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(★)(´Life seems to me like a Japanese picture which our imagination does not allow to end with the margin´, wrote Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. Papinot´s Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan presents a picture so vast that the reader does not have to go beyond the margins to give full play to his imagination. This comprehensive compendium of Japanalia runs the gamut from ´Abe´ to ´Zushu.´ In between the reader will find in alphabetical order the principal events and names in the history of Japan up to the twentieth century. Here are the dynasties from Jimmu Tenno, the first emperor, to the Meiji Restoration ; genealogies of emperors and princes ; myths and ministries ; temples and shrines ; and religions and the relationship of Buddhist sects. A biographical supplement entitled ´Principal Foreigners Connected with Japan Before the Restoration´ presents an engrossing panorama of the frustration, tribulations, and persecutions of foreigners in early Japan. True records are related of the Jesuits, Dominicans, and others Papinot mentions as being ´burned alive at Edo´,´buried alive at Nagasaki´,´condemned to the torment of the pit´, and ´crucified.´ Old Japan was not all cherry blossoms, butterflies, dainty geisha, and stately Fuji-san, as this monumental study shows. Some three hundred illustrations round out the author´s immense canvas within the framework of almost nine hundred pages. Included also are a preface, a historical introduction with a breakdown of the various periods from B.C.660 to the Imperial Restoration, eighteen appendices, and more than a dozen maps. This dictionary is unique in that it strives to explain the customs, morals, and the common ideas of the people. It also delves into the psychological aspects of the nation´s consciousness based to a great extent upon bushido, the ´soul of Japan.´ It affords a deeper insight into the genius of Japan which even today remains enigmatical to the Western world. E. Papinot is among a distinguished group of Westerners, including Lafcadio Hearn, who went to Japan after the Meiji Restoration in 1868 and, after absorbing great amounts of Japanese culture, left their own indelible imprint upon that culture -and the world much richer because of their untiring efforts.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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