The self-promotion of a maverick travel writer: Suzuki Tsunenori and his Southern Pacific Islands travelogue, Nanyō tanken jikki

Abstract

Suzuki Tsunenori (1853–1938; also known as Keikun) was one of the pioneering writers on Pacific Islands in the Meiji period. Recent scholarship has exposed flaws in his representation of Pacific Islanders in his landmark travelogue, Nanyō tanken jikki [A True Chronicle of South Seas Exploration] (1892). While the criticism undermined his reputation for his ethnographic eye, this essay employs an alternative critical angle on self-presentation. Suzuki promotes himself as a shrewd multi-talented traveller, culturally astute and willing to venture into the wild. First, this essay sketches the circumstances under which Suzuki embarked on his southern Pacific Islands journey of 1889–1890. Then it analyses how Suzuki projects his desired persona in Jikki. He seeks to develop and exploit these attributes to advertise his performance as a reporter, a cultural interlocutor and a grassroots ambassador. An inward-looking orientation helps us to present a clearer picture of Suzuki’s life and travelogues.