Japan On The Jesuit Stage

The Jesuits were a major source of European information on Japan from the late 16th to early 17th century. Not only were they active missionaries but they also produced linguistic, religious and cultural tracts, regional chronicles, as well as hundreds of Latin plays written in imitation of classical Greco-Roman theatre but set in Japan. An intriguing yet underexplored segment of Jesuit school theatre is that which stages non-classical, non-Western subjects such as Japan, and this volume is the first to present Latin texts of two of these plays alongside full English translations, commentaries and an extensive introduction. The plays in question - Martyrs of Japan and Victor the Japanese - were performed in Koblenz and Munich, in 1625 and 1665 respectively, and are collated from original 17th-century manuscripts for this edition. They were based on specific events which took place in Japan in 1597 and 1613, and their main characters are historically attested Japanese Catholic converts and their pagan peers. The juxtaposition of the Latin texts and original English translations makes the plays newly accessible to a wide readership, shedding light on the ways in which Western classical humanism rooted in ancient Mediterranean theatre became intertwined with momentous historical developments across the globe to produce these unique spectacles. The introduction and commentary examine the historical, cultural and literary contexts and provide guidance on interpretative and stylistic issues, allowing for a full appreciation of the plays in which pagan classical, Christian, early modern European and Japanese elements come together.

Japan on the Jesuit Stage offers a comprehensive overview of the representations of Japan in early modern European Neo-Latin school theater. The chapters in the volume catalog and analyze representative plays which were produced in the hundreds all over Europe, from the Iberian Peninsula to present-day Croatia and Poland. Taking full account of existing scholarship, but also introducing a large amount of previously unknown primary material, the contributions by European and Japanese researchers significantly expand the horizon of investigation on early modern European theatrical reception of East Asian elements and will be of particular interest to students of global history, Neo-Latin, and theater studies.

"Japan on the Jesuit Stage offers a comprehensive overview of the representations of early modern Japan in contemporary European Neo-Latin school theater. The chapters in the volume catalog and analyze representative plays which were produced in the hundreds all over Europe, from the Iberian Peninsula to present-day Croatia and Poland. Taking full account of existing scholarship but also introducing a large amount of previously unknown primary material, the contributions by European and Japanese researchers significantly expand the horizon of investigation on early modern European theatrical reception of East Asian elements and will be of particular interest to students of global history, Neo-Latin, and theater studies"--

When Europeans first landed in Japan they encountered people they perceived as white-skinned and highly civilized, but these impressions did not endure. Gradually the Europeans' positive impressions faded away and Japanese were seen as yellow-skinned and relatively inferior. Accounting for this dramatic transformation, From White to Yellow is a groundbreaking study of the evolution of European interpretations of the Japanese and the emergence of discourses about race in early modern Europe. Transcending the conventional focus on Africans and Jews within the rise of modern racism, Rotem Kowner demonstrates that the invention of race did not emerge in a vacuum in eighteenth-century Europe, but rather was a direct product of earlier discourses of the "Other." This compelling study indicates that the racial discourse on the Japanese, alongside the Chinese, played a major role in the rise of the modern concept of race. While challenging Europe's self-possession and sense of centrality, the discourse delayed the eventual consolidation of a hierarchical worldview in which Europeans stood immutably at the apex. Drawing from a vast array of primary sources, From White to Yellow traces the racial roots of the modern clash between Japan and the West.

This fascinating book is an insightful exploration of Western perceptions and representations of Japanese culture and society, drawing on social and cultural psychological ideas around stereotypes and intercultural relations. Hinton considers how the West views the Japanese as an ideologically different “other”, and proposes a cultural theory of stereotypes from which to explore Western observations of the Japanese. The book explores Western socio-cultural representations of the Japanese alongside Edward Said’s well-known theory of Orientalism. It examines the West’s intercultural relationship with Japan, and how this has changed over time, to show how the Japanese have been represented in the Western mind throughout history, to the present day. Hinton argues that our view of other cultures is based on our own cultural expectations, which involve complex issues of meaning-making and perceived cultural differences. This book foregrounds the research through accounts of Westerners about the Japanese, to reveal how cultural representations can influence the ways in which people from different cultures communicate in interaction, and how intercultural understanding or misunderstanding can arise. By reflecting on the changing Western representations of the Japanese, and how and why these have emerged, this book will be of interest to students, academics and general readers interested in stereotypes, cultural psychology, intercultural communication, anthropology and Japanese culture and history.

The Japanese and the Jesuits examines the attempt by sixteenth century Jesuits to convert the Japanese to Christianity. Directing the Jesuits was the Italian Alessandro Valignano, whose own magisterial writings, many of them not previously translated or published, are the principle source material for this account of one of the most remarkable of all meetings between East and West. Valignano arrived in Japan in 1579. In promoting Christianity, he always sought the support of the ruling classes, but an important part of his strategy was also to have the missionaries adapt themselves thoroughly to Japanese customs, etiquette and culture. He was insistent that they must master the Japanese language, and he brought to Japan a European printing press, which turned out grammars and dictionaries for the missionaries, and works of instruction and devotion for the Japanese Christians. Following Valignano's death, Christianity was proscribed and missionaries banished from Japan. This does not detract from his remarkable achievements. He understood perfectly well that foreign missionaries by themselves were not capable of converting Japan to Christianity, and one of his principal concerns was the training of Japanese Jesuits and priests, and breaking down the barriers between them and the Europeans. Few people have ever been more acutely aware of, or grappled more determinedly with, problems in Japanese-Western relationships.

This volume of essays contributes to our understanding of the ways in which the Jesuits employed emotions to “change hearts”—that is, convert or reform—both in Europe and in the overseas missions.

Winner of the prize "Fundação Oriente – Embaixador João de Deus Ramos" of the Academia de Marinha 2021 This book attempts to depict certain aspects of the Portuguese trade in East Asia in the 16th and 17th centuries by analyzing the activities of the merchants and Christian missionaries involved. It also discusses the response of the Japanese regime in handling the systemic changes that took place in the Asian seas. Consequently, it explains how Jesuit missionaries forged close ties with local merchants from the start of their activities in East Asian waters, and there is no doubt that the propagation of Christianity in Japan was a result of their cooperation. The author of this book attempted to combine the essence of previous studies by Japanese and western scholars and added several new findings from analyses of original Japanese and European language documents.

Hiroshima is the story of six people—a clerk, a widowed seamstress, a physician, a Methodist minister, a young surgeon, and a German Catholic priest—who lived through the greatest single manmade disaster in history. In vivid and indelible prose, Pulitzer Prize–winner John Hersey traces the stories of these half-dozen individuals from 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, when Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a city, through the hours and days that followed. Almost four decades after the original publication of this celebrated book, Hersey went back to Hiroshima in search of the people whose stories he had told, and his account of what he discovered is now the eloquent and moving final chapter of Hiroshima.