Click here for the "From the Geil Archive" Resource Center
To learn more about William Edgar Geil, click here for the Accidental Ethnographer Resource Center
A year ago on Round and Square (17 October 2012)—Assignments—Harold Ross's New Yorker
To learn more about William Edgar Geil, click here for the Accidental Ethnographer Resource Center
A year ago on Round and Square (17 October 2012)—Assignments—Harold Ross's New Yorker
 |
| [a] Japan SC |
Click here for other posts written by Guest Contributor Sarah Conn:
Sarah Conn, today’s Guest Contributor on Round and Square, is a self-proclaimed “gal from rural Wisconsin” with a B.A. in Japanese Language and Culture and a double-minor in Museum Studies and Anthropology. With a mild obsession for Japanese textiles and working knowledge of the order Cetacea and the family Pinnipedia, she is currently working with four other Beloit College graduates to digitize, process, and research the William Edgar Geil Collection at the Doylestown Historical Society in Pennsylvania. She and Geil do not always see eye-to-eye on certain subjects, but both share a love of photography, writing about food, and USING ALL CAPITALS WHEN THEY ARE EXCITED.
As you have no doubt guessed by now, I am very fond of Japan. Where else can I see the red torii arches outside of shrines and people dressed in gorgeous kimono? While I am open-minded, it is still extremely strange to me that someone could not appreciate Japan and the traditions associated with it. This is why Geil bewilders me so, and is one of the main reasons we do not see eye-to-eye.
Japan confuses Geil.
Unlike China, where he makes attempt to study the culture and learn, Geil goes to Japan, almost as if just to check another place off a list. He does not do that much research; he does not check his sources. THIS IS UNFORGIVABLE.
Well, no, not actually; not exactly unforgivable, but extremely disappointing to the Japanese Language and Culture major to say the least. There is so much out there that Geil could have written about. He could have been in awe of the sweeping gates of the shrines and how the Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines intersect and cross over with each other (unlikely though, given that he was a missionary, but you can be impressed by something and still not believe in it). He could have left in the Japanese names so I could figure out where he actually went, rather than translating them into English. He even could have talked about something more than the modern (at his time) Christianity in Japan rather than talking about different meetings and how Christian schools work more as finishing schools for young girls. The history of Christianity in Japan is bloody and full of strife—Geil manages to (unknowingly?) erase it all in his manuscript with a simple title: “A Sailor Brought the Bible to Japan.”
Whoa, wait, hold up! It is true that Christianity came to Japan by boat (it is an island nation, after all), but reading through the story it states that an Englishman brought it over in 1864. That is completely and utterly wrong. In the 1500s Christianity was brought over by Jesuit missionaries. It gained quite a following due not only to the charity to the poor but for the trading opportunities. But during the Edo Era (1603-1868) it became quite dangerous to be Christian or have any “outside” influence; one could be killed for practicing Christianity or anything that was not considered “Japanese.” For a Christian who would not renounce their religion, their death was often long and grisly. During this ban, Christianity went underground and, after 200 some years of secret praying, became mixed with Shinto and Buddhist ideologies until it was near unrecognizable from the original matter.
So, the story told to Geil is wrong. That much is true. I cannot actually fault him for that, but the fact that this is a manuscript, rather than a personal diary and assumedly meant for publication, pains me. There at least could be some fact checking going on here!
I cannot blame for Geil not being as over the moon as I am about Japan. It’s unfair to him. However, Geil wished to be seen as an academic (see Amara Pugens’s, Julia Lacher’s, and Rachel Johnson’s posts on the matter) and this willy-nilly “writing down everything I hear so that I can be called a specialist without doing some background research” does not sit well in the academic world. Of course, this is just for Japan—as Rachel Johnson’s post Warring Pens says, he did correspond with some very famous specialists about China, including Lionel Giles.
However, what I really wish to highlight is Geil’s discussion of religion in his manuscript “Village Life in Japan.” Not actually talking that much about village life in Japan, Geil discusses the three major religious influences in Japan (Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism), not really going into detail about how all three support each other’s weaknesses because they do not demand exclusionism in their worship. Then Geil gets to Christianity, “I have not mentioned the Christian religion. It is making great success among these aggressive vegetarians and I shall have much to say about it later.” Except he doesn’t. This is an unfinished manuscript, after all.
But I have to wonder: what exactly constitutes an aggressive vegetarian and how does it relate to the Japanese and Christianity? Is this the one reference to the bloody past that Geil otherwise ignores? Or is it merely Geil being a personification of the imperialist, colonial mindset of the time and dismissing the “native” religions and the practices followed by them?
