japansociety
Japan-UK Review
Japan Book Review - Japan Stage, Movie, Arts and Event Review

Volume 1 No. 6 December 2006

Editor: Sean Curtin

Contents

Managing Editor: Clare Barclay
Our last issue of 2006 reviews an exciting selection of new books ideal forthe rapidly approaching holiday season. We also launch our new Arts Review
feature with a look at two recently published works, both offered at specially
discounted prices for our readers. As those who visit our website regularly will
already know, we are now reviewing much more than books and havewidened our scope to cover movies, the stage, arts and Japan related events.
Our expanded activities mean it is no longer possible to include everything we
review in print, but on our website you will be able to find the "full Monty" aswell as an extensive archive of book reviews. Links to all the new material andon-line features are also included in this issue.
Finally, from all our regular reviewers and the staff of the Japan Society, a
big thank you to our readers for their support, comments and helpful feedback
during the year. In 2007 we will endeavor to maintain the momentum withmore in-depth quality reviews. Seasons greetings and a good 2007

Sean Curtin
New reviews: www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews.html
Archive reviews: http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews_archive.html(1) Mrs. Ferguson's Tea-Set, Japan and
The Second World War(2) Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, andNationalisms(3) Nationalism and Internationalism inImperial Japan(4) Japan and the Illustrated London
News(5) Edo no igirisu netsu(6) Pars Japonica: The First Dutch
Expedition to Reach the Shores of Japan(7) Japanese Popular Prints - fromvotive slips to playing cards(8) A Japanese Menagerie Animal pictures by Kawanabe Kyosai(9) Madmen in the Courtyard

Japan Book Review
Mrs Ferguson's
Tea-Set, Japan and
The Second World
War: The Global
Consequences
Following
Germany's
Sinking of the SS
Automedon in1940
by Eiji Seki,ISBN 978-1-905246-28-1, pp 187 including plate section, notes, bibliography and index, Global Oriental, 2006, £20.
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
The SS Autmedon was sunk by the German raider Atlantis,
masquerading as the British auxiliary cruiser Antenor on 11
November 1940 south-West of Achin Head on the north-western tip of Sumatra on her way to Penang. The Germans discovered on the ship 'Most Secret' papers being sent to the

British Commander-in-Chief in the Far East. These 'contained
extremely detailed information on the Royal Navy's and the
RAF's armaments and positions, the defence of Singapore andpossible response measures to Japanese aggression, as well as
an analysis of the roles of Australia and New Zealand.' This
was a hugely important find and steps were taken by theGerman commander of the Atlantis, Captain Rogge, to ensurethat these papers were delivered as soon as possible toGerman intelligence in Japan. They were then soon in
Japanese hands.
Ambassador Eiji Seki, the author of this book, thinks that
the Japanese misinterpreted the intelligence in these documents which were out of date by the time the papers reachedthem. He believes that this was an influential factor in theJapanese decision to attack Pearl Harbour and open hostilities
in December 1941.
The story which Seki relates in this book is a fascinating one
and I found it difficult to put it down. He describes in graphic detail the voyage of the Automedon and the action which led
to her loss. He follows the survivors from her crew and passengers through their hardships, captivity and release as wellas the adventures of those who managed to escape. The reader also learns what happened to them after the war ended.
Two survivors attended the launch of the book at Daiwa Japan
House in London on 2 November 2006.

japansociety

Japan-UK Review: December 2006

Seki also provides an account of the actions and fate of theAtlantis and of its captain who survived to become commander of NATO forces responsible for the defence of northern
Germany.
It is hard to understand today why these most secret documents were sent not by a warship but on a merchant ship
which might be intercepted and sunk. Communications atthat time were difficult and air transport was not only very
limited but equally dangerous. Even so and despite the factthat they were in the hands of an experienced and reliablemaster such as Captain Ewan of the Automedon, with instructions to destroy or sink the documents in the event of an emergency, the decision to send these documents by a merchantship was odd. In fact, as Seki explains, it was only by a seriesof misfortunes that the documents were discovered. The
German raider's instructions to the Automedon not to send out
a distress call was not obeyed for understandable reasons andthe Atlantis then shelled the British ship's bridge killing the
Captain and either killing or seriously wounding other senior
officers. Second officer Stewart who had been injured tried toget at the mailbags in the strong-room but the key had disappeared and before he could act a German boarding party
reached the ship. Even so the Germans might not have foundthe mailbags if it had not been for the innocent request of oneof the passengers Mrs Violet Ferguson, who was on her way to
Singapore with her husband, that her belongings be rescued if
possible. Captain Rogge agreed to help her and as a result Mrs
Ferguson's luggage, including her tea-set, was collected fromthe Automedon and the mailbags were discovered before theship was sunk.
This book is a reminder that the threat to British shipping
came not only from German U-boats but also from surface
raiders about which less has been written. The story is a salutary lesson in the importance of maintaining document security. It also underlines the fact that even the most significant
documentary intelligence can be misinterpreted by wishful
thinking and over-optimism.
The heroism of the merchant seamen who suffered so muchand of the many who lost their lives in the conflict is rightly
brought out by this story. The author gives due praise to
Captain Rogge who treated his captives with consideration,
but he also draws attention to the cases of ill-treatment of prisoners, especially of East Europeans, in Nazi Germany.
Ambassador Seki in investigating this story has done ahuge amount of painstaking research and he is to be congrat-

