessary research in Japanese histories. We should be grateful forwhat we have been given: this is a valuable and fascinatingcompendium.

The Blue Furoshiki
by Robert Harrison Crowder,Yasumasa Tanano, Robert Crowder
and Co, 2005, 81 pages, Black and white Illustrations, soft cover
Review by Susan House Wade
Though better known for his Japanese folding screen paintings, California-based artist and author Robert Crowder isalso a writer of prose and poetry, which detail accounts of his
Japanese experiences. In The Blue Furoshiki, he ventures
through time and place to recount bygone chapters of daily
life in Japan.

japansociety Japan Book Review: July 2006

Crowder lived in Japan between 1934 and 1943. During thistime, he taught English at the Fifth Imperial Higher School(now Kumamoto University), and was impacted very significantly by the natural environment which he observed during
his stay in Kyushu. He also studied tsuketate painting underNami Ogata and nihon-ga under Shunkoh Mochizuki, whowere instrumental in helping him to develop his inimitable
painting style.
Crowder travelled the length and breadth of Japan, finding
it relatively inexpensive and with few restrictions for the foreign enthusiast. He wrote a number of articles about thesetravels for Tourist magazine, which was published by theJapan Travel Bureau (begun as a small information kiosk inTokyo Station in 1912.) Foreign travellers relied heavily on
articles such as Crowder's to more effectively plan their journeys within Japan at that time. Between 1937 and 1940, themagazine carried 27 of his articles and five of his poems.
In December 1941, Crowder was unfortunately incarcerated
as a prisoner of war. After 18 months, he was returned to theUnited States as part of a prisoner exchange programme
between the two countries. A memoir of that time was published in Japan in 1996 under the title My Lost Japan (ISBN 47512-0636-2).
Comprising 44 poems, and accompanied by 10 of
Crowder's own block prints, The Blue Furoshiki brings to life
a Japan of what some might term a past age (but is it really?)
He dedicates this volume of poetry to 'the memory of happydays in Japan,' and indeed he recalls those images vividly.
Crowder beckons to the reader:
Untie this Blue Furoshiki, - And discover, - Traced impressions- from - a faded Past.
Flowering trees, mountains and streams all form a vivid
composite of Crowder's time in Japan. Temples and shrines
and their precincts are explored seemingly inch by inch, while
his travel experiences are also carefully considered
Not only do the words evoke his own happy memories, butthey do the same for the many readers who have had theopportunity to spend similar pleasant times in Japan. Those
who do not know the country well begin to sense the importance of seasonality and nature in Japanese life.

5

As with his folding screens, which have recently included
depictions of Endangered Species of Japan, (exhibited in
Doizaki Gallery, Japanese American Cultural Center, Los
Angeles, 2002), Crowder demonstrates here a very special talent for understanding and presenting the elements of his experiences from a very unique perspective. The reader moves
effortlessly through Japan with Crowder as his guide.
In The Pottery Show (p32), Crowder exclaims with delightat having found just the right piece of Oribe ware - 'that greenof violent, yet subtle hue,' at a show at The Cultural Center.
This, after having admired the ruby red and brown and blue - teapots, bowls, plates and sake cups. Now approaching 95,
the descriptions of Japanese life as outlined by Crowder seemas vivid today as they must have been nearly 70 years ago.
A useful multi-page glossary provides explanations as tothe terminology which may be unknown to some readers.
Crowder's work The Cloth (p43) effectively captures his
life's ambitious desire:Life! -Brilliant - As- A Butterfly.

violence and horrific retribution. Ninagawa masterfully utilizes these extremes to create a brilliant new interpretation
which creates the illusion that Japanese is Shakespeare's original language.
The basic plot revolves around the triumphant homecoming of
the battle-weary Roman General Titus Andronicus (Kotaro
Yoshida) from war with the Goths. He brings with him theGoth Queen Tamora (Rei Asami) and her three sons as captives. The bloody juggernaut of revenge is set in motion when
Titus has Tamora's first born-son sacrificed in recompense forthe death of his own sons. To even the score, Tamora's two surviving sons rape Titus' gentle daughter Lavinia (Hitomi
Manaka) and afterwards cut off her hands and tongue. For
good measure they frame Titus' sons in a murder, and theinnocent lads are subsequently executed, but not before poor
Titus is tricked into chopping off his own hand in a vain bid tosave his boys.
Enraged by the mutilation of his daughter and slaughter of hissons, Titus plots a stomach-churning revenge in which he kills
Tamora's sons, pulps their corpses into a pie which he thentricks Tamora into consuming before the blood-drenched, highbody-count climax.

