The First Samurai: Isolationism in Englebert Kaempfer's 1727 History of Japan
It doesn't take a front-page article in the New York Times to certify that Japanese culture is currently "hip in American mainstream." (1) From sushi to manga, from taiko drumming to the latest technological toy, Americans--especially the young--embrace all things Japanese. Yet it might be worth pausing to ask not only what Japan represents through a broad spectrum of cultural, artistic, and even gastronomic events, but also how it functions: what is the semiotic purpose of Japan as it manifests itself in the West? What cultural work within current social practice does Japan perform? How is it currently being deployed? (2) These questions have special relevancy in the wake of the recently popular film Lost in Translation, where Tokyo featured less as an image of itself, and more as an emblem of spiritual anomie, a place where the unlikely hero and heroine explore the loneliest reaches of their souls. They seem even more pertinent in the case of The Last Samurai, a 2003 film coproduced by Edward Zwick and Tom Cruise, in which America's most famous scientologist becomes a man of "integrity" and "honor" by subjecting himself to the rigorous and disciplined life of pre-Meiji Japan. Certainly throughout modern Western history, Japan has functioned as place of novelty, as a source for new ideas. But more importantly, it has served to initiate self-investigation: more than many other locations, Japan facilitates Western introspection and the self-definition that follows. In a sense, Japan becomes a mythical geography that, by the very nature of its strange otherness, creates a space for meditation upon key issues of both personal and national identity. This was as much the case in 1727--which saw the translation and publication of Englebert Kaempfer's two-volume work, A History of Japan: Giving an Account of the Ancient and Present State of the Government of that Empire--as it is now. (3) This remarkable work, long recognized among Japanese scholars, now receives additional attention from eighteenth-century scholars, who appreciate it as a significant record of early-modern, intercultural contact: currently, a Web page edited by Wolfgang Michel-Zaitzu of Kyushu University serves as a lively forum in English, German, and Japanese for the discussion of all of Kaempfer's work, with the History receiving a great deal of the attention. (4) Meanwhile recent discussions of the English translation of The History of Japan appear in essays by Annette Keogh and Robert Markley. (5) For the former, Kaempfer's translated history conceptualizes "the increasing importance of vemacular languages amongst the nations of Europe," while for the latter, the same history demonstrates how Japan functioned as a fundamental challenge to the rhetoric of European imperialism. Kaempfer's work, originally written in High Dutch at the end of the seventeenth century, presents itself as an encyclopedic summary of the natural wonders of an island nation. Kaempfer--who had previously authored the naturalistic work Amoenitaum Exoticarum politico-physico-medicarum (published in 1712 and also called Amoenitales Exotica or Exotic Pleasures)--provides a comprehensive survey of Japanese minerals and metals, the fertility of its plants, and the plenitude of its animals. He covers as well its reptiles and insects, its fish and shells, and its extraordinary medical practices. Especially notable is Kaempfer's coverage of the political state of Japan, including a listing of the hereditary emperors; his description of various Japanese religions and religious practices; his account of late seventeenth-century Nagasaki, from its palaces to its brothels; and his narration of the annual trip from Nagasaki to Jedo (the old German name for Tokyo), undertaken, as he writes, so that the Dutch visitors can "pay their duties" to the appropriate Japanese officials (2:393). The work, as Keogh mentions, is all the more remarkable for the circumstances under which it was written: arriving in Japan on 25 September 1690, Kaempfer stayed until 31 October 1692. …
Oriental Translations: Linguistic Explorations into the Closed Nation of Japan
If linguistic translation can be figured in metaphorical terms as going abroad and returning with foreign knowledge, perspectives, and wealth, the literal counterpart to this movement is the overseas journey. During the long eighteenth century, Japan represents a singularly foreign destination, both linguistically and experientially, for European travelers. Enforcing a policy of sakoku (literally, "closed country," which lasted from 1639 to 1854), Japan stands as an anomalous nation in a time when elsewhere in the world mercantile and intellectual commerce increased. However, complete national closure functioned more readily as an abstract ideal than as a tenable practice. Motivated by a desire for foreign products, the Japanese at this time permitted a limited trade with China and Holland. One area, however, where the ruling Shogunate attempted to enforce complete control is that of textual or linguistic exchange. Not wanting foreign ideas and influences to enter their nation, Japanese officials banned the ownership of all foreign publications by Japan's citizens and confiscated all books from foreign traders for the duration of their stay in Japan. The communication that the Japanese government allowed between its citizens and the Chinese and Dutch merchants took place ostensibly only through the means of its state-employed interpreters. Despite these formidable restrictions, information about Japanese culture and history does reach Europe. The two works that I examine here, published in the late-seventeenth and the mid-eighteenth centuries in English from translations of Dutch and German works, attest that the "closed" nation, especially the linguistically hermetically sealed one, is ultimately an impossible construct. These works both document instances of Western fascination with the Japanese language, linguistic difficulty, mistranslation, the surprising transfer of information that gives insights into Japanese life, and the metaphorical translation of Japan into often unlikely idioms and concepts so as to render it comprehensible to European readers. The convergence of these two factors-European texts that deal with issues about translation and language, and Japan, a country that actively tries to resist all translation-provides a particularly fruitful locus to examine ideas about translation in the long eighteenth century.The first work, Atlas Japannensis, published in 1669 in Dutch by Arnoldus Montanus and then "English'd"-substantially altered, added to, and published by John Ogilby in 1670-is a sprawling and heterogeneous work. The English text represents a translation practice whereby the "original" text provides the raw material for what becomes a substantially different work. For this reason, when writing about Atlas Japannensis, I take the unconventional step of referring to Ogilby as the work's author and refer to his English edition. Atlas Japannensis is an elaborately illustrated attractive folio of limited factual accuracy. Providing comparatively little information about Japan relative to the substantial volume of text, Ogilby constantly compares Japan to biblical and classical models. This work reads as the product of a historical juncture when beliefs in a universal humanity begin to give way to a more fragmented pluralized view of human existence. The second, Engelbert Kaempfer's five-book A History of Japan, published first in English translation in 1727 (more than fifty years before it eventually appeared in its original German), is a well-organized and scholarly text. Based on the author's detailed personal observations and his reliance on historical accounts written in Japanese-and surreptitiously yet efficiently translated for him by his personal interpreter-the History remains throughout the eighteenth century a comprehensive and authoritative work on Japan. It does, however, move into the realm of fancy, when in the face of considerable evidence to the contrary, Kaempfer asserts that the Japanese are a "pure" race and that their language is the "original" sacred Babylonian tongue. …
Europe through the Prism of Japan: Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries
This work analyzes the image Europe presented to Japan, deliberately or otherwise, from the mid-16th century to the end of the 18th century. It covers developments in Japanese culture and civilization during 300 years of interaction between Japanese and Europeans, including Dutch merchants, Spanish Catholic missionaries, and German and Portuguese Jesuits. The author examines not only Europeans' influence on Japan but also the unique Japanese interpretation of European culture. This perspective offers a prism through which Europe may be viewed and frequently sheds light on facets of European civilization of which not even the Europeans, at the time, were aware. The text covers topics such as art history, theology, philosophy, political and social history, and even the history of medicine.