![\"Masuji](\"http:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/http:\/\/blog.thduggie.com\/images\/sCastaways.png\" "\\"Masuji")
“Castaways<\/a>” was my first book by Masuji Ibuse, and I don’t remember why I placed it on my Amazon wish list, but I’m glad I did.\u00c2\u00a0 Ibuse seems to have an interest in historical themes, and in particular the time around the dawn of the Meiji era.\u00c2\u00a0 Japan had been in self-imposed seclusion for four hundred years under the Tokugawa regime, but in the 19th century the shogunate’s grasp on power was beginning to wane and foreign powers were increasing their efforts to break into Japan.\u00c2\u00a0 Of the two stories in this book, one is set in the first half of the 19th century, before Commodore Perry landed in Japan, and the other straddles that event.<\/p>\nThe first story, “A Geisha Remembers,” is aptly titled.\u00c2\u00a0 Ibuse has a retired geisha relate her encounters with Takashima Sh\u00c5\u00abhan<\/a>, one of the first to import Western arms to Japan and study Western military strategy.\u00c2\u00a0 As a geisha, she gets glimpses into his nature that would remain invisible to the casual observer of the public figure, and because she’s smitten, we get to follow Takashima’s trajectory in a little more length than if she had been a mere acquaintance.\u00c2\u00a0 Through her narration, we not only get a glimpse into pre-modern Japan, but also get a peek into the independent character of this geisha.\u00c2\u00a0 Ibuse’s storytelling is an example of how artful restraint in the imitation of spoken narrative makes for a much more compelling read than a verbatim transcript of real speech with all its redundancies, rabbit-trails, and incoherencies.\u00c2\u00a0 I thoroughly enjoyed this short novel.<\/p>\n The second story, “John Manjir\u00c5\u008d: A Castaway’s Chronicle,” is based on the life of Nakahama Manjir\u00c5\u008d<\/a>, a young fisherman who with his shipmates was shipwrecked on a desolate island and rescued by an American whaling ship.\u00c2\u00a0 His four friends were dropped off in Honolulu, but Manjir\u00c5\u008d continued on to Fairhaven, Massachusetts, where he learned a trade, learned English, and from whence he went forth on adventure.\u00c2\u00a0 Here Ibuse is the narrator and tells the story in the third person, which allows him to compress several decades into 80 pages.\u00c2\u00a0 An unfortunate effect thereof is that once the other four are dropped off in Honolulu, Ibuse tells more than he shows, and the novel at times feels like a string of facts, a mere summary.\u00c2\u00a0 I cannot help thinking a longer novel might have done Manjir\u00c5\u008d’s life more justice, but it’s easy to read, short, and interesting even to readers not particularly interested in 1853.\u00c2\u00a0 Manjir\u00c5\u008d’s story does make me wonder who the adventurers of today are.\u00c2\u00a0 Does anyone still go whaling, settle in a foreign country, prospect for gold, navigate a sailing vessel, and serve as an ambassador these days?\u00c2\u00a0 And with 2012 in view: would we ever dare elect someone like that into office?<\/p>\n
![\"John](\"http:\/\/www.thduggie.com\/thduggies_blog\/http:\/\/blog.thduggie.com\/images\/sWalkonWater.png\" "\\"John")
“