"The Great Wave" is full of all kinds of surprises. I had no idea New England intellectuals fell in love with Japan after the Civil War and looked there for spiritual and artisitic inspiration. Benfey writes "In these days (1883), when a large part of Boston prefers to consider itself Buddhist rather than Christian." And New England had been the birth place of Transcendentalism and the Unitarian church. Maybe those long cold winters give people the more time to think about life, death and why are we here.
Benfey points out the the appeal to Buddhism and it's simple, stark look at the world was a reaction to the greed and glitz of the Gilded Age. I would imagine most people were hurting badly after the Civil War and questioning the values of our country.
Our book tells about the journeys of Americans to Japan, including authors Henry Adams and Herman Melville. In return we learn about Japanese citizens, Kakuzo Okakura and a young sailor, Manjoiro, who make the journey to America and how it changes their lives.
Apparently there was such a run on Japanese art so when Henry Adams finally arrives in 1886 he complains, "Japan has been cleaned out...Kakimonos are not to be got...Fine old porcelain is rare and dear. Embroideries are absolutely introuvable. Even books seem scarce." All the "good stuff" was back in Boston.
It's told that at this same time Japan was anxious to modernize and learn American technology so they were happy to shed some of the old items. They were "fighting off isolation and forging a new modern state".
Reading this book made me think of the opera "Madame Butterfly." She marries an American naval officer, abandons her Japanese religion in an effort to become an American. In one production I saw broadcast the Butterfly actually wears Western clothing after she is married to Pinkerton. It really emphasized how she was trying to change and take on a new culture. Unfortuantely Butterfly falls in love with a tenor so things always end badly.
More later