Kamikaze, Cherry
Blossoms, andNationalisms: The
Militarization of
Aesthetics inJapanese History.
By Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney.
The University of Chicago Press,
2002. xvii + 411 pages.
Review by Ben-Ami Shillony

2(First appeared in Monumenta Nipponica, summer 2003)
This is a fascinating book. On the one hand it is a historicaltreatise, an attempt to understand how and why intelligent
and idealist Japanese students, after being drafted in WorldWar II, succumbed to the militaristic ideology and sacrificed
themselves as kamikaze pilots for the oppressive state which
they disliked. On the other hand, it is an anthropologicalresearch into the meaning and role of cherry blossoms inJapanese culture. The novelty of Ohnuki-Tierney's approach isthat she combines the two spheres into a coherent theory of theuses and abuses of aesthetics by modern totalitarian regimes.
She is probably the first scholar to introduce flowers into
historical discourse.
As the author shows, the ubiquitous cherry blossoms, with
their white and pink petals that scatter in the air with the firstwind, have been associated, for a very long time, with Japanand the Japanese. They have symbolized the land and thepeople, joy and youth, romance and love, creation andprocreation, beauty and purity, the impermanence of life andthe glorious death of warriors. No other flower has been
similarly discussed, portrayed in pictures, described in poems,
and romanticized. So much so that the very word hana(flower) came to designate cherry blossoms. The affinity
between this flower and the Japanese appears in the 1790 poemof the kokugaku writer Motoori Norinaga, which equates theJapanese spirit (yamato-gokoro) with the fragrance of the wild
cherry blossom (yama-zakura) in early morning.
Ohnuki-Tierney writes that the Meiji government, intent on
turning the Japanese into an obedient and self-sacrificing
nation, exploited and manipulated the aesthetic sensibilities ofthe people. It changed the meaning of cherry blossoms from abenign symbol of cultural self-identity into a malignant
symbol of nationalism and aggression. The transformation
started in the 1870s, when the government planted cherry trees
on the grounds of the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, where thesouls of the fallen soldiers were enshrined. As a result, thecherry blossoms came to represent the brave soldiers and theirrebirth as flowers in the Yasukuni Shrine. The official history of
the shrine, published in the mid-1930s, carried cherry blossom
decorations on its cover. The military adopted this flower
enthusiastically: cherry blossom petals decorated the insignia
of the imperial army and navy, and cherry trees were plantedon military bases, replacing the pine trees that had grownaround the old castles. As the empire expanded so did thecherry trees which were planted in the overseas colonies andterritories.
The book dwells on the student kamikaze pilots in World War
II. Drafted students constituted more than eighty percent of
the navy kamikaze pilots and about one half of the army
kamikaze pilots. As the author demonstrates, these pilots werea far cry from the western image of blood-thirsty and fanatic
warriors. They came from the best universities, had a thoroughwestern education, were influenced by romanticism andMarxism, and some of them were Christians who carried
Bibles on their suicide planes. As young idealists, theysacrificed themselves for what they believed was the noble
cause of saving Japan from destruction. They did not die forthe emperor or for a god. Their belief in rebirth as flowers in
Yasukuni Shrine was a romantic dream rather than a religious
conviction. When the kamikaze squadrons were formed in 1944,
they were given names related to cherry blossoms, such as
Hatsu-zakura tai (First Cherry Blossom Corps) or Waka-zakuratai (Young Cherry Blossom Corps). The "special attack"airplanes carried an emblem of cherry petals, and the suicide
gliders were called oka (cherry blossom). As many of thesorties took place in the spring of 1945, there were pilots whojapansociety Japan-UK Review: December 2006

