Topsy-turvy 1585: A Translation and Explication of Luis Frois S.J.'s Tratado (treatise) Listing 611 Ways Europeans & Japanese are Contrary

Robin D. Gill

Jan 2004 · Paraverse Press

About this ebook

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 (completely opposite) 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 with a ken to collect 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 the farsighted policy of accommodation pioneered by Valignano in the Far East.

Ratings and reviews

Orientalism was used to justify colonialism. I have no sympathy for any notions of white victimhood designed to minimalize the horrible affects that Orientalism and European imperialism has on the rest of the world, especially when said white victimhood is used to justify such actions. I much prefer reading people of color's ideas on this topic.