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SOME 16Th and 17Th CENTURY INTERPRETATIONS of JAPAN and SIAM Fr6is-Alvarez-La"' Loubere-Gervaise: a Layman's Comparative Reading

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SOME 16Th and 17Th CENTURY INTERPRETATIONS of JAPAN and SIAM Fr6is-Alvarez-La SOME 16th AND 17th CENTURY INTERPRETATIONS OF JAPAN AND SIAM Fr6is-Alvarez-La"' Loubere-Gervaise: A Layman's Comparative Reading GEORGE A. SIORIS AMBASSADOR OF GREECE IN JAPAN INTRODUCTION colossus dominating the Christian Century of Japan. But the frame of this layman's undertaking is limited by definition and The "dialogue of cultures" is one of the most fascinating intellec­ so I shall only indicate some points of reference rather than play tual undertakings. In the Far Eastern context, potential research with the illusion that I can view the whole panorama. is endless indeed. The above being the first part of my effort, I shall conse­ Early interpretations of the Oriens Extremus, mainly by eccle­ quently tum my attention to the historic landscape of Siam, siastics, captivated Renaissance Europe. Their echo is still rel­ attempting a new comparison, identifying similarities or differ­ evant today. ences with the previous interpretations of Japan. I would like to venture briefly into that area, conscious that my The points of reference will be the testimonies of a French effort is that of an amateur dwarfed by figures literally "larger ecclesiastic-diplomat, Simon de La Loubere-co-leader of the than life," of tremendous dedication, knowledge and intellect. famous second Embassy of Louis XIV to the Court of King Here is the framework of my approach to the subject: Narai-and of an enlightened French Jesuit, Nicolas Gervaise. First I shall single out two countries of the East, Japan and The dates here are about one century later, around 1687 and Siam, not because others are less important but because I treat 1688 respectively, but not so distant as to deprive the compari­ the former as the starting point of more extensive research sons of their legitimacy. Omissions of other testimonies should which hopefully may follow. be viewed in the light of what I have just mentioned with I propose first to examine the famous Tratado, the Treatise by relation to Japan. the Portuguese Jesuit Luis Fr6is, written in 1585, which is in It will be observed that in both sections the main emphasis essence an epigrammatic comparison between behavior and will be put on religion. All four early interpreters of culture had customs in Europe and Japan. themselves a religious background and it is only natural that I will then cross-examine it against the input of another their main focus was the beliefs of the new peoples they came in contemporary Portuguese Jesuit, Jorge Alvarez, who is also contact with. Their basic approach was the one of pure believ­ trying to analyze Japan. ers, animated by a most fervent missionary zeal to save those By doing this it does not mean that I have exhausted the heathens from their ignorance and beliefs in "idols." Yet, there materials and sources of early interpretations of Japan. The were several nuances of analysis here worth our attention. After archives of the Jesuit Mission; of the Universities of Coimbra, all, there was evolution of thinking in this matter even by each Evora, and Madrid; of that unique outpost Macao, and so many interpreter individually, as is shown for instance in the case of other centers of historical learning, are full of relevant informa­ Valignano, who was at first more inclined to the idea of an tion. By omitting, for instance, the testimony of Alessandro indigenous clergy, but later distanced himself from it (Fr6is Valignano, it does not mean that I am less appreciative of this 1993 (1585), 128). 179 Journal of the Siam Society Vol. 82, Pt. 2 (1994) 180 GEORGE A. SIORIS JAPAN perceives the Japanese as in the antipodes, not so much geo­ graphically but culturally. This idea also characterizes every "distich" by Fr6is, as if to provide the foundation of the broader LuiS FROIS (1532-1597) idea so cursorily epitomized centuries later by Kipling about the "twain" which will never meet! Fr6is was born in Lisbon in 1532. At the age of sixteen he left his Talking about the originality of the style, I hasten to admit native Portugal to start his missionary activities which brought that I should slightly modify the above statement: Valignano's him to India, Macao and Japan. He was fortunate enough to famous Sumario written four years earlier, in 1581, also con­ come to know some of the most illustrious personalities of his tains some similar antithetical remarks, but here the point of times, like St. Francis Xavier, the famous Portuguese adventurer reference is not Europe but China and the differences between Fernao Mendes Pinto, the monumental figures of sixteenth the Chinese and Japanese worlds. century Japan, Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, as