Native American in the land of the shogun : Ranald MacDonald and the opening of Japan / Frederik L. Schodt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schodt, Frederik L., 1950-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

MacDonald, Ranald, 1824-1894.

MacDonald, Ranald.

Pioneers--Columbia River Valley--Biography.

Pioneers.

Adventure and adventurers--Pacific Area--Biography.

Adventure and adventurers.

Japan--Description and travel.

Japan.

Americans--Japan--History--19th century.

Americans.

History.

Pacific Area.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xiv, 418 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, Calif. : Stone Bridge Press, [2003]

Summary:

How Japan, after 250 years of self--imposed isolation, began the process of modernization is in part the story of Ranald MacDonald. In 1848 this half-Scot, half-Chinook adventurer from the Pacific Northwest landed on an island off Hokkaido. Although promptly arrested and imprisoned for seven months in Nagasaki, the intelligent, well-educated MacDonald fascinated the Japanese and became one of their first teachers of English and Western ways. Based on primary research in Japan and North America, this book chronicles the events leading to MacDonald's journey and his later struggle to obtain recognition at home.

Frederik L. Schodt has written extensively on Japan, including America and the Four Japans and Inside the -Robot Kingdom. Fluent in spoken and written Japanese, he lives in San Francisco.

"Schodt's account of MacDonald's life and his eventual journey to Japan is depicted with the accuracy of a trained academic and the excitement of a skillful novelist." -- Kyoto Journal

Contents:

Fort Colvile and the Custer interview

The mouth of the Columbia River

A fateful non-meeting at Fort Vancouver

Education at Red River

A "trial in business" at St. Thomas

Sag Harbor's Japan connection

A "staging ground" in the Hawaiian Islands

Rishiri Island, the adventure begins

On Japan's northern frontier

Under control of the Matsumae domain

Arrival in Nagasaki

Nagasaki days, teaching English and learning Japanese

Leaving Nagasaki

Creation of the narrative

The MacDonald legacy.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 402-410) and index.

ISBN:

1880656787

1880656779

OCLC:

51728685