carried cherry blossoms on their uniforms (one of themappears on the cover of the book). They saw themselves as
flowers scattered in the defense of Japan. Thus the military
authorities exploited the impact of cherry blossoms on theJapanese psyche to convince the skeptic students to sacrificethemselves for the state.
Ohnuki-Tierney does an important job in presenting thefallen students' writings to western readers. She claims that"the extensive writings left by the pilots have never been
introduced in non-Japanese-language books, except for a few
wills and other writings that fit the image of warriors whodied for the sake of the emperor" (p. 20). But she is not the firstto do so. Two years before the appearance of this book, an
English translation of the famous collection of writings byfallen student pilots Kike wadatsumi no koe was publishedunder the title Listen to the Voices from the Sea (tr. Midori
Yamanouchi and Joseph L. Quinn, S.J., Scranton University
Press, 2000). Ohnuki-Tierney's book focuses on five student
pilots whose writings, in the form of diaries and letters, were
published after the war by relatives and friends. From theirwritings all five appear very sophisticated and intelligent. The
appendix lists the amazing number of 1,356 books in Japanese,
German, French and English that these students read in theirshort lives. This raises the questions of how representativethese five students were, to what extent their frame of mind
also characterized other student pilots, and how much were
they different from the non-student soldiers, who also diedbravely in war. It would have been interesting to compare theirwritings with those of other soldiers who died in battle. The
author acknowledges the existence of an "invaluable
collection" of published letters of fallen soldiers from Iwate
Prefecture, but she defers its examination to a "anotherproject" (p. 187). She explains that she chose these welleducated and broad minded students because they were "themost unlikely group of Japanese" to sacrifice their lives in war(pp. 19-20). This assumption ignores the fact that intelligent
and idealist young people in many other countries did thesame in the wars of the twentieth century.
The author regards the harnessing of aesthetics to politics asa fascist phenomenon, following Walter Benjamin's famous
saying that fascism aestheticizes politics, while communism
politicizes art. Insightful as this saying sounds, exploitation ofaesthetics by the state did not start in modern times and it is
not limited to fascist regimes. The Romans did it in theirmonumental architecture, the French did it in Napoleon's
triumphal marches, and the Soviets did it in their politicalrallies. The poem asserting that it is "sweet and noble" to die
for the "fatherland" was not composed by a European fascist ora Japanese militarist but, as the author admits, by the Roman
poet Horace in the first century BC. (p. 277). The blending ofart with military values existed for centuries in bushido, zen,
and the martial arts of Japan. When the Meiji government set
out to eulogize the "fallen" soldiers who died in the internal
struggles in the wake of the restoration, it followed thewestern pattern at that time of referring to dead soldiers as
having "fallen" (although in the west the image was of fallentrees rather than of scattered flowers).
Throughout the book a distinction is made between
patriotism, i.e. "the individual sentiment of love of one's
country without political dimension" (p. 191), which isconsidered to be natural and noble, and nationalism, i.e.
loyalty to a political unit and a political leader, which iscondemned as evil. This distinction is a historical, as the twohave usually gone together. When the British fought for kingand country, when the French fought for the revolution and
Napoleon, and when the Russians fought for motherland andStalin, were they patriots or nationalists? The fact that prewar

japansociety Japan-UK Review: December 2006

Japanese liberals espoused nationalism should not surprisethe author and need not be explained by the existence of"feudalistic remnants," as Japanese historians tend to do.
Liberalism and nationalism did not contradict each other in
the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and western
liberals were often as nationalistic as their Japanesecounterparts.
There are some factual inaccuracies in this book. The
Satsuma Rebellion took place in 1877 and not in 1876 (p. 81),
Admiral Togo's great victory was in the naval battle of
Tsushima and not in the battle of Port Arthur (p. 109), the2600th anniversary of the legendary establishment of Japanwas in 1940 and not in 1872 (p. 132), the Showa emperor neversigned the Potsdam Declaration (p. 99), Dalian was not a"small village in northeastern China" (p. 181) but an important
port there, Mishima committed suicide in 1970 and not in 1969
(p. 119), and "nikudan" means human bullets and not humancannons (p. 113).
These small faults should not obscure the importantmessage of this book, that our aesthetic sensibilities are in
constant danger of being manipulated by the state forpurposes that we do not support. The cherry-blossom petals
that Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney showers in this study on our
historic consciousness are a timely reminder.

Nationalism andInternationalism
in Imperial Japan :Autonomy, Asian
brotherhood, or
world
citizenship?.
By Dick Stegewerns (ed.),Routledge, 2003, xiv + 253 pp.
ISBN 0-700-71496-0
Review by Ian Nish

As the author of a book on Japan's Struggle with
Internationalism, I have already encountered the perplexing
problems which the scholars who have contributed essays tothis book have been researching. The editor has assembled astrong team of experts who analyse how different generationsof opinion leaders tried as the twentieth century developed tosolve what they perceived as a dilemma: how to reconcile
nationalism, the desire for a politically and culturally
autonomous Japan, with internationalism, the desire to have arole in a pluralistic liberal world.
After a theoretical introduction, Part II of the book consistsof five specialist studies of important thinkers from the Meiji
and Taisho periods : Fukuzawa Yukichi who died in 1901;
Tokutomi Soho whose long career as a publicist over-arched
the period from the 1880s to 1957; Nitobe Inazo whose
publications in English range from 1900 to his death in 1933;
Ishii Kikujiro, a diplomat who was thrown into the politicalarena; and Yoshino Sakuzo who was an active publicist from1910 to his death in 1933. In Part III there are equally importantcase studies drawn from the early Showa period (1926-41) on
Royama Masamichi, Ishibashi Tanzan and Yokomitsu Riichi,
though some of these overlap with those in Part II. In addition,3

