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paper"},{"term":"wood"},{"term":"yabusame"},{"term":"yellow"},{"term":"yohga"},{"term":"yugen"},{"term":"zenga"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Fujiland"},"subtitle":{"type":"html","$t":""},"link":[{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/feeds\/posts\/default"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6680767306647564241\/posts\/default\/-\/book+review?alt=json-in-script\u0026max-results=8"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/search\/label\/book%20review"},{"rel":"hub","href":"http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Unknown"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"generator":{"version":"7.00","uri":"http://www.blogger.com","$t":"Blogger"},"openSearch$totalResults":{"$t":"7"},"openSearch$startIndex":{"$t":"1"},"openSearch$itemsPerPage":{"$t":"8"},"entry":[{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6680767306647564241.post-3050431278654819849"},"published":{"$t":"2020-08-30T06:56:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2020-08-30T06:58:13.871-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"2006"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"book review"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Dejima"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Isaac Titsingh"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Politics and History"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"seppuku"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Shoguns"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Timon Screech"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Book Review: \"Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns\" by Isaac Titsingh"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: \u0026quot;georgia\u0026quot; , \u0026quot;times new roman\u0026quot; , serif; font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-wekGq4yPfPo\/UTLNAVOYThI\/AAAAAAAAEFc\/HKrlaSXCbos\/s1600\/Titsingh.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: \u0026quot;georgia\u0026quot; , \u0026quot;times new roman\u0026quot; , serif; font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-wekGq4yPfPo\/UTLNAVOYThI\/AAAAAAAAEFc\/HKrlaSXCbos\/s640\/Titsingh.jpg\" width=\"457\" \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: \u0026quot;georgia\u0026quot; , \u0026quot;times new roman\u0026quot; , serif; font-size: large;\"\u003EAccounts of foreign lands are interesting both because of what they reveal about the country but also because of what they reveal about the writer. One of the dangers of this genre is that it can become all too focused on the author and his 'culture shock' as he bumbles into yet another inscrutable foreign custom. \u003Cspan class=\"fullpost\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELuckily, this is not a problem in this collection of writings by Isaac Titsingh, reissued after a gap of 180 years and heavily annotated by Timon Screech. Titsingh was a level-headed Dutch businessman placed in charge of the Dutch trading station at Nagasaki's Dejima from 1779 to 1784. His success depended on looking beyond confusing cultural surfaces to understand the economic and political realities that underpinned Edo-period society. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ETitsingh's account is also remarkable in that he tries to remove the authorial 'I' from the narrative. In the historical part of the book, \u003Ci\u003ESecret Memoirs of the Shoguns\u003C\/i\u003E, rather than digesting or interpreting the island empire's history, Titsingh simply uses translations of documents, allowing an authentic Japanese voice to speak to the West for the first time. Although very laudable in 1822 when Titsingh's book was first published, all the historical information has subsequently been superseded by writers with a more comprehensive understanding of Japanese history and language skills superior to Titsingh, who suspiciously claimed to have 'mastered' the Japanese language in a mere two years. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ETitsingh's original concept of using mainly Japanese voices has not been followed by the present book's editor Timon Screech, a Reader in the history of Japanese art at London's School of Oriental and African Studies. In addition, to a detailed 74-page introduction that fills in the detailed background to Titsingh and the Japan of his time, Screech also includes other documents by Titsingh, including his essays on Japan and his 'Secret Diary,' a first-person narrative business report meant for the eyes of his superiors in the Dutch East India Company. This details his day–to–day battle of wits with unreliable translators, capricious governors, and even the authorities in distant Edo. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ETitsingh's ace in business negotiations was that the Japanese clearly needed the Dutch at Dejima more than vice versa. While the Japanese imported spices from the Dutch East Indies, wool, and crystal glasses, their main export in return was copper that was becoming increasingly unprofitable for the Dutch due to cheaper sources elsewhere. When Dutch ships didn't visit Nagasaki in 1782 – partly due to war with Great Britain – Titsingh mentions that there was \"incessant praying for three days in temples, with the promise of large rewards if the prayers were answered.\" The other side of this economic downturn was that the Governor of Nagasaki, when he visited Edo Castle, could only be restrained \"with the greatest difficulty\" from \"cutting open his belly,\" because the loss of trade and the threat of war spreading had led to the stockpiling of rice and a famine. