Customer Reviews

Sake and Satori: Asian Journals -- Japan (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)

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This book is a set of journals--heavily illustrated with Campbell's own drawings and photographs-- that follow the master mythologist through an amazing period of epiphany--a crystalization not only of his understanding of his own subject, but of what that subject is and where he wants to go with it. It's also a breath-taking insight into Campbell the man: you follow him into bars, fending off the advances of married American women (and a Frenchman!), into geisha houses (a section where he is shocked to find that he has procured the services not of a masseuse but of a prostitute is both hysterically funny and incredibly touching), into Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. It even follows him on a working vacation, trailing his beloved wife, dancer Jean Erdman, as she teaches and performs around Japan. In addition to the wonderful pictures, the editor has done a great job of annotation, giving an amazing background for all the erudite references and colorful characters that come and go. I'd read Baksheesh and Brahman when it came out four or five years ago; I've just finished this one and enjoyed it every bit as much, if not more so--it answers many unanswered questions, and takes Campbell off on brand-new adventures.

"Sake and Satori: Asian Journals, Japan" is a travel journal, containing Joseph Campbell's musings and reflections during his 1950s Asian journey through Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Taiwan, Thailand and mostly Japan. The Japanese journey takes up around 75% of the book.

During his Japanese stay, encompassing several months, Campbell was taken around Japan by a variety of people, from American Buddhists to Japanese Professors. He saw many of the major sights of Japanese religion, in areas such as Tokyo, Nara and Kyoto. He was shown Japanese traditional arts such as Noh and Kabuki theatre, as well as hostess bars and houses of prostitution. Along with this are intricate discussions on Buddhism in Japan with local experts, and a mental ordering of ideas that was later to become "The Masks of God."

Frankly, the book is not as interesting as I was hoping. I wanted to peek into Campbell's mind, and hear his reflections on Japanese culture and religion. I wanted insights and personal thoughts about the temples and monuments of Japan that he was seeing, such as the Great Buddha of Nara. Instead, more attention is paid in the journal to which restaurants he went to that day, and how he is progressing with his Japanese language studies, and what old friends he met that day and such. He goes to restaurants and studies Japanese more than anything else, but even with these there is little insight, and mostly statements of facts.

A standard entry is along the lines of "Tuesday: Had breakfast at cute old inn. Very delicious. Was taken to see Great Buddha at Todaiji in Nara in the afternoon. Came back to Kyoto for dinner, a nice Indian restaurant. In the evening, wrote letters to Jean, and studied Japanese. I think I am getting the hang of it!"

There is much more insight and process of Indian culture than Japanese, and Campbell is clearly still bitter about his journey to India. There are many comparisons of Indian and other Asian cultures, reflecting how they got it "right" and Indian culture is stuck in a quagmire. Reading the first volume of the Asian Journals will help put all of this into perspective.

There is some good stuff here, and it is an interesting read, but it is probably more for those interested in Campbell as a person than those hoping for unique insights into Japan and Japanese culture. In one passage, Campbell wonders if he has not perhaps wasted his trip to Japan by spending long hours studying Japanese language rather than experiencing the country. I could not help but think the same thing.

This is the long awaited 2nd part of Joseph Campbell's journals of his trip to the Orient in the Fifties. The first, Baksheesh and Brahman, told of India, and this book tells of other countries but mainly Japan. The book reads like a journal with varied entries about traveling, people and places of interest, etc. The post-war mood is obvious, and the political climate is interesting.
This book is less naive than the first where JC was disappointed by the spiritual/caste hypocrisy of India, and more insightful of modern Oriental life.

[Review written Aug 2004]

This review covers "Sake & Satori", which is part 2 (of 2) of a real-life journey around the world undertaken by Joseph Campbell. "Baksheesh & Brahman" (part 1 of 2) covers the first half of his adventure.

Allow me to backpedal a bit, because, as with nearly all of Dr. Campbell's works, a bit of background information and explanation is required in order to put things in their proper perspective.

Back in 1955, Dr. Campbell was a senior professor in the literature department of Sarah Lawrence College in the USA, where he taught classes in medieval literature and comparative religion. He was also a master of languages (speaking more than 12 at the time, and later many more), a recognized authority on art history, and already fast becoming a highly sought after authority and lecturer in a wide range of fields in various academic circles. He was one of those rare and blazingly bright intellects that people just seemed to LOVE to gravitate to and hover around, like moths to an open flame. Even after his death in 1987, people continue to be fired by his brilliant and far-reaching works ... even though much of it was unfinished at the time of his death and is only just now being released posthumously (as this book was).

In any case, in 1955 he received a very generous travel grant from the Bollingen Foundation that enabled him to take a 1 year hiatus from his teaching duties, and literally travel around the world. During those travels, he kept a daily personal journal of his adventures, including his day to day experiences, meetings & conversations (both chance, social, and professional), thoughts and insights, and even his plans for the future.

