Fukuzawa Yukichi by Helen M. Hopper Part 1

From the outset, I want to say that I have infinite respect for authors, whether they write fiction or nonfiction, and no matter their beliefs, but sometimes the mistakes, lazy editing, etc. must be addressed. (And if I misspell things, please don't let that take away from opinions... I don't pretend to be an author... unlike some of those to come.)

*sigh* Alright, with that out of the way... I think it's time I actually talk about a book, huh? Well, I'll start with a simple, short biography (since it's on the bookshelf closest to my computer).

Fukuzawa Yukichi: From Samurai to Capitalist.

...Fukuzawa Yukichi. Hard to spell, fun to say.

Now as far as historical figures go, Yukichi isn't a well known figure, and one with a convoluted history, but is that an excuse for writing a book with so little focus on the reader?

The chapters loosely follow the subject they are about, but tend to wander dramatically from their original topic, and get pulled violently back to a forced set of conclusions that don't flow well together, and end up skipping through the man's life so often that I spent most of the book flipping back and forth like I was reading a "choose your own adventure" novel desperately trying to find out what's going on, who this person is, and what job Fukuzawa has at this point, and where he is.

Okay, there is another problem: A writer HAS to have a common name they call their character or subject. Especially when the person's society has a different naming convention than the reader's!

In Japan, the family name comes first, followed by the personal name. In fact, the author has a section right after the preface where she vows to write names in the Japanese manner, and yet throughout, Fukuzawa Yukichi occassionally becomes Yukichi Fukuzawa, just Yukichi, or just Fukuzawa. This is a name that a westerner has trouble keeping track of, especially if they haven't had much experience with Japanese names, which tend to be long and dificult to pronounce for english-speakers. Now amplify this issue by adding dozens of other people being named and occassionally even being the center of attention for page after page and yu'll come to understand why my copy of the book has rugburns from being thrown to the floor in frustration so much.

Alright, preface over (and that wasn't as long as Helen Hopper's acknowledgements for her 138 page book.) Let's take a look at this book, chapter by chapter.

As a biography, naturally the first line of the book begins with the place and date of Fukuzawa's birth. This, naturally, is followed by absolutely nothing about him.

I'm dead serious. He's born, then the author seems to forget about him. She talks about his father's life, yada yada yada, and I get that it's neccessary to have some backdrop for all of this, but how many lines can you possibly need to say that he was part of a samurai family that was of a samurai class incapable of attaining wealth honorably, because low-level samurai, well, sucked. They didn't do anything except carry swords and inspire a generation of cloistered white guys in america to think they understand Japanese culture by watching animes about them.

So, then, shouldn't that be pretty much all she says about that? Really! In fact, I'll grant her an entire page to cover definitions (even though those are also covered in a glossary in the back, with such hard-to-defne words as Geisha, Sensei and Samurai being fully explained) and Japanese-history-in-a-nutshell.

So, then, how many pages in your 138 page book are taken with this filler, Ms. Hopper? 7 and a half.

...

That's around 5% of the book, just as an introduction. And I'm not counting the INTRODUCTION. Or the start of every chapter and subchapter where 90% of what she just went over will be covered again and again until you are totally sick of seeing the word Bakufu starting another swing at traditional Japanese society.

So.... let's have a look at some of these subchapter titles (because there isn't enough filler in a book thinner than my callendar without them, is there?):

"Breaking out of Nakatsu," "Sidetracked in Osaka," ... what the hell? These sound like titles for hair metal ballads or, at best, chapters from an R. L. Stein novel. Unfortunately, they're pretty fitting titles, though, because almost every parapgraph begins with the name of an island or city in Japan.

I'm now 11 pages into this book, and am litterally falling asleep... more to come when I can stand to read more of it.