the contributors mention many more thinkers who do not
qualify for a separate chapter to themselves.
Politicians who had to balance these issues in practice
shared the same dilemma and were unquestionably
influenced by these thinkers. In general those covered in thisvolume are not academics but intellectuals who had had theprivilege of travelling abroad and were sensitive to global
problems. Their prime concern is with finding a place for aresurgent Japan in the context of broader international society.
In the main their ideas are carried in mass circulation journals,
published weekly or monthly, rather than textbooks; and sothey are names fairly well-known and respected in Japanesesociety. This is a group of individuals which does not have aparallel in the west.
But they were addressing a problem which was not uniqueto Japan. Nationalism and internationalism are difficult terms
which require definition and, even when defined,
interpretation. For Japan there is the problem of translatingthese western concepts appropriately into Japanese. Thinkers
in other countries, not least in Britain, had a similar problem
in reconciling the interests of the nation-state and the interestsof internationalism. It was easier for non-Japanese publicists to'toe the internationalist line' because their countries were, after
the carnage of the first world war, less ambitious and inclined
to rest on their laurels. Japan, on the other hand, had grappledwith the creation of a modern nation-state amid fears of
foreign intrusion and had known international success in wars
with China and Russia. It was hard, therefore, for Japanesepublicists to advocate international restraint at a time when
the generality of the public had built up considerable
expectations in return for their sacrifice. That was why, whena world body was set up in the form of the League of Nations,Japanese intellectuals rushed to support it and hoped toreconcile membership in it with the prevailing nationalism of
the 1920s. This was a struggle and many of those in thesestudies changed their minds during their lifetimes as the
trajectory of Japan's development changed.
It would be invidious to draw special attention to any one
study in this book. The standard of the research, writing andpresentation is very high. It deals with an important aspect ofJapan's prewar history and illustrates the doubts anduncertainties felt in intellectual circles. It illustrates a diversity
which is a useful corrective to many studies of 1930s Japan.
This is a volume which will be valuable for historians, politicalscientists and general observers of the Japanese scene as theclimate of debate changed in the 1930s.

Japan
and
the
Illustrated London
News: Complete
record of Reported
Events 1853-1899,
Compiled and introduced by
Terry Bennett,
Global Oriental, 2006, 411 pages
includingindex,
fully
illustrated, £125, ISBN 1901903-26-5,
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

4

The Illustrated London News was among the first journals
to carry illustrations of contemporary events. The journal,
which started in 1842 before the advent of photography, had torely until 1887 on engravings printed from woodblocks. The
first article in the Illustrated London News relating to Japan
appeared in May 1853. It was devoted to 'The United states
Expedition to Japan' and included a portrait of Commodore
Perry and an engraving of the US Navy's steam Frigate
Mississippi. In 1855 Admiral Stirling's visit to Nagasaki wascovered in some detail and sketches of Nagasaki werereproduced.
The most interesting reports in the journal were thosecontributed in the years between 1861 and 1887 by the artist
Charles Wirgman (1832-1891) who founded and edited theJapan Punch, a satirical record of life in the foreign settlement.
He was a talented artist who had the ability to draw quickly.
He had an engaging personality and became a close friend ofErnest Satow, who was then a young Japanese language
student, but who became the leading Japan expert of his era
and British Minister to Japan from 1895-1900.
One of Wirgman's earliest reports was an account of themurderous attack on the British Legation then housed in thetemple of Tozenji at Shinagawa which was in those days not
far from the water's edge. With this report, among otherillustrations of the affair, he included a sketch showing
Japanese ronin attacking two British members of the legation
There were some unfortunate gaps in Wirgman's reporting.
There is, for instance, no account of the infamous Namamugi
incident in 1863 when Richardson, a British merchant from
Shanghai, was murdered while riding on the Tokaido. This led
in due course to the British expedition against Satsuma andthe bombardment of Kagoshima. Wirgman, however,managed to join this expedition and gave an account of theaction. He also accompanied the forces which destroyed thebatteries in the straits of Shimonoseki in 1864 and thus
reopened the straits to foreign shipping. His graphic
illustrations of these events are fascinating.
Wirgman later cooperated with the pioneer photographer
Felix Beato, turning landscape photos of Yokohama and Tokyo
into engravings which could be reproduced in double spreads
in the magazine. The development of sepia photography in the
1880s revolutionized the way in which the journal covered
events. The Sino-Japanese war of 1894-5 was reported andillustrated in some detail and the ILN had something of ascoop.
The production of this book clearly involved a great deal ofwork not least in extracting the references to Japan. The
original text was handset in small type and was hard to read.
In this edition typesetting errors have been corrected andlarger type used. The book of items relating to Japan which
was published in 1973 with translations of articles into
Japanese was incomplete and inadequate; a new full edition of
the original articles and illustrations was needed.
Students of the history of Japan and in particular of Japan's
relations with foreign countries in the second half of thenineteenth century will find this book invaluable. It contains
contemporary eye-witness accounts of events and profiles ofimportant individuals together with illustrations which showmuch better than descriptive prose what the life was like atthat time. The source material in this book is in many ways
unique. At first there were no Japanese language newspapers,