1-About Me 2-Killed By Lightning 3-Stamps of Approval
4-Who Was Constance Geil? 5-Voting Rights 6- Confusion in Japan
4-Who Was Constance Geil? 5-Voting Rights 6- Confusion in Japan
Sarah Conn, today’s Guest Contributor on Round and Square, is a self-proclaimed “gal from rural Wisconsin” with a B.A. in Japanese Language and Culture and a double-minor in Museum Studies and Anthropology. With a mild obsession for Japanese textiles and working knowledge of the order Cetacea and the family Pinnipedia, she is currently working with four other Beloit College graduates to digitize, process, and research the William Edgar Geil Collection at the Doylestown Historical Society in Pennsylvania. She and Geil do not always see eye-to-eye on certain subjects, but both share a love of photography, writing about food, and USING ALL CAPITALS WHEN THEY ARE EXCITED.
*** ***
 |
| [b] Todaiji SC |
Please
note that all items marked "DHS" are property of the Doylestown
Historical Society, and used with DHS permission. If you wish to use an
image, you need to have the permission of the Society. Please contact Robert LaFleur
(lafleur@beloit.edu), and he will put you in contact with the
appropriate people.
As you have no doubt guessed by now, I am very fond of Japan. Where else can I see the red torii arches outside of shrines and people dressed in gorgeous kimono? While I am open-minded, it is still extremely strange to me that someone could not appreciate Japan and the traditions associated with it. This is why Geil bewilders me so, and is one of the main reasons we do not see eye-to-eye.
Japan confuses Geil.
Unlike China, where he makes attempt to study the culture and learn, Geil goes to Japan, almost as if just to check another place off a list. He does not do that much research; he does not check his sources. THIS IS UNFORGIVABLE.
 |
| [c] Bible RF |
Well, no, not actually; not exactly unforgivable, but extremely disappointing to the Japanese Language and Culture major to say the least. There is so much out there that Geil could have written about. He could have been in awe of the sweeping gates of the shrines and how the Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines intersect and cross over with each other (unlikely though, given that he was a missionary, but you can be impressed by something and still not believe in it). He could have left in the Japanese names so I could figure out where he actually went, rather than translating them into English. He even could have talked about something more than the modern (at his time) Christianity in Japan rather than talking about different meetings and how Christian schools work more as finishing schools for young girls. The history of Christianity in Japan is bloody and full of strife—Geil manages to (unknowingly?) erase it all in his manuscript with a simple title: “A Sailor Brought the Bible to Japan.”
 |
| [d] Detail from Namban Byoubu featuring Jesuits RF |
Whoa, wait, hold up! It is true that Christianity came to Japan by boat (it is an island nation, after all), but reading through the story it states that an Englishman brought it over in 1864. That is completely and utterly wrong. In the 1500s Christianity was brought over by Jesuit missionaries. It gained quite a following due not only to the charity to the poor but for the trading opportunities. But during the Edo Era (1603-1868) it became quite dangerous to be Christian or have any “outside” influence; one could be killed for practicing Christianity or anything that was not considered “Japanese.” For a Christian who would not renounce their religion, their death was often long and grisly. During this ban, Christianity went underground and, after 200 some years of secret praying, became mixed with Shinto and Buddhist ideologies until it was near unrecognizable from the original matter.
 |
| [e] Buddhism SC |
So, the story told to Geil is wrong. That much is true. I cannot actually fault him for that, but the fact that this is a manuscript, rather than a personal diary and assumedly meant for publication, pains me. There at least could be some fact checking going on here!
I cannot blame for Geil not being as over the moon as I am about Japan. It’s unfair to him. However, Geil wished to be seen as an academic (see Amara Pugens’s, Julia Lacher’s, and Rachel Johnson’s posts on the matter) and this willy-nilly “writing down everything I hear so that I can be called a specialist without doing some background research” does not sit well in the academic world. Of course, this is just for Japan—as Rachel Johnson’s post Warring Pens says, he did correspond with some very famous specialists about China, including Lionel Giles.
 |
| [f] Shinto SC |
However, what I really wish to highlight is Geil’s discussion of religion in his manuscript “Village Life in Japan.” Not actually talking that much about village life in Japan, Geil discusses the three major religious influences in Japan (Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism), not really going into detail about how all three support each other’s weaknesses because they do not demand exclusionism in their worship. Then Geil gets to Christianity, “I have not mentioned the Christian religion. It is making great success among these aggressive vegetarians and I shall have much to say about it later.” Except he doesn’t. This is an unfinished manuscript, after all.
But I have to wonder: what exactly constitutes an aggressive vegetarian and how does it relate to the Japanese and Christianity? Is this the one reference to the bloody past that Geil otherwise ignores? Or is it merely Geil being a personification of the imperialist, colonial mindset of the time and dismissing the “native” religions and the practices followed by them?
 |
| [f] Vegetarians DHS |
No comments:
Post a Comment