Customer Reviews

Japanese Inn

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4 star:		(1)
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During my years in the military, my last 26 months were spent in the Yokohama-Tokyo area on the Kanto Plain. A short distance from the Navy/U.S.M.C. military installation where I lived, lay the Tokaido Road. On this ancient main road, which ran from Kyoto to Edo (Tokyo), just a few miles southwest from our base was the 'Minaguchi-ya' of this book.

We were only 20 minutes or so from Odawara, the medieval castle town at the base of Mount Fuji and the Hakone Mountains. Many of the wood cuts and pen and inks in this book came from this area, with Hiroshige and Basho, among others, spending much time there. This area too was one of the 53 government post stations or gates on the ancient Tokaido Road. Only a short distance from Mount Fuji is of course Shimizu Harbor, Miho, and Suruga Bay, all mentioned in the book.

One of the Japanese college students working in our barracks lived on the Izu Peninsula. 'Takish' saw that I was reading JAPANESE INN and offered to bring me some material from his home area of which he was justifiably proud. One of the anomalies of that area is the black sand covering the beaches. The brochures and postcards he brought added even extra enjoyment to my reading of JAPANESE INN. Here I was a young man from Ohio serving in the military and all the places mentioned by Oliver Statler were relatively close to hand.

As Mr. Statler continuously points out, much of Japan's earlier history happened in this area. It still remained a very revered area during my stay from October, 1962 through December, 1964. With Kamakura, between Yokohama and Odawara, once being an earlier capital of Japan. The area discussed in this book is not only historical but it is extremely picturesque, remaining a resort area of hotels, hot springs, and golf courses to this day. The festivals and Odawara castle continuously bring visitors from far and wide, making it a very active area for sightseeing.

Anyone interested in Japan and her pre-modern era has a real treat awaiting should they decide to read JAPANESE INN. I've read the book about this historical inn several times since leaving Japan, and each time it transports me back to those happy years in that area where I once resided, so long ago. I was young and that area of Japan was one indescribably wonderful in which to growup. I spent much time in the area, even camping out overnight at Kojiri campground, in the Hakone Mountains. And at age 61 its affect remains with me to this very day.

Yomu, Tanoshimu. Domo arigato gozaimasu.

To read, to enjoy. Thank you very much!

Semper Fi.

Every serious reader has one or more copies of "the" book; that is, a book one picks up from time to time over many years and just reads for the pure love of the experience. Japanese Inn is such a book to me. I have four hardcover copies and will never give one of them away. Statler's story of Japanese history through the eyes of the Inn-keeper of the Minaguchi-ya completely takes ones mind and immagination on a wonderful journey to the 1500s and brings you into the 20th century. James Michener, in his wonderful autobiography, "The World Is My Home", stated that in Japanese Inn Oliver Statler both wrote a minor classic and did not need any help from him. Half right! He wrote a major classic to me.

This book is a marvelous summary of Japan's history as seen through the creation and development of one of Japan's most famous inns. Everyone who was anyone stayed here or passed through the town.
In addition, the owners of the inn are presented both as people and as representatives of their class. From Samurai to innkeeper the family's success and problems are summarized within each chapter.
The chapters themselves each depict a particular pivotal period in Japan and how it affected the local community and the country. The author, himself, appears in several chapters as he relates how he discovered the inn and his interest in its history.

This book is one of the best I've read on Japan. Statler has created a mix of fiction and non-fiction that creates a view of Japanese society through periods of turmoil and peace. Highly recommended reading.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book for it's sweeping view of history from the Warrring States Period to a visitation to the inn by the Emperor and Empress of Japan. I first became interested in Japanese history, through James Clavell's Shogun when I was thirteen years old. Once reading the Japanese Inn, I believe it was highly probable that Clavell was inspired by this book, since many of the characters and some of the books events appeared in his novel including the legendary sword "Oil-Seller" and how the blade got its name. The book contains such accounts of famous characters and events as Tokugawa Ieyasu, the tale of the 47 Ronin as they traveled through the Tokaido, and the famed outlaw and entrepreneur of the Tokaido, Jirocho, and his friend and the famous sword saint Tesshu.

The characters and places were so compelling that they prompted me to search for the Japanese Inn. Unfortunately, when I arrived on the Old Tokaido Okitsu Station, I asked a local resident where the ancient inn was. She showed me a building located on the street that appeared to be an art gallery, which was apparently once the Minaguchiya. Although, disappointed that it was no longer there, other sites which the book mentioned were kept in tact, such as Seikenji, the place where Tokuagawa Ieyasu was held hostage as a boy. Altogether, this was an interesting book of a Japanese family witnessing the events and people that shaped Japan.

Truly a superb book! Anyone interested in Japanese culture and its development over the years, will be fascinated by this book. Well written, beautifully structured. A book to be read and reread and a treasured possetion.