japansociety Japan-UK Review: December 2006

and English language papers published in Yokohama
generally did not carry illustrations. Anyone, however,looking for a contemporary analysis of the course of events or
explanation of the background to for instance the Meiji
Restoration and the movement for a constitution will bedisappointed. Perhaps it is unreasonable to hope for this froma popular illustrated journal.
The publishers are to be congratulated on reproducing thisunique resource for historians, but this is not just a book forspecialists. It can be read with pleasure and interest by anyone
who wants to know what Japan was like in the latter part ofthe 19th century. Let us hope that this book will be aforerunner for a further volume covering the Russo-Japanese
war and later events.

Edo no igirisu
netsu: rondonbashi to rondondokei (TheImage ofEngland in the
Edo Period:
London Bridgeand London
Clocks),by
Timon
Screech,translated by Kazuhiro
Murayama,
Kodansha, Tokyo, 2006, 254 pages, ISBN 4-06-258352-6
Review by Sean CurtinThis is a fact-packed scholarly study of the image ofEngland in Edo Japan. It is crammed full of great illustrations
as well as a host of fascinating information on the yoyo-like
history of the British presence in Japan and their fluctuating
image. The English East India Company first set up shop in theLand of the Rising Sun in 1613, but within a decade wereforced to quit, departing in 1623. The subsequent Civil War
prevented their return until the end of the century. When they
did re-establish a presence, the Brits were initially welcomed,
but the rival Dutch East India Company was reluctant to giveup its monopoly on the Japanese market. So, it pulled out thestops to blacken and blur the English name, eventually
succeeding in pushing the British out of the country once
more. In 1813 they bounced back to restart trade for a thirdtime, on this occasion in a mission sent by Stanford Raffles (ofSingapore fame). However, not before too long they were yetagain made to withdraw, before once more yo-yoing back withthe opening up of the country in the 1850s. This book analyzes
the fascinating two centuries between 1613 and 1813, whichhave not been extensively studied in English or Japanese. The
project grew out at a talk Dr. Screech delivered for the Japan
Society during Asian Art Week, 2003

Pars Japonica: The
First
Dutch
Expedition
to
Reach the Shoresof Japan,by William de Lange,
Floating World Editions, 2006,
268 pages including index, notes,
sources and17 illustrations, 21
maps & charts, ISBN 1-89164023-2
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
The long subtitle to this book reads: 'How a seafaring raid
on the coast of South America met with disaster and how,against all odds, one ship was eventually brought to the shoresof Japan by the English pilot Will Adams, the hero of Shogun.'William de Lange, through his careful research into Dutch,
English, Japanese and German sources, has produced a book,which gives a new perspective to the arrival of William Adams
in Japan in 1600. A good deal has been written about Adams
and his contributions to the development of trade relations
with Japan and his relationship with Tokugawa Ieyasu, but
comparatively little has appeared about the voyage of the
Dutch fleet of five ships, of which the Liefde (Love) with Adams
as the pilot was one. This interesting book thus fills a gap
The story begins in 1597 with a request to 'the States ofHolland and the States General' for permission for a fleet to
the East Indies to bring spices and other goods back to
Holland. From the outset, however, it is clear that, while thedevelopment of trade was a primary motive, the fleet was
equipped for fighting at sea and on land. The Dutch were at
war with Spain and Portugal and the route, which the fleet
proposed to take to the East Indies, via the straits of Magellan,
would inevitably bring them into Spanish South American
waters. The provisions for the voyage were limited to allow forsignificant armaments and troops to enable the fleet to carryout raids on Spanish ships and territory and commandeer
provisions from Spanish occupied territory. The five ships
which ironically all had biblical names (Faith, Fidelity, Gospel,
Hope and Love) behaved as pirates once they had passed
through the Straits of Magellan. They were not the first
vessels to pass through the straits but there were hardly any
reliable maps or charts of the area and the passage was ahazardous one.
The expedition sailed from the Maas in late June 1598. The
crossing of the Atlantic was a difficult one and the ships crews
soon began to suffer from scurvy and disease. More than one
hundred men 'had been lost, either in combat, throughdisease, or by law' by the time the ships reached the straits ofMagellan in April 1599. The crews were ill-equipped for thesouthern winter and they were short of food. The death toll
climbed and skirmishes with the natives in southern Chile led
to further casualties. They eventually got away from thestraits in early September 1599, but in the storms, which theyencountered, the ships were dispersed.
The expedition was a huge loss to its merchant backers andresulted in a large loss of life. The Faith was the only one of thefive ships, which got back to Holland in July 1600 with ajapansociety Japan-UK Review: December 20065

