36 Views of Mount Fuji: On Finding Myself in Japan

by Cathy N. Davidson

Overview

In 1980 Cathy N. Davidson traveled to Japan to teach English at a leading all-women’s university. It was the first of many journeys and the beginning of a deep and abiding fascination. In this extraordinary book, Davidson depicts a series of intimate moments and small epiphanies that together make up a panoramic view of Japan. With wit, candor, and a lover’s keen eye, she tells captivating stories—from that of a Buddhist funeral laden with ritual to an exhilarating evening spent touring the “Floating World,” the sensual demimonde in which salaryman meets geisha and the normal rules are suspended. On a remote island inhabited by one of the last matriarchal societies in the world, a disconcertingly down-to-earth priestess leads her to the heart of a sacred grove. And she spends a few unforgettable weeks in a quasi-Victorian residence called the Practice House, where, until recently, Japanese women were taught American customs so that they would make proper wives for husbands who might be stationed abroad. In an afterword new to this edition, Davidson tells of a poignant trip back to Japan in 2005 to visit friends who had remade their lives after the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995, which had devastated the city of Kobe, as well as the small town where Davidson had lived and the university where she taught.

36 Views of Mount Fuji not only transforms our image of Japan, it offers a stirring look at the very nature of culture and identity. Often funny, sometimes liltingly sad, it is as intimate and irresistible as a long-awaited letter from a good friend.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822388180
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	10/25/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Cathy N. Davidson is Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies, cofounder of the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies, and Ruth F. DeVarney Professor of English at Duke University. Her numerous books include Revolution and the Word: The Rise of the Novel in America; Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory; and No More Separate Spheres! (with Jessamyn A. Hatcher), also published by Duke University Press. She is a past president of the American Studies Association and a previous editor of the journal American Literature.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xi

Preface xiii

1. Seeing and Being Seen 1

2. Foreigners 9

3. After School 21

4. From the Best Families 37

5. Typical Japanese Women 49

6. Night Moves 69

7. Sacred Places 83

8. Accident 105

9. Going Home 123

10. Sea of Japan, Oki, 1987 139

11. Tatami Room in Cedar Grove 155

12. Festival of the Dead 169

13. Photo Album: The Fourth Journey 185

14. The Practice House 205

15. House Guest 217

16. Climbing the Mountain 227

Afterword (2005) 233

Acknowledgments to the First Edition 241

Acknowledgments to the Second Edition 243

Glossary of Japanese Words and Expressions 245

A Note on Japanese Names ix

Editorial Reviews

Empathy infuses Davidson's reactions to the Japanese and lifts this graceful, balanced account of her experiences in their country above the ordinary. Her book's title, taken from the series of woodblock prints by the famed late-18th century artist, Hokusai, reflects her will to see many different and sometimes contradictory aspects of the culture, to avoid stereotypes and to admit a range of emotions. Between 1980 and 1990, she visited Japan four times, twice for year-long assignments as an English professor at Kanzai Women's University. She struggled with the language, made do with standard cramped living quarters, reached out within the acceptable social forms to fellow teachers, students and neighbors. She ate native foods, accepted the invitation of a male colleague to tour the pornographic boites of Osaka's ``Floating World,'' stayed overnight with the priestess of a matriarchal communal religion, and generally learned to feel so much at home that she occasionally thought of herself as Japanese. Through women friends, Davidson ( The Book of Love: Writers and Their Love Letters ) came to understand their power in this society as well as their needs. Her charmingly drawn word-pictures resonate. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Davidson relocated to Japan in 1980 to teach at a women's university. With no prior exposure, Davidson quickly developed a deep love for the country and its people, which she conveyed in this 1993 travel memoir. This reprint sports a new afterword written by Davidson after returning to Japan in 2005 to visit old friends and haunts affected by the 1995 earthquake that devastated the city of Kobe and the small town where she taught.

