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Native American in the Land of the Shogun: Ranald MacDonald and the Opening of Japan
 
 
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Native American in the Land of the Shogun: Ranald MacDonald and the Opening of Japan (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: seclusion laws, three kichis, Red River, Hudson's Bay Company, United States (more...)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
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  • This item: Native American in the Land of the Shogun: Ranald MacDonald and the Opening of Japan by Frederik L. Schodt

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A story that reads like fiction....[Schodt]is particularly well-qualified to discuss Japanese perspectives on MacDonald's story and has uncovered material hitherto untouched by writers on the subject. This is certainly the definitive work on Ranald MacDonald." --Jean Murray Cole, author of This Blessed Wilderness and Exile in the Wilderness: the biography of Chief Factor Archibald McDonald 1790-1853 -- Review


Product Description

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.

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Product Details

  • Paperback: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Stone Bridge Press; 1st Edition. edition (May 1, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1880656779
  • ISBN-13: 978-1880656778
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,009,477 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

Frederik L. Schodt
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
seclusion laws, three kichis
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Red River, Hudson's Bay Company, United States, Fort Vancouver, Sag Harbor, North America, Columbia River, Rishiri Island, Edward Ermatinger, Fort Colvile, British Columbia, The Friend, Hawaiian Islands, Pacific Northwest, New York, The Polynesian, Hong Kong, North West Company, Commodore Perry, Governor Simpson, Sea of Japan, Jane Klyne, San Francisco, New Bedford, Edo Bay
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars another world, December 11, 2003
Schodt masterfully recreates a time when the west was truly wild, with a group of bizarre characters and a truly unbelieveable protagonist. It is all the more amazing, then, that this is a true story. As in his other books, Schodt has so many interesting asides that even his footnotes read like adventure novels -- I hope he returns one day to write the full story of the Japanese radio operator-girls who committed suicide when the Russians attacked. But back in the world of the 19th century, this story of the Amerindian-Scot who learned Japanese and was one of the first westerners to see the closed land of Japan is truly fascinating. The ideal gift for anyone who thinks they know all about the way the West was won, or indeed, the East.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing, trailblazing account of one man's achievements, September 21, 2003
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
Frederik L. Schodt is an interpreter and translator whose specialty is writing and understanding Japanese culture and Japanese-U.S. relations. In Native American In The Land Of The Shogun: Ranald MacDonald And The Opening Of Japan, Schodt ably presents the fascinating and true account of a half-Chinook, half-Scot adventurer who braved feudal Japan in 1848, when it was still closed to the outside world, and helped establish a legacy of knowledge that would pave the way to Japan's involvement in modern times. It was Ranald MacDonald's study of the Japanese language, and his teaching of English to interpreters of a nation, which helped Japan when the Japanese government had to negotiate with foreign visitors such as Commodore Perry and his fleet of "Black Ships" which arrived in 1853. An amazing, trailblazing account of one man's achievements and the intercultural communications he fostered, Native American In The Land Of The Shogun is an enthusiastically recommended addition to 19th Century Japanese History reference collections and reading lists.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars An amazing tale, April 10, 2005
In 1848 a 24-year-old young man left an American whaling ship off the coast of Hokkaido. In a tiny boat he made his way alone to a Japan that had been closed off to the outside world for over two hundred years. The man was Ranald MacDonald, a half-Chinook, half-Scot who was following his dream of entering Japan to become an interpreter and English teacher.
The first third of Schodt's definitive biography of this true-life adventurer covers Ranald's childhood and youth growing up on the coast of the Pacific Northwest, where he first heard the stories of the "three Kichis", 3 Japanese who had landed on the Pacific coast of North America a few years before. As part of the Japanese government's policy of seclusion, it was illegal to build vessels capable of ocean voyages, consequently many boats encountered storms and drifted out to sea, unable to navigate back to port. Numerous boats drifted for months, and the lucky ones were picked up, usually by whaling ships, and dropped off at Hawaii or the west coast of America.
To fulfill his dream, Ranald became a whaler, because at the time it was the whaling fleets that were having increasing contact with the mysterious closed-off Japan. After finally arriving off the coast of Hokkaido, MacDonald was promptly arrested and held for a while before being taken to Nagasaki to await deportation. While imprisoned in Nagasaki he befriended his jailers and interrogators, and secretly kept notes on the Japanese language and customs which later proved useful to the Americans negotiating with Japan after Perry's famous "Black Ships" encounter in the 1850s. His main interrogator also became the Japanese govenment's chief translator for Perry's mission.
A fascinating look at a little-known personality and adventurer who as an individual helped in the opening of Japan, the author has thoroughly researched the story both in Japan and the U.S., and the book is useful for the details and glimpses it provides of Japan in a time of change.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting bridge between American and Asian History
History has many key players and contributors to the narrative. And as new information is found, there is room to allow the unheard actors' voices and stories to be told to a... Read more
Published 8 months ago by R. DelParto

5.0 out of 5 stars Ranald MacDonald adventures
Reviewed by Richard R. Blake for Reader Views (08/06)

In 1848, at the age of twenty-four, MacDonald risked his life to follow a dream. Read more
Published on September 12, 2006 by Reader Views

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow. Just...Wow.
Every now and then you pick up a book and think "Hmmm...that looks interesting." And then your world explodes. Read more
Published on August 4, 2006 by Zack Davisson

5.0 out of 5 stars A gripping history with larger-than-life characters
Schodt has accomplished two things with one book. He has told the tale of a fascinating individual and his adventures in the Orient and elsewhere. Read more
Published on September 22, 2003 by aggleason

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