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Issue 93 (June 2021, Vol.16, No.3)

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Issue 93 (June 2021, Vol.16, No.3) The Japan Society Review 93 Book, Stage, Film, Arts and Events Review Issue 93 Volume 16 Number 3 (June 2021) The opening review of our June issue explores the Minae is a semi-autobiographical novel using fiction to fascinating life and career of Herbert Ponting, the negotiate issues of nationhood, language, and identity photographer on Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra between Japan and the US. The Decagon House Murders Nova expedition to the South Pole. Ponting’s travels in by Ayatsuji Yukito is a murder mystery story which follows Japan during the Meiji period are likely to be of particular the universal conventions of this classic genre, while interest to readers and resulted in several photographic bringing to it a distinctively Japanese approach. series and publications including his Japanese memoirs In This issue ends with a review of a publication on Lotus-Land Japan. Japanese wild food plants written by journalist Winifred Another captivating yet very different figure in Bird. From wild mountain and forest herbs to bamboo Japanese culture is the yamamba, the mountain witch, part and seaweed, from Kyushu to Hokkaido, this guide offers of a widely recognised “old woman in the woods” folklore. detailed information on identification, preparation and Reviewed in this issue is a new collective publication recipes to discover and taste this part of the Japanese examining the history and representations of this female natural world. character in terms of gender, art and literature among other topics. Alejandra Armendáriz-Hernández Two reviews in this issue focus on literary works recently translated into English. An I-Novel by Mizumura Contents 1) Herbert Ponting: Scott’s Antarctic Photographer and Editor Pioneer Filmmake by Anne Strathie Alejandra Armendáriz-Hernández 2) Yamamba: In Search of the Japanese Mountain Witch Reviewers edited by Rebecca Copeland and Linda C. Ehrlich Cameron Bassindale, Katie Croft, Laurence Green, Susan Meehan 3) An I-Novel by Mizumura Minae and Riyoko Shibe. 4) The Decagon House Murders by Ayatsuji Yukito 5) Eating Wild Japan: Tracking the Culture of Foraged Foods, with a Guide to Plants and Recipes by Winifred Image: A view of Fuji-san from a distance, across Lake Motosu, Bird with kaia grass in foreground (Photograph by Herbert Ponting © A. Strathie). Herbert Ponting: Scott’s could laugh at himself, and a complicated man.[2] She Antarctic Photographer and certainly brings to the fore all these aspects of Ponting Pioneer Filmmaker in her punctiliously researched biography. As well as following in his footsteps, she undertook a serious by Anne Strathie amount of archive research, and managed to locate a The History Press (2021) vast amount of Ponting’s scattered correspondence and ISBN-13: 978-0750979016 many of his photographs. Review by Susan Meehan Herbert Ponting was born in 1870, two years after the Meiji Restoration and 19 years after the Great Herbert Ponting, the photographer on Captain Robert Exhibition at which Queen Victoria discovered and was Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova expedition to the South delighted by stereoscopic photographs. These were to Pole (1910 to 1913), is the fascinating subject of Anne entrance Ponting as well. Strathie is excellent at evoking Strathie’s latest book, Herbert Ponting: Scott’s Antarctic the times Ponting lived in. He began work at a bank in Photographer and Pioneer Filmmaker. This completes her the great port city of Liverpool in 1888, while living in Antarctic trilogy. The book was due out in 2020, the 170th Southport with his family. She mentions the increasing anniversary of Ponting’s birth but, as with many events trade with Japan in the 1880s and Liverpool’s importance planned for 2020, it was delayed because of Covid-19. as a trading and shipping hub. Liverpool was also a world The book is an unmatched account of Herbert Ponting’s of exhibitions and artists, and at that time, following the life, the result of meticulous research. re-opening of Japan to trade in the latter half of the 19th As Strathie says, ‘Herbert Ponting created century, Japanese art and design had also become very unparalleled visual records of Antarctica and of Scott’s popular. She also touches on the British craze for Gilbert last expedition and great scientific endeavour, a legacy and Sullivan’s The Mikado from its emergence in 1885. which alone guarantees his place in photographic and Strathie really sets the scene for the future tug of Japan. film history’ (p. 207). Much less known, however, he also Ponting dreamt of going to the United States, which left behind thousands of evocative images of Japan, was the centre of photography, and in December 1892, and three Japan-themed books. ‘From the advent of with the financial support of his father, a well-regarded