The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

Posted: 06 Nov 2012 01:45 AM PST

A British author unveils the wonders of writing about the Japanese, and how she has fallen in love with a culture not her own.

HER first novel tells of the forbidden love between the Japanese shogun's last concubine and a rebel warrior. Her second takes place in the exotic pleasure quarters of Japan, where a woman forced to become a courtesan finds refuge in the heart of a battered swordsman. Her third and latest publication, Across A Bridge Of Dreams, unveils a Romeo and Juliet-esque romance between childhood sweethearts that can never be, set in – you guessed it – Japan.

British author Lesley Downer has set all three of her books' narratives in the late 19th century in Japan. She also has three non-fiction publications that have been translated into Japanese.

In London, her birthplace and current residency, the author is seen as a sort of Japanese subject-matter expert – she is often approached by the media to comment on matters to do with that country.

What's interesting, though, is that the 53-year-old isn't even Japanese to begin with. Born to a Chinese-Canadian mother and Canadian father who taught Chinese at London University, Downer grew up surrounded by shelves of Chinese books and the company of her parents' multinational Asian friends.

And so it was not long before she discovered a special affinity for the land of the rising sun. The year was 1978, and Downer, influenced by her father's many travels to Asia, had enrolled in a programme to teach English in Japan.

"I wanted to see the world, to travel like my father did. I became fascinated with Japan at a time when I was teaching English at a language school in Oxford. I started learning Japanese from one of my Japanese students. Then, I heard there were jobs being advertised to teach English in Japan. I applied and to my amazement, was successful," she says.

Before long, she found herself in the heart of central Japan, where she worked as an English sensei (teacher) at the Gifu Women's University in the city.

"When I first arrived, as far as I knew, there were no other Westerners. Most Japanese spoke no English, or only very stilted English. All the signs were in Japanese, including the sign on the front of the bus that took me to the university where I taught. So I had to learn fast, relying on books and tapes.

"In Gifu, I taught a class of women. We called it the 'housewives' class'. We met for lunch in one another's homes and went on trips together to try out restaurants. I travelled a great deal, and people would invite me to their home to stay the night. That was one way I learnt Japanese, by meeting and staying with the locals."

Having read Penguin Books' Anthology Of Japanese Literature, Downer was initially immersed in the romance of old Japan.

"In Oxford, my Japanese teacher warned me that 'behind every temple, there is a factory'. He was right, of course, and initially, I was shocked by how industrialised Japan was. But in the end, I found that the Japan of my imaginings was there to be discovered, though it took not just searching but also a different way of seeing," she observes.

After five years, Downer returned to Britain, only to discover that her peers did not share her passionate views of Japan.

"People who had never been there talked about World War II, complained that the Japanese ate whale meat and said that Japan was expensive; a land of super polite, inscrutable businessmen who said 'Yes' when they meant 'No'. In fact, the Japanese are a lot more outgoing than British people, quite Mediterranean in temperament. This inspired me to write about Japan, to communicate something of its long history, fascinating culture and variety of people," she says.

Downer's first book unveiled her journey in the footsteps of the renowned 17th century haiku poet, Basho, through the remote north of Japan.

On The Narrow Road To The Deep North was shortlisted for the Somerset Maugham Travel Book of the Year award in 1988 and subsequently filmed by New York-based WNET and Britain's Channel 4 TV in 1991 under the title Journey To A Lost Japan.

"Following in Basho's footsteps was a great way to see a part of Japan I hadn't seen, and which few people visited: the north, including the area that suffered last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami. I also wanted to write about rural Japan, a Japan I knew well.

"On my travels, I stayed in small country villages for weeks at a time, with people who came to be like family. Even the most humble farmers were familiar with Basho's haiku and often quoted him. I went mushroom hunting, ate grasshoppers and wrote poetry with local poets, then climbed the three sacred mountains of Dewa with a group of pilgrims led by a conch-blowing mountain priest."

Following this, Downer wrote The Brothers, based on the wealthy and powerful Tsutsumi family in Japan. The book was chosen as a New York Times Book of the Year in 1995. In between, Downer wrote and presented A Taste Of Japan, a six-part series on Japanese cooking that aired on BBC2 in 1991, and anchored another documentary made by Japan's NHK on her journey in Basho's footsteps.

Research for her next venture, Geisha: The Secret History Of A Vanishing World, had her living for six months among the geisha, where she found herself "slowly but surely being transformed into one of them".

"It was very difficult to break into the geisha world. I soon learnt that it didn't work to behave like a pushy Western journalist. One elderly geisha told me sternly that at my first meeting with a geisha, I should ask no questions at all, simply request another meeting. At the second meeting, I might ask a few questions, but not many. I had to play a part, to act in a humble and demure way, as geishas do.

"Geisha are tough women who survive by their own skills; one of those is knowing how to wrap others around their graceful little fingers. As a woman, I was treated as a beginner, badly in need of geisha training. I came to admire the geisha adage: 'A clever woman never lets a man know how clever she is'. I realised I was learning to be circumspect, persuasive; less of a strident Westerner but instead, more soft and feminine."

Despite Downer's fond impressions of Japan, lurking in the shadows were the challenges of writing about a culture not her own.

"When I was following Basho's journey, a Japanese man said to me: 'You're a foreigner, you can't understand Basho. I said: 'Can you understand Shakespeare?' 'Yes, of course,' he said. 'It's easy.'

In my opinion, I can understand Basho as well or as badly as any Japanese. Part of the point of following Basho's journey was because I thought I might understand his haiku better if I saw the places where he wrote them.

"I'm steeped in Japanese culture. I lived in Japan for 15 years altogether, have travelled most of the country and read many books on Japan – non-fiction, contemporary fiction and classical Japanese literature. My novels are a way to share that knowledge."

> Across A Bridge Of Dreams is currently available in major bookstores nationwide.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Selasa, 6 November 2012

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

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