The First Samurai: Isolationism in Englebert Kaempfer's 1727 History of Japan

Abstract

It doesn't take a front-page article in New York Times to certify that Japanese culture is currently hip in American mainstream. (1) From sushi to manga, from taiko drumming to latest technological toy, Americans--especially 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 semiotic purpose of Japan as it manifests itself in West? What cultural work within current social practice does Japan perform? How is it currently being deployed? (2) These questions have special relevancy in wake of 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 unlikely hero and heroine explore loneliest reaches of their souls. They seem even more pertinent in 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 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 self-definition that follows. In a sense, Japan becomes a mythical geography that, by very nature of its strange otherness, creates a space for meditation upon key issues of both personal and national identity. This was as much case in 1727--which saw translation and publication of Englebert Kaempfer's two-volume work, A History of Japan: Giving an Account of Ancient and Present State of 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 discussion of all of Kaempfer's work, with History receiving a great deal of attention. (4) Meanwhile recent discussions of English translation of The History of Japan appear in essays by Annette Keogh and Robert Markley. (5) For former, Kaempfer's translated history conceptualizes the increasing importance of vemacular languages amongst nations of Europe, while for latter, same history demonstrates how Japan functioned as a fundamental challenge to rhetoric of European imperialism. Kaempfer's work, originally written in High Dutch at end of seventeenth century, presents itself as an encyclopedic summary of natural wonders of an island nation. Kaempfer--who had previously authored 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, fertility of its plants, and 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 political state of Japan, including a listing of 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 annual trip from Nagasaki to Jedo (the old German name for Tokyo), undertaken, as he writes, so that Dutch visitors can pay their duties to appropriate Japanese officials (2:393). The work, as Keogh mentions, is all more remarkable for circumstances under which it was written: arriving in Japan on 25 September 1690, Kaempfer stayed until 31 October 1692. …