That journal formed the source material for 2 books (published posthumously):

* "Baksheesh & Brahman: Asian Journals - India (part 1 of 2)
* "Sake & Satori: Asian Journals - Japan" (part 2 of 2) <-- YOU ARE HERE

This book (Sake & Satori) offers a rare glimpse into the day to day experiences of a brilliant, driven, and deeply curious people-loving scholar on a grand journey comparable to Heinlein's `Stranger in a Strange Land" ... wherein the author TOTALLY immerses himself in each new country's culture - their social manners, art, music, religion, and language. He worked every day, tirelessly, from dawn until bedtime, touring, discussing, and studying ... determined to wring as much as he possibly could (in the time allowed) from this grand, once in a lifetime, opportunity. His sheer industriousness boggles the mind.

A typical day might include:
* Breakfast with friend/scholar/acquaintance X,
* A field trip to a local place of interest - such as a museum, temple, an important cultural event, or to meet a scholarly V.I.P.
* Language classes in the native tongue, followed by several more hours of intensive self study, followed by bringing his journal up to date for the previous day's adventures & observations.
* A long brisk walk, meeting people and seeing the sights to be seen.
* Dinner and long discussions with friend/scholar/acquaintance Y & Z.
* Arranging logistics for the next day's travels.

In any case, part 2 (Sake & Satori) picks up his journey (already in progress) on March 4th, 1955. The author had just concluded the first 6 months of his trip exploring India ... his journeys there having been something of an informal capstone to a 13 year side project in which he'd selflessly organized and posthumously published** the papers of one of his mentors: renowned Indologist Dr. Heinrich Zimmer ...

>> "Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization
>> The Philosophies of India
>> The King and the Corpse

**{1st ASIDE: it was a bit of an odd experience reading the posthumously published observations (of someone whom I consider to be a personal mentor) who, in turn, pauses to reflect (in the middle of their own account) about having posthumously published the observations of their own mentor in turn ... yeah, turn that one around in your head a few times - you really gain an appreciation about how people's lives ripple through time, reflecting and harmonizing with still more waves that came before us and which always come after we ourselves eventually fade away)

The first 28 days of this book cover his touring of Ceylon, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Hong Kong, and Formosa (Taiwan), where he spends roughly 4-5 days in each country. That first month was very rough for him, because he was deeply unsettled by his experiences in India (I'll write about that in a separate forthcoming review for part 1 of this series).

Then we move on to the meat of the book when he finally reaches Japan, where he spends the next 5 months completely immersing himself in the language, culture, religion (Buddhism & Shinto), academic politics, and art of the land - which, at the time, was still under post WWII American occupation**.

**{2nd ASIDE: yet another odd experience, giving our current (as of this writing) deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan - the tension between rightwing conservatives and the leftwing liberal/communists back in Campbell's day is just as stark as it is now ... very interesting. Equally odd is how starkly all of the America bashing in the current liberal-leaning media stands in stark contrast to the decidedly more restrained America bashing that happened in Campbell's post-WWII day. Back then, we really were the powerhouse of the world ... we were using our booming economy to basically rebuild all of Europe and Japan, and it was largely just Russia, India, and China that distrusted and disliked us (largely because they had different political ideologies and/or they were economic have-nots). Everyone else pretty much liked (or at worst, merely tolerated) us. All of the major nations were either on the American "Marshall Plan" dole, or they were trying to figure out how they could mug us and/or pick our pockets.}

To conclude - reading this book is a truly heady experience, both culturally, and historically, and the author's sheer tirelessness and brilliance left me feeling not only inspired and amazed, but also strangely diminished ... this was a man whose passage through life and distant lands created a huge academic bow wave whose ripples are still being felt today, years after his death.

Part of the essential experience of reading one of Campbell's works is the feeling of being swept up, carried along in the rolling waves of his insights and musings, and then afterwards being left bobbing in his wake to ponder and reflect where the experience has carried you, and how your own perspectives have evolved as a result.

I enjoyed this book immensely.

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[Addendum]

Another thing that I appreciated about this book, which is often present in many of campbell's books, are the meticulous, extensive, and very helpful appendices, footnotes, endnotes, glossary, and index. The editors did a great job in supplying that information ... it's a true labor of love.

It's great to be able to open a page at random, encounter a cryptic reference, and then look up the helpful footnote to see it properly explained, along with providing a cross-reference to one of campbell's other works that explores the topic more fully. It's also neat seeing campbell's thoughts for future works and lectures footnoted as well - with info on whether or not he eventually acted on those plans in the ensuing decades of his career (in most cases, he did).

Sake & Santori is the fifth volume in a series of collected works of philosopher/spiritualist Joseph Campbell and focuses upon his cultural and spiritual interactions with Japan during his 1950s Asian journey. The changing social and political world of Japan come to life in a a set of entries relating Campbell's discourses with Japanese from all walks of life.

". . . passages convey his appetite for the sights and sounds of Japan. For Campbell, religion was a subset of mythology, and the exposure to Japanese Buddhism was important to the next leg of his journey as a scholar. "Sake & Satori" is a glimpse of a supple mind, mid-career."
- Shambala Sun Magazine