By using his experiences as a civil servant during the American occupation of Japan and the accounts from several generations of inn-keepers of the Minaguchi-ya, Oliver Statler wrote this well-written part-fiction/part-nonfiction book, which was published in 1961. The book drives the readers to experience the development of social Japanese society through the history and survival of an ancient Japanese inn from mid-16th century to the 20th century. Through the eyes and the lives of the inn-keepers of the Minaguchi-ya, the author created a fascinating story that narrates major incidents of Japanese history from 16th to 20th centuries, and he captures the readers to encounter Japanese culture with his use of Asian metaphors and portrayals. There are fifteen chapters in the book with the addition of a "Postscript," which pointed out the facts behind the story of the Minaguchi-ya and its inn-keepers. By looking at the founding of the Minaguchi-ya, the banning of Christianity, and the end of Tokugawa rule as seen in "Japanese Inn," one can understand some of the major social changes of Japan from 16th century to the 19th century.

As evident in the second and third chapters of "Japanese Inn," the founding and the establishment of the inn called Minaguchi-ya occurred during the most critical period of the history of Japan. It was a period of the late 16th century; a period of changes and instability for Japan. It was a time of war between the clans (or noble families) of Japan for dominance and power. An internal war or any battles that took place on one's own land would interrupt their way of life, including their sense of peace and prosperity. During the fighting, the chief of the mountain clan, Takeda Shingen, had "installed one of his samurai" by the name of Mochizuki to a commanding post in a fort at Okitsu (p. 13-15). It was at Okitsu where Mochizuki had a new house built for his family, but it would soon become an inn at an unforeseen time. Mochizuki had no desire or duty to become an innkeeper since he was an honorable samurai. However, when Tokugawa Ieyasu of Tokugawa clan captured Mochizuki's fort and the Takeda clan was defeated, Mochizuki had lost his "samuraiship" but he was not looking for reasons to "lose all honor" in inn keeping, especially for men of important rank (p. 18, 22-27). When a man of higher rank, like a feudal lord, passed by and needed a rest, Mochizuki would feel obligated to take him in for a night's lodging. He may not see his duty as an innkeeper for his customer, but as a samurai for his lord. In the Western year of 1590 with the defeat of Hojo clan, a military leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi became a ruler of Japan which became a united country, and Mochizuki sensed in the eyes of the passing travelers that there was a "new spirit in the land" (p. 34-37). It was a spirit of new energy and a new sense of unity in which the Japanese people would face a new future for Japan. Soon thereafter, Hideyoshi died and Ieyasu became a shogun in which he "set about to found his own dynasty" of Tokugawa family; a family that would rule Japan for the next 250 years, an era of peace and stability (p. 38-40). Along with the founding of the inn, Mochizuki witnessed a first great change in Japan that laid a course for a peaceful and stable country until the mid-19th century.

The second part of the fourth chapter of "Japanese Inn" explores the interaction between an Englishman and Mochizuki and the banning of Christianity in the early 17th century. Since the spread of Christianity reached throughout the Old World including East Asia and Japan, the Japanese people favored a trade with the West because they had benefit from it. And the Christian priests would install their own churches in the lands of Japan and convert as many Japanese people as they could. Due to the increasing trade with the West, the Japanese people would meet many foreigners and learn much about other countries. One of the foreigners that Mochizuki took a great liking to was an Englishman by the name of Will Adams, who was the first Englishman in Japan and "the first European to stay" in Mochizuki's home (p. 58). One of the reasons that Mochizuki enjoyed the company of Adams was his stories about adventures beyond the Japanese seas and his first encounter with Ieyasu. Because Mochizuki was fascinated with Adams' stories and enjoyed his company, he would live out the rest of his life being in awe of other countries and of his new ruler of Japan.

But, the trading with the West would become a problem for Ieyasu, which he believed was causing serious trouble within his own government. Since the Shinto and Buddhism were the religions of Japan, Ieyasu was willing to tolerate the Christians because of the benefited trade, but he soon found out that Japanese Christians were causing "scandals, corruption, and intrigue...within his own palace" and in Japan (p. 67). Ieyasu then became furious and might have soon seen Christianity as destroyer of Japan's religions that he favored. In the early year of 1614, he issued an edict to outlaw Christianity in Japan which lasted "for two and a half centuries," and had all Christian churches in Japan destroyed or "pulled down" to be used as brothels (p. 69). Because of the edict, the trade with the West stopped increasing and Japan shut itself from the rest of the world's development. If the trade with the west would be still increasing for the next 250 years, Japan would have been a different country and the Tokugawa government would have ruled the country less than 250 years because the Japanese people would have opposed it or other events could have changed the government. But, the Japanese government still remained under the same ruler, the Tokugawa family for 250 years. As for Mochizuki, he saw "very little of his friend Will Adams" after the edict, and he, himself, soon died a natural death and a year later, his son hung up a sign that said "Minaguchi-ya," which signaled the house of the late Mochizuki an official inn (p. 70). In "Japanese Inn," the interaction between an Englishman and Mochizuki brought about the interesting stories for the enjoyment of Mochizuki while the banning of Christianity in Japan during the early 17th century closed Japan's doors from the West.

