A Strange Tale from East of the River

A Strange Tale from East of the River and Other Stories  - Nagai Kafu(Author), Edward Seidensticker (Translator)  4805302666

Nagai Kafū (永井 荷風, 1879 – 1959) loved the old downtown section of Tokyo for its theaters, variety shows, bars, geisha houses, and music. Like Lafcadio Hearn, he enjoyed the old, the neglected, and the out of the way in arts and entertainment, since he had no interest in business, society, politics, or imperial policies that wanted to turn East and Southeast Asia into a vast slave labor camp. Like any decent person, he just wanted to be left alone, unhassled by the cops in their constant stop-and-frisks used against anybody they didn’t like the looks of, even – or especially - harmless bookish types like Nagai Kafū.

These stories give a sense of the culture of the old downtown, the shitamachi  下町 that Edward Seidensticker wrote so lovingly about in his great book, High City, Low City. The stories are generally the same, with the same kind of characters. A literary guy, bored and revolted by the noisy modern world, hangs out with women in the demimonde. Listening to the quant sounds of the city like the traditional hoots, rings and shouts of pushcart vendors and artisans, enjoying traditional festivals, keeping above the concerns of the buying and selling of modernizing Japan. The stories pine for times past, late Tokugawa and early Meiji, the world of ukiyoe, the strumming of the samisen.

It’s all dreamy and elegiac, for readers who were there only in former lives. And better read one at a time, in quiet moments during the fall. Readers who’ve visited Asakusa 浅草 or the grittier parts of Osaka like Juso 十三 or Dōtonbori  道頓堀 will get an extra kick.

Mount TBR #5

I read this book for the Mount TBR 2018 Reading Challenge.

A History of Japan, 1615-1867 - Sir George Sansom

This is the final volume of the magisterial trilogy by the distinguished British historian. The first volume covered to 1334 (reviewed here) the second from 1334 to 1615 (reviewed here).

The book opens with an examination the creation of the Tokugawa regime under the three Shoguns after Tokugawa Ieyasu: Hidetada, Iemitsu, and Ietsuna. Sansom is sympathetic to the next one, Tsunayoshi, though he is notorious as the Dog Shogun who ordered everybody to address dogs politely as “O Inu Sama.”

In seven additional chapters, Sansom describes conditions in the second half of the seventeenth century in terms of political shifts, urban and rural conditions, economic expansion and the problems which it posed. He briefly – that is, tantalizingly - touches on how the philosophy of Neo-Confucian Wang Yang-ming influenced Japanese reformers running up the end of Tokugawa rule. The response to the Black Ships is handled cursorily.

I highly recommend this set to serious students of traditional Japan. These books focus mainly on topics in social science. For the humanities, see Sansom’s excellent Japan: A Short Cultural History.

Mount TBR #3

I read this book for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge hosted over at My Reader’s Block from January 1 – December 31, 2016. The challenge is to read books that you already own.

Nightless City: Geisha and Courtesan Life in Old Tokyo - J.E. de Becker

Originally published in 1899, this is a compendium of detailed information on the history and activities of the Yoshiwara red-light district of Edo (later Tokyo), illustrated with charts, tables and drawings.

This early work of serious ethnography gives a little information about everything to do with The Life: attracting johns, paying and tipping, fashion, hairstyles, futon bedding, rooms, brothel employees, and ancillary trades such as peddlars, hawkers, and beggars. It also covers health care, relevant laws, and policing. The information is presented in short sections that can be skimmed and scanned at ease.

The famous Yoshiwara district of Edo (later Tokyo) originated in the early seventeenth century as a result of a deal between the shogun’s government and leading brothel keepers. All governments must deal with the world’s oldest social problem for the sake of public order. In order to regulate prostitution and social ills that go with it, Japanese officials made deals with brothel keepers who sought to suppress competition. Restricting the brothels to a regulated quarter would facilitate the control over customers' access, the prevention of human trafficking and scamming into prostitution, and (most importantly perhaps) the surveillance of wandering samurai and other malcontents. Although its location moved, de Becker points out that the Yoshiwara remained open through shifts in government policy between strict morals regulation, general tolerance of vice, and being totally asleep at the regulatory switches (the shogunate government was really poor at governance near its end).