skeleton crew of thirty-six having lost two-thirds of its men on
the voyage. The Fidelity after various skirmishes reached
Ternate in the Spice Islands in December 1600 with a crew
reduced from eighty-six to twenty-four. Only three of thesemanaged to get back to the Netherlands after the crew had
been tricked and then slaughtered by Portuguese and natives.
The crew of the Gospel were captured by the Spanish and only
nine managed eventually to get back to Holland. The Hopeand the Love decided in November 1599 to make for Japanbecause the woollen cloth, which they had on board, was notsuitable for the tropics. The two ships managed to keep
together despite their depleted crews until the Hope was lost ina storm. The crew of the Love 'had reached appalling depths'
by the time they reached the vicinity of Japan. Adams
lamented 'the misery we were in, having no more but nine orten able men to go or creep upon their knees: our captain, andall the rest, looking every hour to die.' The Love had eleven'great chests with coarse woollen cloths' and 'nineteen large
bronze pieces of ordnance and other small ones, five hundredmuskets, and five thousand balls of cast-iron, three hundred
chain-shot' as well as other armaments. The Japanese found allthese weapons useful.
The book, in addition to recounting Adams' meetings with
Tokugawa Ieyasu and what happened to the ship, also
explains what became of the Dutch members of the crew who
survived the voyage.
The decision to go to Japan does not seem to have been
made in the Netherlands in advance of the departure of the
expedition, but to have been an ad hoc decision. If the skipperof the Love had not been in such a dire condition when the ship
arrived off Japan, he rather than Adams would have beensummoned to see Ieyasu and the 'first Englishman in Japan'
might never have achieved his fame.

Kim
Jong-il:North
Korea's Dear Leader,
who he is, what hewants, what to do about
him,by Michael Breen,
John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte. Ltd.
(Singapore), 2004, 200 pages,ISBN: 0470-82131-0
Reviewed by Tomohiko Taniguchi
Read this review online
http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews/06kimjongil.html

North Korea in the 21st Century, Aninterpretative guide,by J.E. Hoare and Susan Pares,
Global Oriental, 2005, ISBN 1-901903-91-5 (Cloth), 1-901903-96-6(Paperback), 253 pages (including index, references/bibliography andblack and white illustrations).
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Read this review online
http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews/06northkorea.html

6Issues and Options for
U.S.-Japan Trade
Policies,by Robert M. Stern (editor),
University of Michigan Press, 2002,
450 pages, ISBN: 0-472-11279-1
Review by Takahiro Miyao

Read this review online
http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews/06issues.html

Arts Review
Japanese
PopularPrints - from votive
slips to playing cards,
by Rebecca Salter,
A & C Black (London), andUniversity of Hawaii Press(Honolulu), 2006, 208 pages; fullcolour throughout (221 images),
ISBN: 07136 65173, Price: £30.
Review by Marie-Thérèse Barrett
Rebecca Salter's book is not just another study of Japanese
prints. Extensive research on ukiyo-e has somewhat elevatedtheir status beyond that of street art. This book, on the other
hand, focuses on truly popular images - calendars and board
games, votive slips and measles charms, playing cards and toy
prints. These were cheap, disposable items, full of fun andplayful imagination but, as Rebecca Salter shows, technicallyjust as skilful as the great masters' works. As a print-makerherself, she has combined her practical knowledge of thesubject with in-depth research of a neglected topic full ofvisual discoveries, useful historical overviews, clear technicalexplanations and fun anecdotes.
The book covers mostly the late Edo and Meiji periods (18thto early 20th centuries) but starts with a history of woodblock
printing in Japan, a technique introduced from China together
with paper-making, its earliest surviving examples being theBuddhist prayer slips inside the million miniature wooden
pagodas dedicated by Empress Shotoku in 764. The authoremphasises the role of woodblock printing for the
dissemination of beliefs, news and knowledge as well as fun
and games in the Edo period (1615-1868) when it flourished.
The "reservoir of skill" of carvers and printers who had honed
their talents on Buddhist scriptures for centuries was now
used for secular purposes. Apart from advertising kabuki
actors and pleasure quarter beauties, popular prints
propagated news and superstitions. For example, the 1855
Kanto earthquake inspired dramatic factual images as well as
pictures of giant cat-fish, which were believed to be the causeof such disasters. Social satire was included, too. Builders
were shown befriending the cat-fish, as earthquakes broughtthem extra income! Medicine charms and adverts for lotions