photography in Japan until the end of the Meiji period, he banker, he travelled by ship to post-Gold Rush California, is the best photographer to have worked in that country’. settling near Auburn, a small town in the foothills [1] In 1907 he was even awarded the Imperial Order of of Sierra Nevada, California. Here he ran a fruit farm, the Precious Crown (7th class), also bestowed on other married, had children, and seriously turned his attention journalists who had reported on the Russo-Japanese War. to photography. Keen to realise his dream of becoming a It was rather magical and somewhat incongruous to “camera artist”, as he liked to describe himself, he began imagine Ponting regaling Captain Scott and team (29 May submitting photos for competitions and exhibitions with 1911) with a magic lantern show of Japanese gardens, considerable success. temples, hot springs, volcanoes, and geisha that he’d His first significant break came in 1900, when he photographed during his many travels in Japan. Scott, was commissioned by CH Graves, a stereoview company, thoroughly captivated, went on to borrow Ponting’s and by the magazine Leslie’s Weekly to travel to Asia. recently published memoir, In Lotus-Land Japan (1910) The stereoview company wanted to update its popular (see the review of this book on Japan Society website). stereoviews of Japan, and the magazine wanted him to In 1922, Strathie also tells us, Ponting’s friend, the artist cover the Philippine-American War as well as the Boxer Frank Beresford, gave a lantern slide lecture about his Rebellion in China. Japanese paintings to the Japan Society of London. Ponting felt in his element in Japan. A perfectionist Beresford supplemented his talk by also using some of himself, he appreciated the skill and perfectionism of Ponting’s slides. It so happened that Ponting had just the Japanese craftsmen he encountered, and he formed revised In Lotus-Land Japan and took the opportunity of a very positive impression of the Japanese whom he Beresford’s talk to present a copy to the Japan Society, regarded as extraordinarily polite, honest and very another nice touch and connection for Japan Society clean. He was also spellbound by Mount Fuji, which members and enthusiasts. he photographed from every conceivable angle. The Asked to describe Ponting, Strathie depicted him composition of Hiroshige’s prints – almost like stage sets as an obsessive photographer, a great raconteur, a very – were an inspiration for Ponting’s stereoviews as were good writer, incredibly hard working, someone who Hokusai’s A Hundred Views of Mount Fuji. 2 Issue 93 Volume 16 Number 3 (June 2021) Ponting would return to Asia and Japan many times Ponting went on to spend a large amount of time on during the first ten years of his career. Underwood and the lecture circuit, giving cinema talks of his photographs Underwood, the biggest stereoview company in the world, and films of Antarctica, thereby keeping alive the memory commissioned him to return to Japan to supplement their set of Scott and his Polar Team. Photographs and film from of Japanese photographs. He also worked as correspondent his voyage to Antarctica were shown in 1962, the 50th for Harper’s Weekly, covering the Russo-Japanese War of anniversary of Scott’s arrival at the Pole. In 2012, during 1904-05, and went on to travel around Japan, India, China, the Terra Nova expedition’s centenary period, Ponting’s Korea, Java, and Burma. A skilled cameraman, he became a work again became much sought after. It was featured regular contributor to Graphic, the Illustrated London News, on television programmes, in exhibitions, and in films Pearson’s and Strand Magazine. reissued by the British Film Industry (BFI). During 1905 and 1906, he collaborated with K With little in the way of finances, all assiduously Ogawa, a leading Japanese photographer, to lovingly elucidated by Strathie, Ponting also had a go as an produce his books Fuji San, which contained 25 views inventor, but with little success. He invented a small of Mount Fuji, and Japanese Studies – comprising 52 movie camera which he hoped would catch on, but images accompanied by captions and poetry. Both books Kodak outclassed him by bringing out a more versatile demonstrated his flair for narrative camerawork. mini-projector and camera. Between 1909 and 1910, Ponting was incredibly Strathie has done a wonderful job of bringing to busy putting the finishing touches to his Japanese our attention the life of this remarkable, restless, risk memoir, In Lotus-Land Japan, while also preparing for the taking “camera artist” and lyrical writer. There is so much 1910 Japan-British exhibition at White City, Shepherd’s more detail to read in her masterful tome, especially Bush, at which he exhibited many enlargements of his with respect to his time in Antarctica, and also about photographs. Mission accomplished, he then turned his the other, colourful Terra Nova expedition members.
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