Celebrating Thirty Years of East Asian Collections

Japan

Letter from D. T. Suzuki to Philip Kapleau<br />

Letter from D. T. Suzuki to Philip Kapleau, 1-15-57, Philip, Philip Kapleau papers, 1952-2004 and undated, Box 15.

D. T. Suzuki (鈴木大拙貞太郎 Suzuki Daisetsu Teitarō, 1870–1966), an active scholar and author of books on Zen, was instrumental in spreading interest in Zen to the West. This 1957 letter from Suzuki to Philip Kapleau illustrates the burgeoning public interest in Suzuki and Zen in the United States. After studying in Japan for thirteen years, Kapleau returned to the U.S. in 1966 to found the Rochester Zen Center, where he taught for forty years and wrote The Three Pillars of Zen.

Daishinsai shashinchō 大震災写真帖 [Pictures of the Great Earthquake], Tokyo: Gunyūkai 東京:軍友会 1923. From Kanto Earthquake materials, 1923 and undated. Box 1.

The Kanto earthquake struck Tokyo on September 1, 1923, shortly before noon. The 7.9 magnitude quake killed 142,000 and destroyed much of the city. Hundreds of thousands of homes either collapsed or were burned in the ensuing fire. The earthquake led to a breakdown in law and order, and to attacks on minorities. Koreans were particularly targeted, being the most visible minority in the area.

Warning: The below images depict wartime propaganda that some viewers may find disturbing.

貯金双六 (Chokin sugoroku; [Savings sugoroku])

Sugoroku

すごろく(sugoroku, literally double six, 雙六 or 双六) is a Japanese game similar to Snakes and Ladders in the West. Sugoroku is played by rolling a die and racing to the final goal, or agari (上り).

Historical and social context: Sugoroku were interactive and didactic insofar as they were meant to impart a moral or social maxim to the players, who were usually children. During the Edo period (1603-1868), shusse sugoroku 出世双六 (“worldly success sugoroku”) imparted, for example, ideals of femininity to young girls in accordance with social expectations of the time. During the Meiji, Taishō, and early Shōwa periods (1890s-1940s and later), sugoroku were sometimes included as inserts in newspapers and children's magazines, especially in issues published during the New Year. This means that children were exposed to ideals and social qualities deemed valuable during each of these periods as well, and some of this is made clear by the items in this exhibition. As is displayed in Savings sugoroku, frugality was a social maxim deemed important by parents during the war era and, as displayed in Airplane sugoroku, an appreciation for Japan’s technological prowess in the air coincided with a peak period in its early aviation history.

During the war periods and periods of Japanese colonization of China, Korea, and parts of Southeast Asia, the production of sugoroku attest to altogether different social values such as Japanese nationalism and military superiority. Many sugoroku issued during these periods highlight Japan’s military prowess, its colonial reach into parts of Asia, and its vehement appeal to national and racial superiority as a means of justifying these occupations. Cutting Edge Military Equipment sugoroku makes a broad appeal to this superiority by depicting several aspects of Japan’s military technology. Thus, while some of the imagery in these nationalistic sugoroku boards can be shocking, they attest to the moral and social ideals of their time and to the power of interactive games in communicating those ideals to youth.

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