japansociety Japan-UK Review: December 2006

and potions were also an essential part of the popular print
culture. And, when Japan experienced a travel boom in theearly 19th century, maps, guides and gazetteers gave practicaladvice on inns and sights which complemented the virtual
tours given by Hokusai's and Hiroshige's famous landscapeseries. As a spin-off on this travel craze, travel board games
became popular. The book illustrates two fascinating
examples, both starting (of course) in Nihonbashi: one, acircuit of Kamakura, Enoshima and Oyama, by Hokusai; theother by Hiroshige, combining the Tokaido and the Kisokaido
routes on the same board, leading the two players different
ways to the same destination, Kyoto. These examples show
how great artists applied their talent to wherever populardemand lay.
Stylistic innovations were also often used to stimulate amarket hungry for novelties. Rebecca Salter shows how
Okumura Masanobu depicted the kabuki stage in Western
perspective style (uki-e) in the 1740s in order to create the"shock of the new" for his public, not out of scientific interest.
Likewise, the fashion for mirror prints in the 19th century
developed because of the amazing optical illusions created.
All in all, the author emphasises the playfulness at the heart ofJapanese popular prints, which also provided a safety valve in
Edo society, otherwise tightly controlled by the Tokugawa
regime.
This unique record of a threatened craft could only havebeen written by someone with a deep knowledge of Japaneseart, society and language as well as being personallyacquainted with the few elderly craftsmen surviving. The
book reads pleasantly in a style that will satisfy both thespecialist and the general public. Japanese terms are given
with a clear explanation and a further glossary at the end (onelittle quibble, the use of "alphabet" to refer to kana instead of"syllabary"). The text is illustrated with a wealth of images
that testify to the amount of original research by Rebecca
Salter. The pictures recreate the "shock of the new" andprovide much fun for the contemporary reader. Explanatory
inserts, a glossary and a bibliography make the book a modelof clarity and will surely become an essential work on a richand fascinating aspect of Japanese art and society as well as
being a delight to read just for pleasure.
Marie-Thérèse Barrett, NADFAS Lecturer in Japanese Art,
Course Tutor (Japan module) for the British Museum's
Diploma in Asian Art
Our readers can get at a £5 reduction on Japanese Popular
Prints and free p+p. To order readers need to call 01256 302699
and quote the code GLR L84. Orders from A&C Black website
to get a special 10% discount (but no free p&p): www.acblack.com

A Japanese
Menagerie:
Animal Pictures
by Kawanabe Kyosai,
RosinaBuckland,
Timothy Clark, Shigeru
Oikawa,British Museum Press,
2007, ISBN-13: 978-07141-2442-I, ISBN-10: 07141-2442-7,
pp112
including colour plates,£16.99.
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

japansociety Japan-UK Review: December 2006

This delightful book will amuse all art and animal lovers
and would be a very acceptable present in the Christmas
stockings of adults as well as children.
Kyosai's life spanned the end of the Edo period and the first
decades of the Meiji era. He belonged to the Kano school ofJapanese painting, but was also a master of the wood-block
print. He was above all a superb draftsman and even in his
cups, as he often was, he could dash off a humorous drawing
with a few deft lines. He understood human foibles anddelighted in satirising these in his paintings and prints.
Kyosai has been underestimated by some critics who saw
him as a second-rate artist in comparison with Hokusai or thegreat masters of the Kano school, but attempts to rank artists
in this way are specious. Kyosai may not be one of the world's'greatest artists' but he was a significant figure in the history ofJapanese art and I regard him as a great artist. Josiah Conder,
the British architect who contributed so much to buildings ofthat period, became his disciple and friend and many
examples of his work found their way to Britain contributing
to the development of Japonisme.
This book is not and does not pretend to be a book about
Kyosai or the whole gamut of his art. It concentrates on his
depiction of animals - hence the title 'Menagerie'. Kyosai indepicting animals doing things normally associated withhuman beings was following in a long-standing Japanesetradition going back to the Chojugiga (Toba Sojo-emaki) ofmedieval times. Animals in Buddhist philosophy had souls
like human beings and could aspire in rebirth to become
humans and eventually reach Buddhahood. There was no
absolute distinction between humankind and the animal
kingdom.
Kyosai, wanting to satirise the bureaucrats and the habits of
his age, was inhibited by censorship from doing this too
obviously. He accordingly depicted animals doing humanactivities. This did not seem strange to Japanese viewers. The
satirical picture on the cover depicts a frog as a schoolmaster,
pointing at a lotus leaf substituting for a blackboard anddeclaiming to frog pupils who are probably repeating theteacher's words. This was produced at the time when
universal primary education was being introduced. The bookcontains another charming sketch on a fan showing a frog
postman by a telegraph pole; this was drawn at the time when
Japan joined the universal postal union and established anational postal service. Another Kyosai picture of frog
acrobats is exhibited on the stairs to the reopened Japanesegallery at the British Museum.
It is difficult in a short review to do more than mention
some of the many other attractive and striking images in thisbook. I particularly liked that of a crow in a branch in winterand another of an egret in rain on a black backgroundcontrasting with a similar image on a white background.
Tim Clark explained at the book presentation at Daiwa
House on 7 November 2006 the striking sketch of a rabbit witha whip on a tiger as probably having been dashed off on New
Year's Eve, as under the signs of the zodiac the year of the tiger
moved into the year of the rabbit.
The book contains informative articles by Rosina Buckland
on 'Kyosai and the Meiji-era Art World', by Shigeru Oikawa on'Kyosai’s Comic Zoo' and by Timothy Clark on 'Human'
Animals in Japanese Painting. It also has a foreword by Israel
Goldman whose collection of Kyosai animals inspired thisbook.
This review should rightly end with the cat and the mouseon the back cover.
Special Offer: Readers of Japan Book Review can receive
10% off A Japanese Menagerie (RRP £16.99 - special price£15.29 plus p&p). Call Customer Services on 020 7637 1292,