Death? - Somber - As - A MothAnd - In Between - It's - Up To Me - To - Weave - A - Golden Cloth.
The Blue Furoshiki is available from: Robert Crowder and Co.,930
North Hancock Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90069 Price $15.00
US plus shipping, Email: MyLostJapan@aol.com (English andJapanese)

Titus Andronicus
Directed by Yukio Ninagawa, produced by Horipro Inc and
the Saitama Arts Foundation in association with Thelma Holt,
Performed by the Ninagawa Company at the Royal
Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon from 16th to 24th
June 2006, supported by The Daiwa Anglo-JapaneseFoundation
Review by Sean Curtin

As part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's the Complete
Works Festival, legendary director Yukio Ninagawa's Japanese
language production of Shakespeare's bloodiest play wastransported around the globe to Stratford-upon-Avon for justten performances. Although Titus Andronicus is not so frequently performed, it's a strangely compelling tale of intense

6

The raw brutality of Shakespeare's earliest tragedy probably
explains why the play is so infrequently performed, but thischallenge appears to have attracted Ninagawa to stage it.
Tsukasa Nagagoshi's pure white set designed forms the sanitized arena within which the inhuman revenge of Tamora andTitus is graphically conjured forth. It is dominated by a large
white statue of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a huge
wolf.
Ninagawa brilliantly exploits the contrasting elements of theplay to spellbinding effect, drawing the audience ever deeper
into its dark heart. So successful is his interpretation, thatJapanese feels the natural medium for the tragedy. This is agreat achievement as many Japanese language Shakespearean
productions suffer from the sense that they are somehow faintimitations of a greater work. Ninagawa, or Big Nina as producer and fellow collaborator Thelma Holt calls him, had thescript especially translated into Japanese by Kazuo Matsuoka
to achieve this effect for what he says is the right and faithfulsense of the original.
Ninagawa
andHolt's partnership
succeeds in bridging
thegulf
betweenthe
EnglishandJapanese literary
worlds. Ninagawa
believes that Titus
reflects "today's
turbulent world, aworld beset withendless war in one
place or another."
Thelma Holt and Yukio Ninagawa at the Royal
Before seeing the
Shakespeare Theatre
play, I asked him if
he did not find it an incredible challenge to stage such a
bloody and horrific work, one in which it is hard to feel any
empathy for the characters, apart from the tragic Lavinia who
is raped, mutilated and ultimately murdered by her own
father. He replied, "Isn't the world like that today?" I said I
thought planet earth was more cheerful, but I have to admitthat his sheer genius as a producer has succeeded in creating
an amazing interpretation of Shakespeare's darkest play,seamlessly spanning the cultural divide.

