When the mood takes me, I poke around
(usually on Wikipedia) reading about Japan's royal family. Which is how I found
out about, uh, oops, hang on, um... *leans over, grabs the book, and flips it
open to the title/author page* Elizabeth Grey Vining. (Hey, I said I read
about the family, not that I remembered what I read.)
Mrs. Vining, a Quaker and a writer of
Pennsylvania extraction, was an English tutor for the current emperor second to last emperor, Akihito,
for a couple years during Japan's reconstruction, when he was crown prince. She wrote a memoir on it too:
Windows for the Crown Prince. The title comes from what someone said to her, I think.
You can find Windows on the Internet
Archive (heheh, boy does that sound like a confident prediction about the future of computer technology,) but I'm not entirely sure its supposed to be there. It was
published in 1952, and since it can be a fantastic source of confusion and seemingly futile slogs through the internet to even begin to try to figure out current copyright law, it feels safer to say the book is probably
somehow still under copyright. I suspect there's probably a fair use
thing going on there somehow.
Anyhow, stepping away from that loose
thread preoccupation of thought, I was able -- through the glorious, tax-paid service
of inter-library loan -- to get ahold of a copy. From the public library whose name includes Wyoming -- though oddly enough, isn't actually in Wyoming. (Speaking of Wyoming, it actually has -- hang on, won't be a moment --
*sounds of typing and scrolling* seventy-six libraries over there -- not including the bookmobiles (of which there are two). Not
bad for a population of *further sounds of typing and scrolling* 578,759. That's one library for every 7615.25 people.)
Style
So. To begin. The way Mrs. Grey Vining
writes/wrote Windows... It's kinda got a kinda 1800s-y style. I mean, if
you've ever tried older books, you tend to get really long sentences, and the
whole thing has a sort of heavy, wooden-y-ness that makes it feel a little
dry-ish. Not bad, if you like it, or occasionally are in the mood for it. (Not that I'd ever do
such a thing as compose a sentence that
could possibly hold any sort of potential for being perceived as, in some
manner or other, unfolding itself to display a measure of length that did not
behoove it, due to an irreconcilable
level of entirely unnecessary excess contained within the myriad of
parceled clauses that constituted its whole. :D ) Also it's a a little choppy.
When she's building up an idea/line of thought, there are times she just stops,
leaving the end just hanging out there at the end of the paragraph. Mebbe she was trying for plain, tell it like it is practical speech? Eh. *Shrugs"
(...Then there were a few spots that
possibly come across as just a tad racist, cuz, f'r instance, she talks about
Highland Scots people being pessimistic as a matter of heredity -- though I
suppose it could be some kind of artistic license. There's also a bit where she
feels she's becoming "Oriental" in her thinking... it just comes off
a little weird, is all.)
However. There were times I liked her
descriptions of things she'd come across, like priests uniforms and landscape
type things, a sort of peaceful/restful/poetic and interesting cultural
experience is kind of what they were like. And sometimes she tells good
jokes. (I mean, they made me smile, anyway.) Another thing I kind of
liked, was that overall she emphasizes positive things going on. Prolly thought
it was the diplomatic thing to do, I dunno. Anyway, sometimes its nice to have
a book that keeps you more focused on overcoming difficulties and good things
happening, y'know? (If you're curious about her opinion on Hirohito/the Showa
emperor, she -- at least in this book -- says she takes the view he
didn't want war. So yeah. That's it.)
This book has a lot of details, like the names and backgrounds of all these
people in different positions she got to know (including imperial family people,)
charity stuff she did, nicknames, diplomatic dinners, names of sights,
Christmas celebrations, charitable works, descriptions of events (like a poetry
party hosted by the emperor and concerts,) notes on human nature, travel
descriptions, descriptions of meetings with MacArthur (she was there when he
met with Akihito once,) lessons at the Gakushuin (Peer’s School,) private
lessons with Akihito (and the lessons with him and other kids, including some
of his family members,) books she read with him as part of his lessons, a couple sort of surveys of Japanese people’s opinions
on some Japanese stuff (like the tea ceremony, gagaku (that's an old kind of music)…) All
kinds of stuff. (No kanji or macrons for the romaji, though, if that’s a niggling
question you’ve had.)
Speaking of concerts (if you read the
paragraph above,) one time
when she was talking about a Ise Shrine ritual dance music and she said she ended up being reminded of different things, like bagpipes and Bolero (that’s by Ravel. I know because I found a tsugaru shamisen group cover
of it the other day, and that was part of the title)… I don't know much about kagura (which is the only word I know for sure is supposed to be ritual dance,) but if it's anything like gagaku (a very rhythm oriented, sort of out of control/wild/intense-sh kind of music, at least with an ensemble) I think I can see it. Very rhythm-y, a bit mysterious?
Now, if I remember right, after three years, she says she finds that she was
going a little funny, thinking she had to leave or forever have an "Oriental" touch to her thinking (not sure how
to feel about that... sentiment) and was feeling worn out. And she thought that once Akihito was done with Middle School, that would be it for her. But she caves to social
pressure and stays one more year.
Here’s the very last bit, which is in a
chapter titled Postscript, where she’s been back home and just got mail from
the imperial family, translated by one Mr. Sumikura. (Sumikura had been a grand
steward for Akihito and had come to the US on gov’ment biz 'n such):
“In
spite of all the formalities and the distance, the Empress’s personality came
through to me, and for a moment I was back in Japan once again within the Moat,
in that sunny room with the carved rabbits and the Noh dolls.
The
next day Mr. Sumikura took many photographs in order to make an album for Her
Majesty. I answered the Crown Prince’s letter by air mail.”
It kinda sorta feels I guess like how the Hitchhiker's Guide books end, without a sense of wrapping up exactly, and also a little melancholic
(maybe cuz there is no real sense of wrapping up) at
least for the reader. Or it’s supposed to make you realize that perhaps the
ending had yet to be written, kinda thing. I dunno.
So all in all, do I reccommend it? Yeh. It's got a few odd spots, and the style might stop you up a bit now and again, but it's interesting and kind of nice.
References:
Well, how about that -- only three this time. Two of which, must be said, are about Wyoming.
"Windows for the Crown Prince"; Elizabeth Vining; 1952
Wyoming State Library: "A FEW FACTS ABOUT WYOMING’S PUBLIC LIBRARIES FOR NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK"; 15 April 2016; Susan (Susan...Just Susan.)