—Michael Rogers

Library Journal

In spiritual counterpoint to "Rising Sun" and the Japan-bashing currently in vogue comes a luminous, sincere book that offers another view. Named after a classic series of prints depicting a variety of points of view of Japan's sacred mountain, Davidson's essays do much the same thing for the entire nation. Drawing upon her range of experiences living and working in Japan off and on for 10 years, Davidson tries to understand the essence of the country. She finds it difficult to pin down, however, because each encounter with it reveals yet another layer of its society's inner workings. Sometimes frustrated, often unsure of protocol, Davidson remains open and sensitive to the Japanese way of life. Her love of the culture is clear, and as she and her husband struggle with whether to settle there, she begins to examine not only Japan but also her own life and values. Nuanced and passionate, her book achieves what many travel writers can only aspire to: the sense of being both inside and outside of a culture at the same time and the profound feeling that this journey has indeed led her to someplace she always wanted to go.

Mary Ellen Sullivan

Travel memoir about the author's four trips to Japan that grows like a novel and takes on unusual richness as it keeps reinvesting itself in earlier scenes and people. Davidson (English/Duke; co-ed., The Last Tradition, 1980, etc.) and her husband, Ted, first moved to Osaka in 1980 to teach at "Kansai Women's University" (a fictional composite), where she instructed a class in spoken English. Despite trying several times, the author never did master Japanese—though it must be said that, in turn, most of her Japanese students seemed to have learned an artificial English that has little tie to own. Davidson writes about almost nothing for itself alone but, rather, for its emotional impact on her, and nearly all the people she describes here are composites who become vehicles of feeling. She writes this way because the Japanese usually hide their deeper feelings, and those she knows personally would be embarrassed by appearing recognizably on these pages—especially being portrayed in exactly the emotional states they usually cover over most carefully. These novelistic devices, along with the way the Davidsons' visits to Japan gather depth of feeling, lend her account a personal quality all her own—and may give it a longer life than most travel memoirs. Davidson reveals little new about the Japanese, but what she makes clear are the shame and humiliation she most commonly feels with her students, fellow Japanese teachers, Japanese friends, and street people, all of whom see her as gaijin (foreigner) and cry out "Speak no Engrish!" (Perhaps because of this humiliation, the Davidsons, rather than settle down in Japan, finally build a Japanese house in North Carolina). Over theten years covered, many deaths occur, especially in the final pages, which adds a memorable darkening to the text. Top-drawer. (Eighteen line drawings)

Kirkus Reviews

Davidson is inquisitive and careful: observations serve as prompts for thoughtful appraisals of her native US, and stereotypes of Japan are questioned. . . . It’s when Japan is clearly in focus – especially when revealed through the author’s experiences and conversations with locals – that the narrative is most engaging.

Lonely Planet - Laura Crawford

No one could have tried harder to fathom Japanese culture [than Davidson]. The result is a series of illuminations not unlike the sudden break in the clouds that finally lets her glimpse Mount Fuji from the window of a bullet train.

New York Times Book Review - Francine Prose

Luminous . . . Nuanced and passionate, [Davidson’s] book achieves what many travel writers can only aspire to: the sense of being both inside and outside of a culture at the same time.

Booklist

Davidson’s memoir, shimmering with poetic insights and poignant observations, stands out from the rest. . . . [A] compelling read for anyone considering a trip to Japan—or who has recently returned from one.

Bust - Corrie Pikul

A delightful read, offering insight not only into Japan but into the adventure of living in a foreign culture anywhere in the world.”—Mary Catherine Bateson, author of Composing a Life


“Beautifully written. . . . I did not want to put it down.”—Susan Allen Toth, author of Blooming: A Small-Town Girlhood


“Brilliant, wise, and witty . . . as enjoyable a read as Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provençe.”—Louise DeSalvo, author of Vertigo: A Memoir

From the Publisher

Intelligent, sympathetic . . . and quick-witted.

Washington Post Book World - Elizabeth Ward

“Luminous . . . Nuanced and passionate, [Davidson’s] book achieves what many travel writers can only aspire to: the sense of being both inside and outside of a culture at the same time.

Booklist