japansociety Japan Book Review: July 2006

Professor Hirakawa makes some cogent points about the
impact of Western culture in Japan symbolised by the
Rokumeikan (literally 'the deer cry pavilion'), designed by the
British architect Josiah Conder, where at the height of thewestern cultural boom in the 1880s balls and fancy dress
parties were held. The excesses of the westernisation
movement led to an inevitable counter-reaction. Hirakawa
notes (page 207): "how to mature in the society of nations is the
problem of the Japanese in their dealings with others. Insteadof indefinitely staying in their introvert stage of one-sided
dependency, what the Japanese now must learn is how tobuild up effective networks of interdependence." In thiscontext his essay on Akutagawa Ryunosuke's short story
based on an account of a ball by Pierre Loti, the author
Madame Chrysanthème is fascinating. Akutagawa's story(page 145) "suggests the transient nature of all humanactivities. The French naval officer mutters at the end of theevening: 'I was thinking of the fireworks. The fireworks, likeour lives. '"Japan's Love-Hate Relationship with theWest,by Sukehiro Hirakawa,
Global Oriental, Folkestone, 2005, ISBN 1-901903-81-8, 557 pages(including index).
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Sukehiro Hirakawa is Professor Emeritus at Tokyo
University and has specialised in intercultural relations. He
has taught at universities in France, North America and China.
He translated Dante's Divine Comedy into Japanese.
Professor Hirakawa in a postscript (page 544) emphasises
the importance "for Westerners to study not only the life andthought of the Orient but also to study those of the Occident
from the Oriental points of view." This book is a significant
contribution to this task. It is written in good clear English anddemonstrates the width of the author's knowledge andcultural understanding. For anyone interested in Japanese
literature and Japan's relations with the rest of the world thisbook contains much of interest as well as insights into a wide
range of historical as well as cultural issues. It is dedicated "To
the greatest of Japan interpreters: George Sansom and Arthur
Waley."
I cannot in a brief review hope to draw attention to all the
many fascinating articles in this book. Inevitably the following
comments reflect my own interests and perhaps prejudices.
Readers with other interests and attachments will no doubt
become absorbed in other essays.
For me, one of the most interesting pieces in this collection
was Chapter 2-7 in which Professor Hirakawa compares the
autobiographies of Fukuzawa Yukichi and Benjamin Franklin.
Hirakawa draws attention to the frank way in which boththese great figures wrote and admitted "the part played byvanity in our lives." He concludes provocatively that if read in
English Franklin's autobiography is the more interesting but if
read in Japanese Fukuzawa's is "far more interesting."
Certainly Fukuzawa's autobiography is a fascinating story andtells us much about life before the Meiji restoration.

japansociety Japan Book Review: July 2006

Professor Hirakawa often takes up the theme of racial
discrimination. Uchimura Kanzo is upset by being thought ofby Americans as a "Chinaman" but as Hirakawa points out his
resentment was not just racial. He "resented being identified
with manual labourers when he was the holder of an official
position with the Japanese government (page 219)." Uchimura
was also disappointed by how professed Christians behavedin America and by the "lock-and-key" culture he encountered
there. In his article on The Yellow Peril and the White Peril
Professor Hirakawa draws attention to Anatole France's Sur la
Pierre Blanche published in 1905, which I regret to say that I
have never read. He notes that Anatole France had "a strong
sense of empathy for and psychological understanding of the
oppressed underdog." Hirakawa traces these views back to
Voltaire writing about relations with China in 1764. In thiscontext he does not accept (page 237) the views of right-wing
intellectuals who attempt to justify Japan's role in the war inSoutheast Asia on the grounds that Japan's action led to thecountries escaping from colonial domination. This was, hepoints out, the result of the power vacuum resulting from theexpulsion of western forces from the area.
The essay on Natsume Soseki and the Scottish Australian
historian James Murdoch (chapter 3-4) contains much ofinterest on both their characters. He thinks (page 266) that
Sansom's verdict on Murdoch (Murdoch "presented Japan as
seen through spectacles made in Aberdeen about 1880") was
less than fair.
Most foreigners find the Japanese concept of haragei(literally 'stomach art' but implying the conveying of meaning
without actually saying what you mean) difficult tounderstand. Professor Hirakawa's essay (chapter 4-1) entitled"Signals of Peace not received: Premier Suzuki Kantaro's
efforts to end the Pacific War" provides an illuminating
commentary on this problem.
Another fascinating historical essay is that on the English
pacificist and scholar of Haiku "R.H. Blyth and Hirohito's
Denial of the 'Divine' Nature of the Japanese Emperor (chapter
4-2)." This brings out the important role played by Admiral
Yamanashi Katsunoshin, whom I only knew when he was inhis second childhood, and demonstrates that the Imperial
Rescript of 1 January 1946 with the words rejecting "the false
concept that the Emperor is divine, and that the Japanesepeople are superior to other races and fated to rule the world7

