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TOPSY-TURVY 1585 611 ways Europeans and Japanese are contrary a full translation, explication
and essay of Luis Frois's famous treatise (Tratado) |
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A full English translation of a 1585 treatise (in Portuguese) first revealed to the world in 1955 by Josef Franz Schutte, S.J., an evaluation of the correctness of Frois's contrasts at the time (1585) and their validity today (including discoveries that “solved” contrasts hitherto misunderstood), further expanded to include contrasts Frois left out (so the total is more like 1000, rather than 611!) and explicated so as to bring out the ideas and, dare I say, metaphysics which anyone who liked Barthes’ Empire of Signs, but wished for a bit more, will be love! |
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In 1585, Luis Frois, a 53 year old Jesuit who spent all of his adult life in Japan listed 611(!) ways Europeans and Japanese were contrary to one another. Robin D. Gill, a 53 year old writer who spent most of his adulthood in Japan, translates these topsy-turvy claims – we sniff the top of our melons to see if they are ripe / they sniff the bottom of theirs (10% of the book), examines their validity (20% of the book), and plays with them (70% of the book). Readers with the intellectual horsepower to enjoy ideas will be grateful for pages discussing things like the significance of black and white clothing or large eyes vs. small ones, while others who seek quirky facts will be delighted to find, say, that the women in Kyoto were known to urinate standing up, or Japanese horses had their stale gathered by long-handled ladles, etc., and serious students of history and comparative culture will gain a better understanding of the nature of radical difference (exotic, by definition) and its relationship with Valignano S.J.'s admirable new policy of Accommodation, the first official experiment in cultural relativity on the part of European Christians.
1. Comparative Culture – Europe vs. Japan There are 14 chapters, following Frois’s original, a 50 pg Foreword on the History of Topsy-turvyism and a Midword on how China relates to this. No room remained for an index for 740 pages was the limit for my printer, but there is an item-by-item Table of Content supplement. Find a sample of just one chapter, Ch. XIV = Diverse Things that did not fit in the other chapters, below. (Sorry for the waste of space, the billgates' html insists on it unless i fix every damn line.) |
| NOTE: There is now a SHORT VERSION of Topsy-turvy 1585 available, too.
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14-1 Flint, striking hand, r or l 14-2 Emotion vs. no emotion 14-3 Fire fighting 14-4 Lying 14-5 Killing people at home 14-6 Killing men vs. animals 14-7 Execution for stealing 14-8 Killing substitutes for killing 14-9 Crucifixion 14-10 Punishment of servants 14-11 Prisons and punishment 14-12 Stolen goods 14-13 Fear of the dark 14-14 Fear of snakes 14-15 Sneezing 14-16 Coins vs. scrap by weight 14-17 Balances vs. Scales 14-17/18 Coins with holes 14-18 Coins, face-value vs. choice 14-19 Coins as gift 14-20 Honorifics by noun vs. verb 14-21 Washing hands for dogu 14-22 Boar-hunting 14-23 Fly-killing! 14-24 Monkeys 14-25 Counting by hand vs. abacus 14-26 Present-giving, number of. 14-27 Present, giving medicine? 14-28 Present, brought by guest 14-29 Present enjoyed by guest 14-30 Embracing 14-31 Ball play, hand vs. foot 14-32 On wall or just ground? 14-33 Mills and horse-power 14-34 Socializing, town vs. house 14-35 Smiles 14-36 Clear vs. ambiguous Lang.+ 14-37 Wearing pelts 14-38 Crowns 14-39 Board games 14-40 Hawk and falcon hoods 14-41 Turnip washing, hands/feet 14-42 Sack material 14-43 Warming hands in fire 14-44 Message giving posture 14-45 Posture while speaking 14-46 Towels for head & feet! 14-47 Nostril-cleaning fingers! 14-48 Courtesy-exchanging face 14-49 Wine keg storage= 14-50 Pelt coloring 14-51 Bamboo usages 14-52 Present package adornment 14-53 Rose-water vs. wine on face 14-54 Sweetmeat and drinks 14-55 Bouquet vs. single flowers 14-56 Incense quantity 14-57 Passionate vs. restrained 14-58 Treatment of woman in refuge 14-59 Apologies 14-60 Hoe blades 14-61 Flutes 14-62 Hair of Servants and Horses 14-63 Grapes and Figs 14-64 Visiting Servant’s Houses 14-65 Servants in Master’s clothing All the Contents of the 740 page book are searchable at Amazon, though they may harass you for your name and password (why they do it sometimes and not always is beyond me!). Beware that the conversion software or optical scanning hardware Amazon used to display the book and make it searchable had problems with the small print of the notes causing many strange spellings ... rdg |