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E  Rather than being shocked by the extremes of Edo-period culture, like seppuku (ritual suicide), Titsingh remains blasé. In his essay \u003Ci\u003EThe character of the Japanese People\u003C\/i\u003E he describes it as one might describe playing shogi (Japanese chess): \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"fullpost\" style=\"font-family: \u0026quot;verdana\u0026quot; , sans-serif; font-size: large;\"\u003E\"As with us, the graceful performance of certain bodily exercises is considered an accomplishment essential to a liberal education, so among them it is indispensably necessary for all those who by their birth or rank aspire to dignities, to understand the art of ripping themselves up like gentleman.\"\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"fullpost\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: \u0026quot;georgia\u0026quot; , \u0026quot;times new roman\u0026quot; , serif; font-size: large;\"\u003ETitsingh's narrative is useful in that he never sees Japan as a monolithic and static society where everybody thought the same way. Instead, he is constantly aware of the competing groups and interests that make up any complex society, in particular drawing a distinction between those who favored more ties with the outside world and those who didn't, described as \"frogs in a well\" because of their limited horizons. The widely traveled Titsingh was quite the opposite. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003EColin Liddell\u003Cbr \/\u003EMetropolis\u003Cbr \/\u003E22nd December, 2006\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/feeds\/3050431278654819849\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/2020\/08\/book-review-secret-memoirs-of-shoguns.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6680767306647564241\/posts\/default\/3050431278654819849"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6680767306647564241\/posts\/default\/3050431278654819849"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/2020\/08\/book-review-secret-memoirs-of-shoguns.html","title":"Book Review: \"Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns\" by Isaac Titsingh"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Unknown"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-wekGq4yPfPo\/UTLNAVOYThI\/AAAAAAAAEFc\/HKrlaSXCbos\/s72-c\/Titsingh.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6680767306647564241.post-1534841191718308224"},"published":{"$t":"2015-04-15T03:42:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2017-02-04T01:53:21.588-08:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"2007"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Akira Kurosawa"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Bernard Leach"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"book review"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Edvard Munch"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Frank Lloyd Wright"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Japanese Art"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Japonisme"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Lionel Lambourne"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Sergei Eisenstein"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Toulouse-Lautrec"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Japonisme: Cultural Crossings between Japan and the West"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-7a7s2OwzOhQ\/VS4-2Gz2mHI\/AAAAAAAALG8\/3h2BYB1uRn4\/s1600\/Japonisme%2BCover.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"328\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-7a7s2OwzOhQ\/VS4-2Gz2mHI\/AAAAAAAALG8\/3h2BYB1uRn4\/s400\/Japonisme%2BCover.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EJaponisme: Cultural Crossings Between Japan and the West\u003Cimg alt=\"\" border=\"0\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=alterright093-20\u0026amp;l=as2\u0026amp;o=1\u0026amp;a=0714847976\" style=\"border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;\" width=\"1\" \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003Eby Lionel Lambourne\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EPhaidon\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E$44.07 on Amazon\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EThe great English potter Bernard Leach, who introduced Japanese pottery techniques to England, once expressed the utopian hope that the cultures of the East and West would one day merge together.  \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E“I believe in the interplay and marriage of the two complementary braches of human culture as the prelude to the unity and maturity of man,” he remarked near the end of his long life. But, if ever the cultures of the East and West were to merge into one, it would be something of a tragedy because, as this book shows, whenever things get stale in the West a fresh breeze from the East is cable of freshening things up, and \u003Ci\u003Evice versa\u003C\/i\u003E. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca name='more'\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003ELavishly illustrated, “Japonisme” by Lionel Lambourne, the former head of paintings at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, is a wide-ranging and informative survey of the relationship between Western and Japanese culture since the 17th century, with the emphasis more on how Japan influenced the West than the other way round, which is, undoubtedly a much larger project. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003ELambourne’s erudition is evident throughout in the many connections, subtle or otherwise, that he highlights. Alongside the more obvious and well-documented Japanese influences, like that of \u003Ci\u003Eukiyo-e\u003C\/i\u003E on French Impressionism and the poster art of Toulouse-Lautrec, he also points out the lesser known connections, like Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s use of the grain of the plank as background in his woodcuts, a technique he borrowed from Japanese woodcuts, and the influence of kabuki on the filmmaking of the legendary Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein.  \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EWith photos, illustrations, and artworks on practically every page, the reader is guaranteed to know instantly what Lambourne is writing about without spending hours googling for visual reference. This also makes the book a pleasure to return to again and again, and ideal for absent minded browsing. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EAs Japonisme was at its height in the late 19th century, most of the book naturally focuses on this period and the early 20th century, showing how Japanese influences provided inspiration in a wide range of fields, from interior design and fashion to gardening, architecture, and poetry. The influences, in several cases, are even shown to jump from category to category. For example, the renowned American architect Frank Lloyd Wright was more influenced by the manga of Katsushika Hokusai than the buildings he saw. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E“Ever since I discovered the print, Japan has appealed to me as the most romantic, artistic, nature inspired country on the earth,” he gushed in his autobiography. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EAs Wright’s quote also demonstrates, there is a very real danger of a work like this turning into a hagiography, extolling Japan as a font of supreme truth and beauty, an idea that is quite ridiculous considering the Japanese themselves were busily engaged on an even more intense crash course in Westernization. Luckily Lambourne’s cool, measured tone does nothing to encourage such a view, and allows the reader to be impressed or not by the substance presented. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003ELike all fads, the late 19th-century enthusiasm for Japonisme soon reached a point of overkill, but the important point was that, after having made such a warm acquaintance with each other, both the West and Japan continued to maintain their distinct and unique characters. This allowed each to surprise, delight, and stimulate the other at subsequent meetings. Lambourne finishes by recounting the shock and impact of Kurosawa’s films on Western filmmaking in the post war period. But we all know the story doesn’t end there. As long as East is East and West is West, they will continue to serve as an occasional and potent inspiration to each other. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EC.B.Liddell\u003Cbr \/\u003EMetropolis\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E24th August, 2007\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/feeds\/1534841191718308224\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/2015\/04\/japonisme-cultural-crossings-between.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6680767306647564241\/posts\/default\/1534841191718308224"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6680767306647564241\/posts\/default\/1534841191718308224"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/2015\/04\/japonisme-cultural-crossings-between.html","title":"Japonisme: Cultural Crossings between Japan and the West"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Unknown"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-7a7s2OwzOhQ\/VS4-2Gz2mHI\/AAAAAAAALG8\/3h2BYB1uRn4\/s72-c\/Japonisme%2BCover.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6680767306647564241.post-1090779745467901749"},"published":{"$t":"2013-11-03T04:37:00.002-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2016-04-22T02:28:09.336-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"2007"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Arata Isozaki"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"architecture"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"book review"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Bruno Taut"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Ise Jingu"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Japanization"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Katsura Imperial Villa"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Kenzo Tange"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"teikan style"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Tokyo National Museum"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Book Review: \"Japan-ness in Architecture\" by Arata Isozaki"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-vi82qtYKYrQ\/UnZDbvLhiRI\/AAAAAAAAFGo\/uHd_f6tPE-U\/s1600\/japan-ness-in-architecture.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"320\" src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-vi82qtYKYrQ\/UnZDbvLhiRI\/AAAAAAAAFGo\/uHd_f6tPE-U\/s320\/japan-ness-in-architecture.jpg\" width=\"216\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003EModern Japanese architecture seems to be rooted somewhere in the Space Age, but this informative book by Arata Isozaki, an important architect and writer on architecture, shows that to understand the present you often have to look at the very distant past. For example, the fact that buildings in Tokyo are constantly being knocked down and rebuilt every five minutes somehow makes more sense when you consider Ise Jingu, the nation’s most venerated shrine. Every twenty years, this 'holy of holies' – the Japanese equivalent of the Vatican – is ritually leveled with the ground as an identical building is reared up alongside it.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"fullpost\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca name='more'\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"fullpost\"\u003EAlthough you may often find yourself disagreeing with the writer's opinions, reading this scholarly tome will greatly enhance your understanding of all aspects of Japan's architecture, both ancient and modern.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"fullpost\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"fullpost\"\u003E\u0026nbsp;According to Isozaki, the main problem that Japanese architects have always faced has not been keeping the rain off people's heads, resisting earthquakes, or looking nice next to cherry trees, but instead successfully internalizing and 'Japanizing' foreign influences. \"Japanese history repeats this pattern over and over,\" Isozaki writes. \"First external pressure strikes Japan; triggered by it, social turmoil occurs and brings civil disturbance in its wake; and, finally, society is restabilized by a cultural Japanization.