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(★)(´Samurai and Silk´is a rare treasure : a book of penetrating insight into the Japanese character and the forging of modern Japan from the feudal Tokugawa shoguns to its worldwide prestige in the twentieth century. Only Haru Reischauer could have written this extraordinary account of her two illustrious grandfathers : one, a provincial samurai who became a founding father of the Meiji government ; the other, scion of a wealthy and enterprising peasant family who almost single-handedly developed the silk trade with America. Their remarkable stories, and those of their notable descendants, form a saga of unbounded vision and determination that has much to tell us about Japan´s legendary success. Prince Matsukata, who was to be twice prime minister as well as a brilliant financial minister, was born in 1835, a farmer-samurai ［goshi］ on the island of Kyushu. That feudal society instilled in him the spartan virtues and steely willpower that enabled him to accomplish so much. Rioichiro Arai was born twenty years later than Matsukata, shortly after the appearance of Commodore Perry´s black ships in Edo Bay had brought an end to Japan´s isolation. At twenty he left for America and from then on made his home there. When Arai´s own daughter became of marriageable age he arranged that she marry Shokuma, a younger Matsukata son, and go to live in Japan. Haru was their second daughter and, like her sisters and brother, she was dressed in western clothes, was tutored by an American, and attended Principia College in Illinois, from which she returned to Japan in 1937. Troubled by the growing animosity between the two countries and temperamentally disinclined to spend her life cultivating the polite arts expected of Japanese women, she turned to research on her antecedents as a way to absorb her mind and energies. In 1955 she met and married Professor Edwin O. Reischauer, the Harvard Japanologist, who later was appointed Ambassador to Japan by President Kennedy. This is a book to be enjoyed, on one level, as the charming life story of two energetic achievers and their many renowned descendants. Even more, it offers a first-hand view of Japanese customs and mores and their profound effect during a period of unprecedented modernization. There is also much of interest to specialists : the story of the silk trade with America has never before been studied from this perspective. Copiously illustrated with photographs from the author´s personal collection,´Samurai and Silk´is a unique contribution to our understanding of Japan and to the art of biography.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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