(page 309)" was made on Japanese initiative and not imposedby the Americans.
The essays on literature especially on Arthur Waley, theNoh and Dante, but also on Mori Ogai are absorbing andinformative.
It is a pity that in the essay (chapter 4-3) on prisoners in
Burma Professor Hirakawa did not have the benefit of Phillida
Purvis's account of the life and work of the late Louis Allen in
Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits Volume V, Global
Oriental 2004. I also regret that the Professor in his comments
on Rudyard Kipling does not seem to have been aware of
Kipling's response to Japan as seen in his account of his visits
to Japan (Kipling's Japan, edited by Hugh Cortazzi andGeorge Webb, Athlone Press, 1988).
I also think that he is rather unfair about Basil Hall
Chamberlain. Chamberlain was no doubt prejudiced in his
judgements on Japanese literature and the English speaking
world needed the genius of Arthur Waley to enlighten them
about the strengths of Japanese literature, but Chamberlain
was not the only pioneer writer on Japanese literature. W.G.
Aston and F.V. Dickins surely deserve an honourable mention
even if they too had limited horizons. And what about theGerman Karl Florenz or French scholars such as Bonneau?
I have my doubts about the book's title, which ispresumably deigned to attract attention but it is about much
more than the title suggests.
This review was originally written for Asian Affairs.

from within and outside the region. Contributors' nationalities
cover China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, thePhilippines, Singapore, Thailand, and the USA. As such, this iscurrently one of the best sources of analysis in understanding
the issues that surround ASEAN and Japan.
In the relationship between Japan and AEAN nations, there
are three focal points. Firstly, though the dust has largely settled since the 1997-98 ASEAN financial crises, scarcely any oneof the ASEAN nations has become shock-proof. Some have yet
to recover fully. The region-wide financial architecture has tobe made more solvent.
Secondly, China has grown, both economically and strategically, so fast that virtually no nation can remain indifferent.
Emerging is a set of complex and fluid triangular relationshipsthat sometimes involve Japan, Korea, and China, other times
the US, ASEAN, and China, and so on. China is a giant neighbour, forcing both ASEAN and Japan to conduct prolonged
mind-searching. One can read the book as part of the responses of that ongoing search.
Thirdly, post-911, the US is in the course of changing its
defence posture in order to cope with asymmetrical warfare,
while at the same time enhancing its military dominance overthe East Asia-ASEAN region. Response to this varies fromnation to nation.
A product of two sit-in workshops involving the chapter
contributors, the book has succeeded in crystallising some of
the urgent issues that ASEAN and Japan both face, a rarity fora book with as many as 17 authors. Starting with "Overviews",
the book is divided into: ASEAN and Japan as regional units;
economic relations; political-security relationships; cooperation in societal and cultural areas; and changing international
environments and their implications.
Still, some of the key concepts with which one foresees the
future ASEAN-Japan map need yet more thorough debate.
One author depicted a key conception of the "East Asian
Community" thus. "The ultimate logic is that an East Asian
Community could function as a multilateral group that could
stand up to the United States; in a case like the war against
Iraq, it could pressure the United States to act prudently
according to the principles of international cooperation. The
purpose would be not to counterbalance the power of theUnites States, but to confront it in a constructive manner andto accommodate it when it leads with prudence" (page 53).

ASEAN-Japan
Cooperation:
A
Foundation for East Asian Community,
Tadashi Yamamoto and Charles Morrison, et. al.,Japan Center for International Exchange, 2003, 236 pages, ISBN: 488907-071-0
Review by Tomohiko Taniguchi
This collection of essays is well timed. It appeared before
the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit that took place inTokyo in mid-December 2003, so that as Tadashi Yamamoto,the main editor notes, the book could contribute to the
ASEAN-Japan leaders meeting.
It also succeeded in pulling together 17 of the leading, andconceivably the most informed, scholars and opinion makers

8

How in practice the Community could "pressure" or "confront in a constructive manner" the US whilst maintaining a"counterbalance" remains murky at best. It is to be pointed outthat very little is achievable simply by letting ideas skatearound that way.
By comparison Takashi Kiuchi's chapter on "the future of
ASEAN-Japan financial relations" stands out as one of themost succinct analyses on the crisis that hit the region andwhat has followed since. Unsurprisingly, one learns morefrom the analytical chapters than those that addressed futurescenarios. Though this is not to deny the importance for us all
to engage in scenario-writing efforts to better conceive what
the future ASEAN-Japan relation may be like.
This review first appeared on the GLOCOM Platform
http://www.glocom.org/ and is reproduced with permission.