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Stuff I've been reading
RL is still keeping me busy, but I wanted to make a short post about 2 non-fiction Japan-related books that I've read recently.
First is The Thames and I: a Memoir of My Two Years at Oxford, written by then-Crown Prince Naruhito, who recently ascended to the throne after the abdication of his father, Emperor Emeritus Akihito. It was a timely find that I just happened to stumble across at the library, though I had no idea that he'd written a book or that it had been published in English. As the title states, the book recounts his time as a student at Oxford. It was interesting to read about Prince Naruhito (or simply Hiro, the name he used at Oxford) adjusting to life in a foreign country and trying to live as a more-or-less ordinary student. One moment, he'll be attending classes or biking around town just like any other student, and then a casual reference to his police guards reminds you that he is indeed a prince.
There are also some pretty funny anecdotes, like the incident that seemed straight out of a sitcom, where he attempted to do his own laundry for the first time in his life and used too much detergent, causing soap bubbles to overflow out of the washing machine and cover the floor! Or the time that he explained to a couple of new friends who wanted to learn how to say "your highness" in Japanese that it was "denka," not to be confused with "denki" (electric light), and from then on they would always tease him by calling him "denki" and the light "denka". (I'm by no means fluent, but I know just enough Japanese to find this hilarious.)
The other book is African Samurai: the True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan by Thomas Lockley. It's another unexpected library find that I came across by chance, but I have an interest in Sengoku-era Japan, and it was a fascinating read. And it's also timely, because Chadwick Boseman (who plays Black Panther in the Marvel movies) is set to play Yasuke in an upcoming film, which sounds awesome!
I vaguely remember seeing Christian missionaries gifting Nobunaga with a black slave in one of the NHK taiga dramas (I'm pretty sure it was Gunshi Kanbe), but that was the only reference to Yasuke that I had come across up until now. The author has pieced together the limited information available about Yasuke into a fascinating story: he was kidnapped and sold into slavery as a child, eventually becoming a servant and bodyguard to the head of the Jesuit missions in Asia. Nobunaga, who had never met a black person before, was intrigued by Yasuke and took a great liking to him, and since the Jesuits needed Nobunaga's support to spread their faith in Japan, Yasuke's employer gifted him to Nobunaga. But Nobunaga didn't just make Yasuke a servant or even a bodyguard--he made him a samurai. If Lockley's account is accurate, he seems to have been given roughly the same status as Nobunaga's pages.
One of the negative reviews on Amazon points out that Lockley writes the book almost like a novel, with much of the story told from Yasuke's POV, saying things that Yasuke experienced or felt in such detail that it's obviously fictionalized. Which is a fair criticism, but it made the book a lot more interesting than a dry history book and I enjoyed it a lot more than most of the traditional history and textbooks that I've read. It's pretty obvious which parts are fictionalized, so it's not like he's trying to trick anyone into thinking the speculative parts are real. Also, to be fair to Lockley, at the end of the book, he provides his sources and explains what is fact and what is speculation, and how he came to the conclusions that he did (about, for example, what tribe and region Yasuke was originally from).
Incidentally, the book also paints an interesting picture of Nobunaga: a man who can be cruel and mercurial, at times slaughtering entire villages including women and children, or on a more petty level, executing several servants who were caught slacking off when he unexpectedly returned home early from a trip. But on the other hand, he appears (according to Lockley) to have been mostly a fair and just ruler, reducing onerous taxes and promoting free trade in the regions that he conquered, and his subjects seemed to have appreciated the stability and prosperity that he brought.
I am really looking forward to the movie (no title or release date yet that I've heard of), and fingers crossed that it will be good! Boseman was great in Black Panther, so I'm sure he'll also do great as Yasuke as long as he gets a decent script.
There are also some pretty funny anecdotes, like the incident that seemed straight out of a sitcom, where he attempted to do his own laundry for the first time in his life and used too much detergent, causing soap bubbles to overflow out of the washing machine and cover the floor! Or the time that he explained to a couple of new friends who wanted to learn how to say "your highness" in Japanese that it was "denka," not to be confused with "denki" (electric light), and from then on they would always tease him by calling him "denki" and the light "denka". (I'm by no means fluent, but I know just enough Japanese to find this hilarious.)
The other book is African Samurai: the True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan by Thomas Lockley. It's another unexpected library find that I came across by chance, but I have an interest in Sengoku-era Japan, and it was a fascinating read. And it's also timely, because Chadwick Boseman (who plays Black Panther in the Marvel movies) is set to play Yasuke in an upcoming film, which sounds awesome!
I vaguely remember seeing Christian missionaries gifting Nobunaga with a black slave in one of the NHK taiga dramas (I'm pretty sure it was Gunshi Kanbe), but that was the only reference to Yasuke that I had come across up until now. The author has pieced together the limited information available about Yasuke into a fascinating story: he was kidnapped and sold into slavery as a child, eventually becoming a servant and bodyguard to the head of the Jesuit missions in Asia. Nobunaga, who had never met a black person before, was intrigued by Yasuke and took a great liking to him, and since the Jesuits needed Nobunaga's support to spread their faith in Japan, Yasuke's employer gifted him to Nobunaga. But Nobunaga didn't just make Yasuke a servant or even a bodyguard--he made him a samurai. If Lockley's account is accurate, he seems to have been given roughly the same status as Nobunaga's pages.
One of the negative reviews on Amazon points out that Lockley writes the book almost like a novel, with much of the story told from Yasuke's POV, saying things that Yasuke experienced or felt in such detail that it's obviously fictionalized. Which is a fair criticism, but it made the book a lot more interesting than a dry history book and I enjoyed it a lot more than most of the traditional history and textbooks that I've read. It's pretty obvious which parts are fictionalized, so it's not like he's trying to trick anyone into thinking the speculative parts are real. Also, to be fair to Lockley, at the end of the book, he provides his sources and explains what is fact and what is speculation, and how he came to the conclusions that he did (about, for example, what tribe and region Yasuke was originally from).
Incidentally, the book also paints an interesting picture of Nobunaga: a man who can be cruel and mercurial, at times slaughtering entire villages including women and children, or on a more petty level, executing several servants who were caught slacking off when he unexpectedly returned home early from a trip. But on the other hand, he appears (according to Lockley) to have been mostly a fair and just ruler, reducing onerous taxes and promoting free trade in the regions that he conquered, and his subjects seemed to have appreciated the stability and prosperity that he brought.
I am really looking forward to the movie (no title or release date yet that I've heard of), and fingers crossed that it will be good! Boseman was great in Black Panther, so I'm sure he'll also do great as Yasuke as long as he gets a decent script.
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(It's great to hear from you -- and, as always, fascinating recs/news!)
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