\"\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"fullpost\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"fullpost\"\u003EIn the national struggle of a country that has forever been in the cultural and technological debt of foreigners to retain its sense of national identity and self worth, Japanese architects have worked harder than most. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAlthough the book's structure is not chronological or even logical, the picture that emerges is consistent and compelling, presenting a Japan that alternates time and again between periods of intense receptivity to foreign influences and periods where these influences are either assimilated or rejected. With his deep understanding of his own country’s architecture, Isozaki is able to point to many examples left in the architectural landscape, including the quintessentially 'Japanese' Ise Jingu shrine, which Isozaki shows has undergone several changes over the years in the attempt to make it seem as purely Japanese as possible. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe writer also identifies the characteristics on both sides of the main stylistic tension in historical Japanese architecture: indigenous Japanese vs. imported Chinese, and is not afraid to give reasons for these differences. For example, the use of the round, lacquered wooden pillar in Chinese design, as opposed to the square-shaped, lightly varnished or unvarnished wooden pillar in Japanese design, was caused by the scarcity of wood in Northern China, which was itself the result of the denudation of forests to provide the wood to bake the bricks to make the Great Wall of China. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOften these little snippets of information are more fascinating than some of the larger points Isozaki is endeavoring to make, like his belief that pursuing Japan-ness in architecture is somehow flawed and his assertion that globalization is eradicating the 'borderline' on which Japan-ness relies. He is particularly critical of the pre-war teikan style, a self-consciously nationalist but not unbecoming style promoted to counter the international modernist trend in architecture. Interestingly, for keen students of architecture, both styles can be studied relatively close together in Ueno Park, where the Tokyo National Museum's Honkan is the embodiment of the teikan, while the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan is an equally fine example of international modernism. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnother key thread in Isozaki's account of Japanese architecture concerns the refugee German Jewish architect Bruno Taut and his modernist appreciation of traditional Japanese structures like Ise Jingu and the Edo period Imperial villa at Katsura, Chiba. After a visit to Ise, Taut, who had fled Nazi Germany in 1933, enthused that \"Ise Jingu will become an ultimate destination of architectural pilgrimage, like the Acropolis.\" \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAs in so many other fields, the appreciation of a pair of foreign eyes helped the Japanese to discover their own merits. The result was that Japanese architects gained the confidence to apply their own traditions to modernist architecture, culminating in post-war architectural masterpieces like Kenzo Tange's Olympic Gymnasium. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe fact that Isozaki, a generation younger than Tange, never conceived of anything as remotely impressive as this, seems to have left a note of bitterness that occasionally finds voice in an otherwise fascinating narrative. Touchy people these architects! \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003EC.B.Liddell\u003Cbr \/\u003EMetropolis\u003Cbr \/\u003E4th May 2007\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/feeds\/1090779745467901749\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/2013\/11\/book-review-japan-ness-in-architecture.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6680767306647564241\/posts\/default\/1090779745467901749"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6680767306647564241\/posts\/default\/1090779745467901749"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/2013\/11\/book-review-japan-ness-in-architecture.html","title":"Book Review: \"Japan-ness in Architecture\" by Arata Isozaki"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Unknown"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-vi82qtYKYrQ\/UnZDbvLhiRI\/AAAAAAAAFGo\/uHd_f6tPE-U\/s72-c\/japan-ness-in-architecture.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6680767306647564241.post-3830369280221279307"},"published":{"$t":"2013-11-03T04:11:00.001-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2013-11-17T01:43:24.942-08:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"2004"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"book review"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Natsuo Kirino"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"novel"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Book Review: \"Out\" by Natsuo Kirino"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-kh5FT4m68fE\/UnY9giiTujI\/AAAAAAAAFGY\/HaMyFn-QOzc\/s1600\/out.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"200\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-kh5FT4m68fE\/UnY9giiTujI\/AAAAAAAAFGY\/HaMyFn-QOzc\/s200\/out.jpg\" width=\"130\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003EThe best mysteries are those that reflect deep psychological and social tensions, and have a higher agenda. In fact, without these resonating elements, a mystery novel can so easily become just a shallow and superficial mechanism. Luckily, Natsuo Kirino's Out, now translated into English, is full of deep, dark resonances and - along the way of a thrilling and engrossing read  - makes some profound points about Japanese society.  \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"fullpost\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca name='more'\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"fullpost\"\u003EThe novel opens the door on the lives some ordinary women, working part time on the night shift at a lunch-box processing plant, a dead end job that only emphasizes the domestic drudgery of the protagonists, and can be see as a symbol of the frustration and subjugation of higher female aspirations. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThough their backgrounds and situations differ, the four women share a vague but potent desire to escape the confines of their daily lives. Out of this apparently humdrum situation, Kirino creates a real page turner, as one of the women is driven to murder her husband, and her colleagues decide to rally round.  \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ETurning their job to their advantage, the women work together to cut the body up into small pieces and dispose of it. From that moment on, their lives begin spinning out of control, either towards destruction or  liberation.  \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWith majestic prose and artistic descriptions, Kirino creates an exquisite level of anxiety and fear in our minds. She deals expertly with the motives that got the women involved in such a heinous crime, and maintains the suspense about what will happen next with unpredictable plot developments that make the reader want to finish the entire story in one sitting.  \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe characters deal with issues that are of real importance in contemporary Japan - domestic violence, the care of the elderly, the consumeristic allure of famous brands, and the silently impaired family ties that result in stolid apathy.  \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhile the women in the novel wish to break their chains, there is no easy escape, and they have to tough it out, day by day, like so many people in Japan, caught on a complex web of obligations and expectations. It is these resonating factors that give \"Out\" its unique darkness and make it a Japanese mystery novel of the highest quality.  \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003EC.B.Liddell\u003Cbr \/\u003ETokyo Journal\u003Cbr \/\u003EJuly, 2004\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/feeds\/3830369280221279307\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/2013\/11\/book-review-out-by-natsuo-kirino.html#comment-form","title":"1 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6680767306647564241\/posts\/default\/3830369280221279307"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6680767306647564241\/posts\/default\/3830369280221279307"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/2013\/11\/book-review-out-by-natsuo-kirino.html","title":"Book Review: \"Out\" by Natsuo Kirino"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Unknown"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-kh5FT4m68fE\/UnY9giiTujI\/AAAAAAAAFGY\/HaMyFn-QOzc\/s72-c\/out.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"1"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6680767306647564241.post-4218811159704594231"},"published":{"$t":"2011-11-29T16:56:00.000-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2011-11-29T17:04:42.435-08:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"2007"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"aesthetics"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Arthur Waley"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"book review"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Donald Richie"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"jimi"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Metropolis"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"yugen"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Zen"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Book Review: \"A Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics\" by Donald Richie"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-SIkIJnTSJJY\/TtV960DqOII\/AAAAAAAABqA\/-bYYF87h0SM\/s1600\/Richie.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" dda=\"true\" height=\"200\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-SIkIJnTSJJY\/TtV960DqOII\/AAAAAAAABqA\/-bYYF87h0SM\/s200\/Richie.jpg\" width=\"138\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003ETHERE ARE TWO KINDS OF FOREIGNERS: The one who visits the holiest zen garden and sees nothing but a dirty pond, a bit of gravel, and some shrubs, and the other who finds infinite spiritual wonders in a small, misshapen clay tea cup. Most of us living in Japan exist between these two poles of stolid cynicism and excitable, awestruck reverence for Japanese culture.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"fullpost\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003EExactly where you lie on this continuum will determine how much you appreciate this small book by Donald Richie. The acknowledged don of resident gaijin writers in Japan, Richie first came to these shores in 1947 as a cub reporter for the US military publication \u003Cem\u003EPacific Stars and Stripes\u003C\/em\u003E. What is notable at the start is the way Richie attempts to set his book apart by (a) calling it a \"tractate,\" and (b) asserting that an exploration of Eastern aesthetics is not compatible with the ordered, logical, and analytical \"conventions of a Western discourse.\" While \"tractate\" is similar in definition to dissertation, its connotations call to mind the mysticism of the Hebrew Talmud and Neo-Platonic philosophy, something that seems borne out in Richie's declared intention to allow unspoken factors to \"guide his brush.