During the mid-19th century when an era of modernity crept across the Japan Sea toward the fixated medieval Japan, the Tokugawa rule came to an end as witnessed in the twelfth chapter of "Japanese Inn." This chapter deals mainly with a man named Jirocho who "mirror the times between 1820 and 1893" because they were the times that "saw the old government toppled" while new government emerged, saw the 250 years of Japan's isolation ruptured, and saw Japan's entrance into the modern era (p. 246). The 1800s became important and a major change for Japanese people because it would appear to be a new era for them and it would change their views of the world. As a mirror of Japan's changing times, Jirocho was a transforming man from being a "young terror" during childhood to a professional rice merchant, to a gambler, to a peaceful man who served the law, and he was called the Tokaido's number one boss (p. 247-289). Because of Jirocho's infamous reputation, the Japanese people would still view him as an interesting Japanese character of the 19th century. During the changing period in the mid-19th century, the seventeenth innkeeper of the Minaguchi-ya was a man by the name of Mochizuki Hanjuro I whose skills as an innkeeper helped the inn to "move with the times," especially when the fire swept across the town of Okitsu in the winter of 1879 and turned Minaguchi-ya into ashes and it needed to be rebuilt (p. 242, 269, 285). It was Hanjuro's effort in rebuilding Minaguchi-ya that it would fit with the modern times while maintaining its medieval customs and its spirit of Japanese ancient ways. During the period of changes, one major change was the end of the Tokugawa rule in Japan. In 1867, the fifteenth and last shogun by the name of Tokugawa Yoshinobu ended the "Tokugawa supremacy" in Japan, "relinquishing his power to the Emperor" due to the increasing "foreign intercourse" from other major countries which Japan had no choice but to accept the foreigners' demands, and with the intention that the Japanese empire "will be able to maintain its rank and dignity among the nations of the earth" (p. 270 - 71, 280). With an indirect rule of Tokugawa ending, a new power was placed in the hands of the Emperor, whose imperial family were only viewed as head of a state for many centuries, and a new government was formed under the rule of the Emperor. Having the Emperor as a supreme ruler of Japan would have given the Japanese people a new sense of loyalty and a view of the future for their modernized country. By observing Jirocho's infamous reputation as Tokaido's number one boss, Innkeeper Hanjuro's effort in bringing the Minaguchi-ya into the modern times, and the decline of the Tokugawa rule, one can comprehend how the era of modernity greatly affected Japan's feudal culture of 250 years.

In Statler's "Japanese Inn," one can understand some of the major social changes of Japan from late 16th century to the 19th century by looking at the founding of the Minaguchi-ya, the banning of Christianity, and the end of Tokugawa rule. A former samurai Mochizuki had witnessed a first great change that created a peaceful and stable Japan for the next 250 years. As evident in the fourth chapter of the book, the interaction between Will Adams and old Mochizuki brought interesting stories for the interests of Mochizuki while the banning of Christianity in Japan for good reasons during the early 17th century closed Japan's trades with the West and the rest of the known world. A few important events that an era of modernity that greatly affected Japan's feudal culture of two and a half centuries including Jirocho's infamous reputation as Tokaido's number one boss, Innkeeper Hanjuro's effort in bringing the Minaguchi-ya into the modern times, and the decline of the Tokugawa rule. Oliver Statler's "Japanese Inn" is an interesting read, and it offered an intriguing picture of Japanese culture and social society during the 400 years period.

It is of a strong opinion for this to be recommended for the general readers, whom desire to obtain an understanding about the Japanese History.

I thought I was the only person who truly appreciated Oliver Statler's book, Japanese Inn - until I was searching today for a replacement copy - my paperback priced at 95 cents in 1961 is disintegrating, (read and loaned often) and in looking for a fresh copy I found such enthusiasm for this book! It is indeed a classic. A marvelous way to discover Japanese history. Recently in Murakami Gardens here in Florida we visited a replica of Ieyasu's grave surrounded by bonsai - and it all became so very real to us. I hope Mr. Statler knows how many people have enjoyed his story of the Inn and the road to Edo.
Jeanne Fuchs

The book is a history of Japan from about 1596 to 1957, but it's done from the point of view of the people who ran a real inn along the Tokaido Road. The story is fictionalized at times but gives the reader a vivid feel for the times, the people, and the place. It's much more than the dry dates, names, and events most books give. The book is a good way for anyone interested in the Japanese to learn about their history in an entertaining way.

JAPANESE INN

An fascinating mix of fact and fiction of the passage of several centuries of japanese history as a mixture of nobles, samurai, pilgrims, and other travelers visit an inn on the Tokaido Road.