As we would expect of a Victorian,de Becker feels appalled at the fact that thousands of girls or women were sold into sexual slavery. He even quotes Japanese sources as to the misfortune of this bondage. This, from Record of Ancient Tombs in the Eastern Capital:

In these burial places are to be found many graves courtesans who committed suicide with their paramours. On the tomb-stones are to be found engraved the descriptions of the swords with which they killed themselves, as well their names and ages. There is something so weird and uncanny about these horribly pitiless records on the grey lichen-covered monuments that the blood of a sightseer runs cold and he becomes so nervous that he leaves the gloomy spot with the intention of never visiting it again

I know the topic is unspeakably sad, but to my mind the book is worth reading for readers seriously into Japan. For instance, de Becker was a magpie of a scholar. That is, he collected and presented information that he thought was quite interesting for those readers – like us lovers of lore and superstition – as further proof that human beings will believe anything:

How to fix a toothache with a charm

Stand, with the feet together, upon a piece of white paper placed on the floor and draw a line (which will resemble the outline of a human face) around the outside of them. Within this line draw eyes, a nose, and a mouth containing a full set of teeth, making the offending tooth quite black, and the two teeth at its sides slightly black. Then fold the paper in eight folds, drive a nail through it, and finally throw it into a running stream.

Indeed, when there is nothing but indifferent medical care, what recourse but old wives tales?

Anyway, I highly recommend this strange, melancholy book to readers who are interested in research of the Tokugawa and Meiji periods. I read it straight through, which is probably not the way most readers would read such an odd assemblage of out-of-the-way knowledge. But I’m a book glutton that can relish down material that would choke most readers.

The Gate

The Gate - Natsume Soseki, tr. William F. Sibley, 1590175875

“To define is to kill. To suggest is to create,” said poet Stephane Mallarmé. In this bittersweet novel, Natsume Soseki suggests the quiet melancholy of a young couple, husband Sosuke  and wife Oyone. They have married for love in unconventional circumstances, which means in early 20th century Japan that they are paying a price beyond what fits the transgression. Past regrets for youthful passions and three terrible losses weigh on the couple. Their life proceeds generally without events, though other people, inescapable as usual, will impinge and demand attention.

Sosuke works at a tedious but exhausting job as a minor public functionary.  Feeling exactly like what he in fact is -- a little wheel in a vast machine that could fire him at any time -- Sosuke is so dissatisfied with life that he reaches out in friendship to his landlord, Sakai. He stretches out a little more and takes a retreat to practice Zen in Kamakura. Although he meets an inspiring monk, he does not, he feels, make any progress toward peace of mind.

I know, this novel sounds as if it has very unpromising material. But I’ve read this novel three times and respect it more deeply as I find myself in middle-age. The Japanese fondly revere Natsume Soseki (1867 - 1916) for his comic novel Botchan. While that novel is worth reading, his later sad novels help us see the beauty of art in the hopeless, delight-free lives of fictional characters. It’s magic.

Golden Week In Japan

Today is the beginning of Golden Week in Japan.

April 29 Shōwa Day 昭和の日 Shōwa no hi. This is the birthday of the Emperor known in the west as Hirohito. Folks are supposed to remember the turmoil of the reign, which lasted from 1926 to 1989. I was in Japan in 1989 – I realized that the Emperor had died after a long illness because the Armed Forces Radio was playing somber music.
Many stores closed that day. Those that didn’t were hassled by rightists.

May 3 Constitution Memorial Day 憲法記念日 Kenpō kinenbi. This has been a holiday since 1947.

May 4 Greenery Day みどり(緑)の日 Midori no hi. This is kind of an Arbor Day, when people are supposed to reflect on the importance of ecology and the environment.

May 5 Children's Day 子供の日 Kodomo no hi. This holiday goes back to the 8th century.