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For obvious reasons, California looms large in early Japanese accounts of trans-Pacific migration and engagement with the West.
What, then, did Japanese migrants from the "green archipelago" (with a rich forestry tradition all their own) make of California& #39;s redwoods? 1/
What, then, did Japanese migrants from the "green archipelago" (with a rich forestry tradition all their own) make of California& #39;s redwoods? 1/
An early impression comes from Kume Kunitake, chronicler of the Iwakura Mission, the envoy that toured the US in 1872: "There are many gigantic trees around Yosemite, and on the stump of one such tree a hall with a dance floor large enough for thirty people could be built." 2/
A much more detailed account comes from Akamine Seichirō, who in 1886 published Beikoku Ima Fushigi (米国今不審議), essentially a guidebook for prospective immigrants. A scan is available via the National Diet Library of Japan here: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/767343 3/">https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndlj...
The text is noteworthy on many levels. Akamine provides a fascinating snapshot of San Francisco in the 1880s. He disparages not only the Chinese community in SF but also lower class Japanese migrants and laborers. He provides a crash course in California history. 4/
The latter portion of the text is devoted to a discussion of California& #39;s landscape and its natural wonders. He pays particular attention to Yosemite. Here& #39;s an illustration of Bridal Veil Falls, the sublime sight of which he compares to Paris or (closer to home) Nikko. 5/
Here& #39;s Vernal Falls. 6/
Particularly arresting to Akamine are the behemoth redwoods of Warwona, "the monarchs" of the forest. 7/
It& #39;s worth noting that Akamine mistakenly describes these redwoods as a type of 大杉, or giant cedar. This is hardly surprising when you recognize that cedar has been a fixture of silviculture in Japan for centuries. It was a familiar touchstone for Japanese observers. 8/
I& #39;d be remiss not point out that Akamine also uses the seemingly primordial landscape of Yosemite to denigrate its Native American inhabitants, who he casts as trapped in a primitive way of life, but for the civilizing mission of white settlers. 9/
As Sidney Xu Lu points out in his excellent book on Japanese settler colonialism, Akamine marks these indigenous communities as dojin 土人 -- the same term applied to the Ainu of Hokkaido. He goes so far as to call California& #39;s tribes "the Red Ainu." 10/ https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/making-of-japanese-settler-colonialism/644DFDA740495E1C2D49B20CCF914418">https://www.cambridge.org/core/book...
Akamine was but one of the first Japanese migrants to gravitate to Yosemite or to fall under the spell of its redwoods. A few decades later, the gifted painter Obata Chiura seasoned in the Sierras, producing some stunning portraits of the park and its majestic giants. 11/
Obata& #39;s work is collected in a Smithsonian gallery here: https://americanart.si.edu/artist/chiura-obata-27393">https://americanart.si.edu/artist/ch...
For those interested, I elaborate on these trans-Pacific forestry ties in my new book, Seeds of Control: https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295747453/seeds-of-control/">https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780...
For those interested, I elaborate on these trans-Pacific forestry ties in my new book, Seeds of Control: https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295747453/seeds-of-control/">https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780...
