Japan's Grand Old Man

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21180, 29 October 1938, Page 12

Japan's Grand Old Man

SIDELIGHTS IN THE LAND OF NIPPON

Bunji Omura, author of “Japan’s Grand Old Man,” a travelled Japanese and an English scholar, deals with the life of Prince Saionji, who was born hl 1849, has held every kind of high official post, has appointed no fewer than thirteen Japanese Premiers and, to-day, going towards his century, is regarded as the fountain head of poltical wisdom. The book is curious and at first not easy to read but its quaint style and locutions grow on one and presently all becomes lucid. The author, no doubt deliberately, uses much that is probably Japanese idiom in his dialogue, while he has chosen the episodic style for covering this long and busy life. Thus there is no connected narrative but each chapter or section is a sketch to itself, covering ! outstanding events. Nearly a Century Ago | In remote 1849 Japan was quite untouched by Western influences and kept to her immeasurably ancient customs, j There are delightful picture of Prince Saionji’s babyhood and boyhood days. To start with he was not a Saionji at all but the son of Tokudaiji Kinzumi and adopted by the princely family to be their heir, including the princedom. He was in the service of the Emperor and this charming state of things opens the story: He “had already aroused jealousy because of his fast promotions at Court. At the age of two he had been adopted by the important but childless Saionji family. When he was past three years old he had acted as child-chamberlain to the Emperor. Now at twelve he had been relieved of the menial services and appointed Middle-General of the Right Imperial Guard.” The twelve-year-old Middle-General of the Right Imperial Guard at the moment was in process of receiving a dressing down from his real parent because there were “grave charges” against him. His “major vice” hitherto had been “the idle reading of books” but worse was to come. He flouted Court rules by “consorting with people from outside the district,” and even “inviting them to his house”—at twelve! Worse still, he was practising the forbidden art of fencing, and was believed to admire antiques, having “spent several hundred yen on a teapot.” The Middle-General appreciated the wisdom of his father’s advice and promised to reform. The reason for these small things being “offences” was the edicts of the Shoguns, who had ruled Japan for two and a half centuries and kept the Emperor in poverty and seclusion. Saionji’s next step was, at the age of eighteen, to command the Army of Samurai under the Emperor, march to the present Tokyo, kick the Shogun out and instal the Emperor as the true ruler of Japan. This piece of military enterprise by a boy seems to have been taken as all in the day’s work for although he was created Marquis—a newly-imported title from the West, which does not seem much of a rise

from Prince—he next appears as a more or less insignificant private citizen off to Paris to learn what he can. The Westernising of Japan was now in full swing (1871) and Saionji was one of the early students abroad. Poltical Exploits From then on his life was a series of political exploits all detailed with delightful ingeniousness by this deeply informed and skilled biographer. How far his apparent naivete in narrative

This is a really delightful book once you are at home with it.

("Japan’s Grand Old Man," by Bunji Omura. London: Harrap and Co.(

is actual and how far it is art of a high order lam not able to say. The only objection I can find to his methods is the inveterate habit of making the! Prince say “huh" in almost every sentence. “Huh, it is a fine day. . . Huh, good morning. . . Huh, good afternoon. . . . Huh, I don’t think so . . .’’to infinity. Ido not know if "huh” is Japanese, represents an impediment in the Prince’s speech or is just gratuitous on the author’s part, but after pages of “huhing” I never wish to see the word again.

Many extremely interesting aspects of Japanese life and history come to light in the course of this attractive narrative. It was a tradition in the Saionji family that the heir must never legally marry or the wife would shortly after die a violent death. Prince Saionji respected this but had a series of concubines to make up for it. Whether fact or fiction Mr Omura contrives to weave into his biography at least one charming romance, which reads as naturally and easily as any Western one.

In its historical aspects there are many additions to knowledge that are hardly likely to be common stock among Western readers. Notably, the Russo-Japanese War is finely detailed, in regard to which I, for one, did not know that, while the Japanese won hands down on land and sea, they really lost heavily when it came to peace. They could not have lasted another week, since their money was exhausted, while their territorial gains were a liability rather than an asset. There were nearly revolutions and riots over this losing of the peace, which Prince Saionji seems to have subdued with his usual bland efficiency and no apparent recourse to stern measures.