Westminster chimes ring
at Goishigahama
Did Perry bring these?
Day before yesterday I met for about an hour with Rev. Daiei Matsui. He is the Buddhist priest in charge of Ryosenji temple here in Shimoda. Ryosenji is important because it served as the guesthouse for the occasional foreign visitor during Japan's 250 year isolation from the rest of the world, and more specifically as the residence for Commodore Matthew Perry and his crew after they sailed into Tokyo Bay.
For two months in 1854 Perry and his men walked the streets of Shimoda freely while the terms of a treaty between the United States and Japan were negotiated. The freedom they had in this place was in marked contrast to the experience in Edo (Tokyo) when they first arrived in Japan, where they were treated pretty much like you'd expect a spaceship full of extraterrestrials to be treated -- effectively quarantined, constantly surrounded by retinues of samurai, while the cannons on the four black ships just offshore were always aimed onshore. Swords and guns created a certain détente while these mutually suspicious tribes took a careful look at one another. There was no freedom there -- only suspicion and fear.
Eventually, Perry and company were sent down the coast to Shimoda, and the work of making a treaty began. In 1854 the only people who could speak both English and Japanese were a few Dutchmen, who served as translators in the process.
The Americans were allowed to walk freely in Shimoda. Paintings from the period show Americans sitting on the ground surrounded by curious locals, talking and laughing. Samurai officials followed them around, observing their behaviors, but not interfering with their freedom.
Rev. Matsui is something of an authority on the period. He showed me numerous pictures of how the Japanese and Westerners perceived each other before (as hideous monsters in the case of Japanese portrayals of foreigners) and after the experince in Shimoda (much more
human-like portrayals). He firmly believes that it was the freedom afforded the Americans in Shimoda that created a new climate of mutual respect and eventually a treaty. Consequently he is a big proponent of "grassroots communication" -- a term that comes up often in conversation with him -- and, in fact, what he believes is really the essence of Buddhism.
I had been put in touch with the priest at Ryosenji by my good friends, Dain and Constance Perry in Boston. Yes, the same Perry family. They were guests of the Japanese government here a few years ago for the 150th anniversary of the signing of the treaty, and when they heard I would be in Shimoda, they wanted me to be sure to meet him. We spent about an hour discussing the fine points of Pure Land Buddhism, cross cultural communication, and, of course, the Perry legacy.
An important image has stayed with me from that exchange -- and that is the contrast between the isolation of the Americans at Edo in the seat of political and economic power (indeed, the armed standoff between them and their "hosts"), and the "grassroots communication" among ordinary people here in Shimoda that enabled the opening of an important international exchange and a relationship between peoples where there had been none.
Makes me think of all sorts of possibilities for cross-cultural exchange to help us deal with some of the problems in our own time.
The next day (Wednesday) I spent the day closer to home -- just down the hill on Goishigahama beach. What a beautiful, picturesque beach it is. "Ishi" means "stone" in Japanese, so I think the name is a reference to the Japanese game of Go and the playing pieces, or stones -- hence Go-ishi.. This beach has a number of large outcroppings of unknown (to me) geological origin. They seem to be made up of relatively loose collections of fist-sized lava rocks -- but they are huge, some of them 40-50 feet high. And perhaps their most beautiful feature is the occasional twisted branch or trunk of a cedar, reaching out from the side, with the beautiful blue backdrop of the Pacific, in what appears to be the most carefully and artfully designed bonsai creation imagineable. I sat just beside one of these enormous Go stone bonsais, listening to the waves for a couple of hours. It was quintessential sunny coast of Japan.
You can imagine how odd it seemed then at 12 noon to hear Westminster chimes in the distance. How familiar -- and yet how seemingly out of place! I would have expected (perhaps preferred) the deep gong of a temple bell! Or the low moan of a shakuhachi. Or the twang of a shamisen.
But it was most definitely Westminster chimes that I heard! How odd.
Ah, the price of all this cross cultural communication! So much for my illusions of some imagined cultural purity or true type. The fact is that the Japanese love things Western. And part of the genius of Japanese culture has been its ability to assimilate while maintaining its distinctiveness.
But isn't that taking it a bit far -- Westminster chimes on Goishigahama beach, on my picture-perfect sunny Japan bonsai beach day experience?