\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\"Most likely to succeed in defining Japanese aesthetics is a net of associations composed of listings or jottings, connected intuitively, that fills in a background and renders the subject visibly,\" he writes in the preface.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EGiven Richie's age — 83 — one is tempted to think that he's employing these tricks to set up easier and more tolerant ground rules for what follows or, to put it more bluntly, giving himself an old man's license to ramble on. The incessant abstraction and definition of terms by words that are themselves undefined gives great stretches of the book a vague, misty character or, worse still, the feeling of reading a dictionary without the alphabetical organization. To be fair to Richie, he seems as much aware of this as anyone else.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\"But such a subjective term as 'taste' (even under a rubric as generous as good-sense equals good-taste) needs to be codified,\" he writes at one point, apparently regretting his decision to turn his back on the certainties established by the \"conventions of a Western discourse.\" Luckily, he soon moves away from such wordism and throws in more actual examples. \"This is \u003Cem\u003Ejimi\u003C\/em\u003E, usually translated as simple 'good taste,' though it does have a pejorative edge. When a plainish kimono is worn in a group wearing brighter garments, a close friend might remark (with a smile): \"Isn’t that a little \u003Cem\u003Ejimi\u003C\/em\u003E?\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ERead with patience and a degree of faith in the undoubted erudition of the writer, this little book eventually has much to say. As the above quote suggests, much in Japanese aesthetics is determined by social dynamics and one-upmanship. In one of the many small boxes that pepper the main text, Richie writes that \"[Japanese aesthetics] still serve to separate status and class.\" This is aesthetics as a line of defense against social turbulence and changes caused by economic forces. The salient features of Japanese culture—\u003Cem\u003Ewabi sabi\u003C\/em\u003E, \"less is more,\" Zenism, etc.—thus appear as attempts to constantly outflank and counter the gaudy flash and panache of the nouveau riche.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EJapanese aesthetics are revealed as the product of this social competitiveness, of the desire to find yet more subtle shades of meaning and beauty than the next guy. This has often led to an effete pretentiousness and an overabundance of subtlety, as in the appositely named Arthur Waley's definition of the term \u003Cem\u003Eyugen\u003C\/em\u003E, quoted in the book: \"To watch the sun sink behind a flower-clad hill, to wander on and on in a huge forest with no thought of return, to stand upon the shore and gaze after a boat that goes hidden by far-off islands… such are the gates of yugen.\" The kind of person who reads that and thinks, \"Great! Where can I buy some?\" then this book is for you. As for me, I enjoyed it for all the wrong reasons. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cem\u003EC.B.Liddell\u003C\/em\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cem\u003EMetropolis\u003C\/em\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cem\u003E28th December, 2007\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/feeds\/4218811159704594231\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/2011\/11\/book-review-tractate-on-japanese.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6680767306647564241\/posts\/default\/4218811159704594231"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6680767306647564241\/posts\/default\/4218811159704594231"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/2011\/11\/book-review-tractate-on-japanese.html","title":"Book Review: \"A Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics\" by Donald Richie"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Unknown"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-SIkIJnTSJJY\/TtV960DqOII\/AAAAAAAABqA\/-bYYF87h0SM\/s72-c\/Richie.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6680767306647564241.post-2082971461056332605"},"published":{"$t":"2009-11-15T03:52:00.000-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-11-15T03:54:51.254-08:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"2007"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"book review"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Kenji Hamaoka"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"manga"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Metropolis"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Shonen Champion"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"vacuum at the centre"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Book Review: \"Urayasu Tekkin Kazuko\" by Kenji Hamaoka"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_SFhgk2FUcYg\/Sv_ra5UU6-I\/AAAAAAAAAfk\/rulmo4j6Fl8\/s1600-h\/UTK2.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" sr=\"true\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_SFhgk2FUcYg\/Sv_ra5UU6-I\/AAAAAAAAAfk\/rulmo4j6Fl8\/s200\/UTK2.jpg\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003EJapan gets a lot of praise around the World for its manga, but the stark truth is that most of this is turgid drivel. You know the sort of thing: formulaic characters, sketchy backgrounds, and 'cinematic' cuts and angles designed to spread one trivial scene over several monotonous pages. Then there are all those nerdy heroes, doe-eyed heroines, and pseudo-mythological transforming robots and whatnots. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"fullpost\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe mass market dynamics of producing the equivalent of a disposable telephone book every week or month seems to dictate a lot of these negative characteristics, but, just occasionally, borne on the tide of the usual deadline-driven slapdash pen-and-inkery, comes a real gem, like Kenji Hamaoka’s \u003Cem\u003EUrayasu Tekkin Kazuko\u003C\/em\u003E, which translates as 'the steel-reinforced concrete family of Urayasu.