7

freephone in the UK 0800 085 0864, or visit
www.britishmuseum.co.uk. Please quote RO34 to receive theoffer, which ends 28 February 2007.

Stage Review
Madmen in the
Courtyard,
by the Mugensha Theatre
Company,
inspired by Franz Kafka's
The Knock at the Manor
Gate, Director So-un
Kotakebayashi,
Theatro Technis, London,
Saturday 7 October toSaturday 21 October 2006
Review by Sean Curtin
For anyone interested
in modern Japanese theatre the energetic Mugensha
Company's innovative play Madmen in the Courtyard is amust. It imaginatively explores the link between existential
philosophy and literacy lunacy from a uniquely Japanese perspective. Unlike many recent Japanese productions brought to
the UK, this one is easily accessible to the non-Japanese speaker, using linking narration and other devices to explain theplot. While the unconventional mix of reality and the absurd
will not necessarily appeal to everyone, it is certainly worth
experiencing.
The action all takes place in a haunted courtyard, apparently set in contemporary Japan. A pantheon of Japanese writers
have individually pawned themselves after each experiencing
a period of writer's block. This gathering of deceased literary
giants battles it out with each other in a series of zany scenes
as they all seek to return to creative form and escape the crazycourtyard. Suicide attempts are the standard normal when thewriters' efforts end in failure. Japanese literary master
Ryunosue Akutagawa, played by the versatile Yoshiharu
Masuda, is the central character in this carefully crafted cascade of bedlam. Akutagawa is supported by other legendary
figures like Yasunari Kawabata, Osamu Dazai and Yukio
Mishima.
The narrative becomes a little opaque at times as we lurch
from reality to the absurd, a plot device which allows the audience to witness an extraordinary diverse sequence of scenes
ranging from erotic apple tasting to a suicide seminar. The
whole menagerie is held together by the dynamism of theactors who somehow manage to flit from sword fights to lovesuicide with seamless ease.
Whatever you make of this matrix of madness and existential angst, it certainly forces one to think about the cultural
influences and pressures faced by of some of Japan's leading
writers of the last century. Indeed until I saw this production I
never actually realized just how many of the well-known
Japanese authors depicted in the play had taken their own
lives: Ryunosuke Akutagawa poisoned himself, Yasunari
Kawabata gassed himself, Osamu Dazai drowned himself andYukio Mishima disemboweled himself. Suicide appears to bea fixture of the Japanese literary world.
While I found the production both entertaining andthought-provoking, it was also somewhat disjointed. There

8

seemed to be two distinct, competing entities within the narrative. On the one side, there was a philosophical explorationof life and death while in the other corner a tempest of mayhem and madness vied for dominance. The conflict between
the two was never properly resolved. This duality mostly likely stems from the multi-authorship of the piece, which wasorganically created from a collaboration of all the actors in thecompany. The Japanese characters that make up the group's
name, Mugensha, translate as Dream Reality Company, whichbasically embodies their approach in this production.
The performers justify their work with the explanation thatthe dividing line between genius and madness is wafer thin.
Over two thousand years ago the Roman philosopher Seneca
endorsed this sentiment when he wrote that "there is no great
genius without some touch of madness." However, theGerman philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, while not specifically referring to theatre companies, observed that madness israre in individuals but the rule in groups.

Movie Review
Premiere Japan 06 First in Translation - New Japanese Cinema
at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA),
195 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LN, 22-24 September 2006
Review by Sean Curtin
Read this review online
http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews/baftajapan06.pdf

Events Review
Global Consumer Money Transfers(GCMT) Conference 2006
Mandarin Oriental Hotel, London, UK,
30 October 2006
Review by Sean Curtin
Read this review online
http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews/06globalconsumer.html

The Invest Japan Symposium 2006
Creating Value through Innovation
Organised by Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) &Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)
Supported by Confederation of British Industry, UK Trade &Investment & Nihon Keizai Shimbun
26 September 2006
Institute of Directors, 116 Pall Mall, London, SW1Y 5ED
Review by Sean Curtin
Read this review online
http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews/06jetro.html

Japan Perspectives
Heizo Takenaka: "I think it is very difficult
for any individual to continue for a longtime as Japanese prime minister and I
understand this is also true for this country.
Read this article on-line

http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews/06takenaka.html

japansociety Japan-UK Review: December 2006