Perry came -- and Japan has never been the same.
at Goishigahama
Did Perry bring these?
Day before yesterday I met for about an hour with Rev. Daiei Matsui. He is the Buddhist priest in charge of Ryosenji temple here in Shimoda. Ryosenji is important because it served as the guesthouse for the occasional foreign visitor during Japan's 250 year isolation from the rest of the world, and more specifically as the residence for Commodore Matthew Perry and his crew after they sailed into Tokyo Bay.
For two months in 1854 Perry and his men walked the streets of Shimoda freely while the terms of a treaty between the United States and Japan were negotiated. The freedom they had in this place was in marked contrast to the experience in Edo (Tokyo) when they first arrived in Japan, where they were treated pretty much like you'd expect a spaceship full of extraterrestrials to be treated -- effectively quarantined, constantly surrounded by retinues of samurai, while the cannons on the four black ships just offshore were always aimed onshore. Swords and guns created a certain détente while these mutually suspicious tribes took a careful look at one another. There was no freedom there -- only suspicion and fear.
Eventually, Perry and company were sent down the coast to Shimoda, and the work of making a treaty began. In 1854 the only people who could speak both English and Japanese were a few Dutchmen, who served as translators in the process.
The Americans were allowed to walk freely in Shimoda. Paintings from the period show Americans sitting on the ground surrounded by curious locals, talking and laughing. Samurai officials followed them around, observing their behaviors, but not interfering with their freedom.
Rev. Matsui is something of an authority on the period. He showed me numerous pictures of how the Japanese and Westerners perceived each other before (as hideous monsters in the case of Japanese portrayals of foreigners) and after the experince in Shimoda (much more
human-like portrayals). He firmly believes that it was the freedom afforded the Americans in Shimoda that created a new climate of mutual respect and eventually a treaty. Consequently he is a big proponent of "grassroots communication" -- a term that comes up often in conversation with him -- and, in fact, what he believes is really the essence of Buddhism.I had been put in touch with the priest at Ryosenji by my good friends, Dain and Constance Perry in Boston. Yes, the same Perry family. They were guests of the Japanese government here a few years ago for the 150th anniversary of the signing of the treaty, and when they heard I would be in Shimoda, they wanted me to be sure to meet him. We spent about an hour discussing the fine points of Pure Land Buddhism, cross cultural communication, and, of course, the Perry legacy.
An important image has stayed with me from that exchange -- and that is the contrast between the isolation of the Americans at Edo in the seat of political and economic power (indeed, the armed standoff between them and their "hosts"), and the "grassroots communication" among ordinary people here in Shimoda that enabled the opening of an important international exchange and a relationship between peoples where there had been none.
Makes me think of all sorts of possibilities for cross-cultural exchange to help us deal with some of the problems in our own time.
The next day (Wednesday) I spent the day closer to home -- just down the hill on Goishigahama beach. What a beautiful, picturesque beach it is. "Ishi" means "stone" in Japanese, so I think the name is a reference to the Japanese game of Go and the playing pieces, or stones -- hence Go-ishi.. This beach has a number of large outcroppings of unknown (to me) geological origin. They seem to be made up of relatively loose collections of fist-sized lava rocks -- but they are huge, some of them 40-50 feet high. And perhaps their most beautiful feature is the occasional twisted branch or trunk of a cedar, reaching out from the side, with the beautiful blue backdrop of the Pacific, in what appears to be the most carefully and artfully designed bonsai creation imagineable. I sat just beside one of these enormous Go stone bonsais, listening to the waves for a couple of hours. It was quintessential sunny coast of Japan.
You can imagine how odd it seemed then at 12 noon to hear Westminster chimes in the distance. How familiar -- and yet how seemingly out of place! I would have expected (perhaps preferred) the deep gong of a temple bell! Or the low moan of a shakuhachi. Or the twang of a shamisen.
But it was most definitely Westminster chimes that I heard! How odd.
Ah, the price of all this cross cultural communication! So much for my illusions of some imagined cultural purity or true type. The fact is that the Japanese love things Western. And part of the genius of Japanese culture has been its ability to assimilate while maintaining its distinctiveness.
But isn't that taking it a bit far -- Westminster chimes on Goishigahama beach, on my picture-perfect sunny Japan bonsai beach day experience?
Perry came -- and Japan has never been the same.
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