\" \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWith Japanese manga's reputation for the overblown, a title like this might lead you to suppose that it was about some tribe of giant mutants composed of that material. But quite the contrary. Now collected in a series of volumes from its days in Shonen Champion, UTK focuses on the everyday lives and adventures of a group of elementary school kids and their families. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhat catches the eye at first is the wealth of meticulously drawn background detail – a cigarette butt stuffed into a coffee can, a seatless bicycle abandoned by a corrugated iron fence, a chewed pencil in front of a toothless student, etc. Not only does such detail create the texture of reality, but it also suggests that Hamaoka and his team enjoy their work. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe next pleasure for the reader is slowly getting to know the characters. This takes a bit of time as the realistic, underbelly picture that it presents of Japanese society probably prevents it becoming a candidate for translation to the international market. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe main character, if there is one, is Kotetsu, a simple-minded, hyperactive type, easily bored but also readily amazed by even the most mundane things outside his limited experience. Other characters of a similar age include Kotetsu's creepy-looking best friend Shin, who lives in a run-down shack with his ghoul-like mother, the naïve and decent Akane-chan, and her boyfriend the strangely rubbery Hanamaruki-kun whose clothes somehow always manage to wriggle off. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EPerhaps the most interesting character is the children’s elementary school homeroom teacher, Harumaki Sensei, a character who epitomizes the apathy, gormlessness, passivity, and vacuity of the worst kind of public employee. Like a microcosm of the wider society, he is the 'vacuum at the centre' that experts on Japan often comment on. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn one story he is caught giving the students their grades by rolling a dice. While Western humor tends to be barbed, and is often designed to poke fun at targets, Hamaoka presents such absurdities with neutral detachment. This is possibly the result of the child-centered perspective, but it also adds something to the humor. In this case, instead of just Harumaki Sensei being the 'designated laughter target,' the whole system of marking and grading students and even public education itself is subtly called into question, creating a latent sense of the ridiculous that the more obvious gags capitalize on. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis is the subtle rhythm of Hamaoka's work. His hyper-realistic style creates a fresh-faced depiction of reality, but his eye for idiosyncrasies of character, oddball detail, and the quaint rituals of everyday life continuously builds up a nebulous sense of the absurd that is then crystallized by the more obvious gags, which often hit with the impact of a well-delivered punch line as you turn the page or translate the sense of the words into English. But, just as often, you find yourself laughing before the obvious triggers – often at some uncanny resemblance to things you have encountered in your everyday life in Japan. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThere are many reasons to read UTK. In its rich details and identifiable types there is much information about Japanese society. For language learners it is a refreshing change from tiresome textbooks. But possibly the best reason is that it enables you to inform those around you that you are 'experiencing Japanese culture' by laughing uproariously. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cem\u003EMetropolis \u003Cbr \/\u003E19th\u0026nbsp; October, 2007\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/feeds\/2082971461056332605\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/2009\/11\/book-review-urayasu-tekkin-kazuko-by.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6680767306647564241\/posts\/default\/2082971461056332605"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6680767306647564241\/posts\/default\/2082971461056332605"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/2009\/11\/book-review-urayasu-tekkin-kazuko-by.html","title":"Book Review: \"Urayasu Tekkin Kazuko\" by Kenji Hamaoka"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Unknown"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_SFhgk2FUcYg\/Sv_ra5UU6-I\/AAAAAAAAAfk\/rulmo4j6Fl8\/s72-c\/UTK2.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6680767306647564241.post-4172250778070806378"},"published":{"$t":"2009-09-21T18:18:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2017-02-04T02:13:46.719-08:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"2008"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Ainu"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"book review"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Edo Japan"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Folklore and Tradition"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Isabella Bird"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Metropolis"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"public nudity"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Book Review: 'Unbeaten Tracks in Japan' by Isabella L. Bird"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_SFhgk2FUcYg\/SrgnPV2tHgI\/AAAAAAAAALM\/xSyU9igBwxk\/s1600-h\/Unbeaten+Tracks.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"400\" iq=\"true\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_SFhgk2FUcYg\/SrgnPV2tHgI\/AAAAAAAAALM\/xSyU9igBwxk\/s400\/Unbeaten+Tracks.jpg\" width=\"276\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EIf, as the British writer L.P. Hartley famously wrote, “the past is a foreign country,” then this paperback reprint of an 1880 travelogue by an intrepid Victorian lady who traversed the back roads of Japan, offers us a doubly alien world, made yet more surreal by the fact that the writer was the last thing early–Meiji rural Japan was expecting.