My second impression is a feeling of a negative critical well as the giants of his Order, Francisco Cabral, Alessandro attitude permeating the whole text, although not too blatantly, Valignano and Gaspar Coelho. with the superiority of European values implied if one reads Trained basically as an interpreter, he attended some of the between the lines. At this point I cannot agree with J. M. Garcia most crucial meetings of the history of the times. Drawing from who finds Fr6is displaying, in general, "a serene objectivity" all these experiences, he left behind a monumental work com­ except in matters of religion (Fr6is 1993, 37). I may concede that posed mainly of correspondence, his History of Japan and his several "distichs" are colorless, impartial and "flat," simply Tratado of Japan. He thus secured for himself the position of the pointing out differences without any negative implication­ main interpreter of Japan for the period between 1563 and for instance, when Fr6is contrasts the color of Death, black in 1597, standing almost at the very origin of a long line of Europe, white in Japan (p. 47, No. 30), or the way of burial, by "interpreters" of such a different and inaccessible culture as inhumation in Europe, by cremation in Japan (p. 71, No. 22), that of the country of the Rising Sun. etc. But in most other cases, the second part of the "distich" The famous text of Fr6is's Tratado, written in 1585, was always has a negative connotation for the Japanese world or a discovered only recently, in 1946, in the archives of the Acad­ similar sense of irony. For instance: characterization of Japa­ emy of History in Madrid by the German Jesuit Josef Franz nese nunneries as "bordels" (p. 55, No. 43), arbitrary aesthetic Schutte. appreciation regarding paintings in churches and temples, It constitutes an epigrammatic comparison of the customs, "beautiful" in Europe and "horrible and terrifying" in Japan beliefs and ways of life in Europe and in Japan. The text is (p. 69, No. 8). Also, when he maintains that treason is rare in divided into fourteen chapters, dealing with men and women, Europe and quite common in Japan (p. 82, No. 41), I doubt children, monks, temples and religion, eating and drinking whether there were so few cases of turncoats in the Europe of customs, arms and warfare, horses, diseases and medicines, his times. Again we see arbitrary aesthetic values when he writing and books, houses and gardens, boats, theater, music praises Europe's cult for jewelry and condemns Japanese ap­ and dance and a final general chapter on whatever escaped the preciation for "ancient and broken porcelain" etc. (p. 98, No.9). previous classification. A parallel subjective dismissal is of Japanese music as "the Reading this text, I think I may fully concur with the most horrible to hear" (p. 108, No. 15) in contrast to the suave remarks of Jose Manuel Garda in his foreword to its new qualities of European choral music. There is a total inability to French translation (Fr6is 1993, 38-39) that it is a work of grasp the esthetics of the tea ceremony as if this Japanese ritual "comparative cultural anthropology" in the contemporary sense is not "precious" in the European sense (p. 113, No. 22). Then of the term and is "the major missing discourse about the comes this aphorism which, perpetuated up to modern times, meeting of occidental and oriental cultures at the dawn of marks the chasm of incomprehension between the two cul­ modern times." tures: "In Europe we love clarity of speech and avoid ambiva­ The first, basic observation after reading this text is pro­ lence; in Japan the latter belongs to superior language and is found admiration for the comparative abilities of its author. I greatly appreciated" (p. 114, No. 37). We are a long way indeed have counted 611 brief paragraphs from beginning to end, from the opposite attitude of another Jesuit, Organtino, writ­ each composed of one remark on Europe juxtaposed to a ing in 1577 to Rome on the Japanese: "You should notthink that relevant situation or idea in Japan. The precision of the author's they are barbarians, for apart from our religion, we ourselves analytical and observant mind and the multitude of topics he are greatly inferior to them ... " (quoted in Cooper 1971, 137). can identify and focus on are striking indeed. Consequently, We are also a long way from the same Fr6is, writing much this method produces a style original and unique, with brief earlier, in 1565, to his companions in Europe, to have them but concise sentences, almost like "reverse koans" where ques­ share his enthusiasm about the Japanese capitaf Kyoto: "In tion and answer are given simultaneously, as there is no their culture, behavior and manners [the people ofMiyako] are metaphysical riddle but only sketches of cultural antithetical superior to the Spaniards in many ways and one is ashamed to landscapes to be contemplated and addressed.
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