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The Deer Cry Pavillion: A Story of Westerners in Japan 1868-1905
By: Pat Barr
Book Condition: Good
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RM69.90
1 in stock
Description
The westernisation of Japan is the theme of The Deer Cry Pavilion. The story begins in 1853 with the arrival in Tokyo Bay of Commodore Perry. He came not to conquer but to trade. He came to a formalised ritualistic civilisation where century after century had enforced the jealously guarded adition of keeping itself to itself. He showed it a small-sized model railway. Like children at a fair the inspecting officials leaped on to it, bestrode its miniature coaches as children ride merry-go-round horses and 'went whirling round, their robes flapping in the breeze, "grinning with intense interest" and crying out with enthusiasm every time the steam whistle sounded. Fifty-two years after Commodore Perry's arrival. Admiral Togo out-fought, out-gunned, made drowned hay of the Russian fleet at the Battle of Tauschina...."Extraordinary figures cross the scene.... It is an astonishing story, creditable or saddening according to the way one looks at it. Pat Barr achieves the remarkable feat of not taking sides. Her narrative is substantial, vivid, without sentiment, without partiality. It is as though she wrote with the detachment of someone observing a process of history through a telescope of impartial magnification."Sylvia Townsend Warner, Spectator