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"fullpost\" style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003EBook Review: 'Unbeaten Tracks in Japan' by Isabella L. Bird\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan class=\"fullpost\"\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EThe daughter of a Yorkshire clergyman, Bird was 47 when she set out for Japan in 1878, “in order to recruit my health,” as she writes. But this seems to have been no more than a convenient excuse, necessary in an age when the notion of a woman globetrotting on her own was evidently frowned upon. The writer simply had itchy feet, as her other travels to the American West, Hawaii, Malaysia, Tibet, Korea, China, Turkey, and Morocco testify.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EWritten, as many travelogues of the day were, in letter form, the book describes her dissatisfaction at arriving at a city that had already been adequately described by other writers. Like the backpackers of the present day, she seems driven by a hunger for the ‘authentic’ and what she describes as the “real Japan.” In search of this, she decided to travel, largely by pack–horse, with a Japanese interpreter over the forested mountain routes to Nikko, Nigata and the distant north, finally crossing to Hokkaido (then called Yezo) to describe the Ainu.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EThe journey presents us with fascinating details – blind ‘shampooers,’ holes poked in shoji, straw rain cloaks, and curious crowds of natives. As the pages turn, a picture also emerges of the writer. In Nikko she visits some Japanese houses, which she describes as “so light and delicate, that even when I entered them without my boots I felt like a ‘bull in a china shop,’ as if my mere weight must smash through and destroy.”\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EDetails like this suggest that she was hardly a ballet dancer. Although it is hard to like her at first, over the course of the book, her relentless energy, rugged endurance, and bluff frankness, blissfully unshackled by modern political correctness, eventually win over.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EWhile finding several positives – the gentleness of the common people, the kindness shown to children, etc. – she doesn’t pull her punches when it comes to describing negatives. As an upstanding Victorian Christian lady she also has much to say on the subject of nudity, then a common sight in Japan.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\"A coolie servant washed some rice for my dinner, but before doing so took off his clothes, and the woman who cooked it let her kimono fall to her waist before she began to work, as is customary among respectable women,” she writes with a hint of sarcasm.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EBut, while she is always ready to subject the Japanese to her frequently uncharitable scrutiny, she is also willing to look at herself through their eyes:\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\"The house–master’s wife and Ito [her interpreter] talked about me unguardedly. I asked what they were saying. ‘She says,’ said he, ‘that you are very polite – for a foreigner,’ he added. I asked what she meant, and found that it was because I took off my boots before I stepped on the matting, and bowed when they handed me the tabako–bon.”\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EOne of the strengths of the book is that the journey, as it heads north, takes us into ever more backward or unspoilt areas, so that we appear to be traveling back in time, from modernizing Meiji Japan to the primitive tribal life of the Ainu. In one of the most gloriously un–PC passages ever written, she brutally contrasts these two groups:\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E“After the yellow skins, the stiff horse hair, the feeble eyelids, the elongated eyes, the sloping eyebrows, the flat noses, the sunken chests, the Mongolian features, the puny physique, the shaky walk of the men, the restricted totter of the women, and the general impression of degeneracy conveyed by the appearance of the Japanese, the Ainos makes a very singular impression. All but two or three that I have seen are the most ferocious–looking of savages, with a physique vigorous enough for carrying out the most ferocious intentions, but as soon as they speak the countenance brightens into a smile as gentle as that of a woman.”\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EThe fact that it doesn’t try to please a modern audience is ironically one of the book’s charms, but its main virtue is that it provides us with a vivid and unforgettable picture of Meiji Japan, traditional Ainu society, and the mindset of an opinionated and fearless Victorian lady.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EMetropolis\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: large;\"\u003EApril 4, 2008\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/feeds\/4172250778070806378\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/2009\/09\/book-review-unbeaten-tracks-in-japan-by_21.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6680767306647564241\/posts\/default\/4172250778070806378"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6680767306647564241\/posts\/default\/4172250778070806378"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/fujiland-mag.blogspot.com\/2009\/09\/book-review-unbeaten-tracks-in-japan-by_21.html","title":"Book Review: 'Unbeaten Tracks in Japan' by Isabella L. Bird"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Unknown"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_SFhgk2FUcYg\/SrgnPV2tHgI\/AAAAAAAAALM\/xSyU9igBwxk\/s72-c\/Unbeaten+Tracks.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}}]}});