Lost Japan, David Kidd & Some Thoughts on Japanologists & Sinologists

Alex Kerr’s Lost Japan was first published in 1996 – a love letter to a Japan that had changed and morphed, not always for the better in Kerr’s view, but always in ways fascinating to the observer. Kerr was mentored in his appreciation of Asian art by David Kidd, who ChinaRhymers will know for his book The Last Days of Old Peking. Kidd saw the last of the old traditions of China before the final communist clampdown and then moved to Japan. While Japan may have lost much of its traditional art and beauty in the last 50 years things could be worse. As Kerr notes: ‘…the problem is even more severe in in other Asian countries, such as China or Tibet, where ancient cultures have sustained near-mortal damage.’ Kidd’s continuing appreciation of Chinese arts and craftsmanship, as well as his knowledge of Japanese and other Asian arts comes shining through the book.

Kerr also has an interesting point to make on the difference between Japanologists and Sinologists, while accepting he’ll be criticised for his broad generalisations – I’d tend to agree with him:

‘Lovers of China are thinkers; lovers of Japan, sensuous. People drawn to China are restless, adventurous types, with critical minds. They have to be, because Chinese society is capricious, changing from one instant to the next, and Chinese conversation is fast moving and pointed. You can hardly relax for an instant: no matter how fascinating it is, China will never allow you to sit back and think, “All is perfect”. Japan, on the other hand, with its social patterns designed to cocoon everyone and everything from harsh reality, is a much more comfortable  country to live in. Well-established rhythms and politenesses shield you from more unpleasantness. Japan can be a kind of “lotus land”, where one floats blissfully away on the placid surface of things.’

Penguin have just reissued Kerr’s Lost Japan, with a new foreword by the author…The Last Days of Old Peking fortunately also remains in print for those who have not read it – the NYRB did a copy some time back and E-Land also have it as Peking Story.