Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

Japanese actors playing Roman people in Hadrian era of Roman Empire.

One Roman architect of the bath time slipps to modern Japan and experience modern style bath.

All dialogues are done in Japanese except some short Latin dialogues. 

Interesting thing was viewers could learn how Roman Empire functioned. How Roman viewed other parts of the world, and how slavery functioned. How important it was for the Emperor Hadrian to be deifeid after retirement.

One of the shocking thing shown was Emperor Hadrian had a boy lover and he was very much saddened by the boy's death. It was very openly depicted in the film maybe because it was Japanese film. In the West, such depicting would be very controversial.

The film was in fact, comedy. But it can be great textbook to learn Roman Empire stuff. Since it is made by Japanese from Japanese perspective, portrayal of Roman people looked very neutral. Not too religious and not too ideological. Hope the film will be released in Italy and other parts of the world.

The story was written by Japan's infamous novelist, Natsume Soseki. The novel was released in early 20th century. The novel starts with the sentence "I always called him "Sensei (Sir)." It is a memoir of a man who met a cool older guy on the beach. When the two guys first met, they both wore swim suits like this.

As I described before on this blog, I became a free walking tour guide of East Garden of Imperial Palace. Read this article.

Last week, I met an American woman who is a college professor. I guided her to the imperial palace and explained history of pre-modern Japan and the imperial palace.

Imperial Palace was in fact, Shogun's castle before modern times. Shogun literally means "General." He was a actual ruler of Japan. A lord that takes control of all the regional lords of Japan. The emperor has been the symbol of Japan although former constitution states he was divine and above all. He never actually took authorities. The emperor was relocated to the palace in Tokyo from Kyoto after Japan's modernisation around 1860's.

I talked with her about TV mini-series "Shogun." It was aired in US and Japan 1980. The drama was based on James Clavell's book.

She told me she watched the show and read the book, too. It was reall popular show.

I wonder why someone wants to remake it as movie. Recently Japanese famous film stories were being remade by foreign film maker like "HACHI" and "47 Ronins."    

Then why not remake this TV mini-series?

Can they make this long hour TV drama into 2-3 hour movie story? I think it may be possible. The film should be remade by Britain.

It is a story of British navigator cast away to Japan coast and saved by a lord who later became first leader of unified Japan in 17th century.

The British man, Miura Anjin was modeled after a real person named William Adams.

This time, I would advise the film maker to insert clearer description of homosexuality in that period. In TV mini-series, there was a scene that implied how tolerated homosexuality was in those days Japan. Now a generation passed. It should be featured more openly. Like Anjin has a sex with beautiful boy for pillowing following the advice from his interpreter, Mariko.

It was openly done that a samurai who had a wife or wives and even children had sex with boys for pleasure. They even had sex with their retainers or sworn brothers. It was very common and never considered abnormal like modern times.

Surely Shogun enjoyed gay love affair and sex not just with his 1000 wive in the castle. It is said that one of the reasons the Shogun could maintain good governance of Japan for centuries was he tolerated sexual life style of people. Japan was originally free-sex society unlike some Christian societies where sexual regulation was a key to maintain order of a society.

I am excited to see the remake version of "Shogun" and gay scenes in it.    

A new novel after 4 American Hostages in Baghdad

A story of Japanese woman who experienced Bauhaus art and love romance in Berlin, early 1930's when Nazis came to power.

Auschwitz Museum in Oswiecim, Poland November 2009

"Ladies and Gentleman. Thank you for gathering today. We are here to honor the biggest contributor to this museum in our history. Late Madam Masako Chikano."

 A man spoke in Polish and English in front of tens of people, mostly journalists gathered in the conference room. The speaker was the head of the museum. Auschwitz-Birkenau, The World Heritage, death camp built by Nazi-Germany.

Late Madam Masako Chikano was called "Hotel Queen".  She died of natural causes last month. She was 98 years old when she died. She established one of world's most biggest hotel chain, Chikano Hotels, which have franchises in most of major cities in Japan and the rest of the world. The chain ranges from high-class to cheap business purpose only style. But all the hotels she owned had one thing in common, every room, lobby, and some of the corridors placed interesting pipe chairs, usually called Wassily Chair. It is one of most symbolic Bauhaus furniture.

Some of the hotel buildings were designed in the way of Bauhaus concept. Modern, functional, minimumal ways.

It was one of the mysteries of the hotel queen, why she liked Bauhaus style. She was very mysterious woman.

Other mysteries are,

Although she had been known as most energetic business woman in Japan until her retired age 80, she had been single for her life. She dedicated her life to hotel business, but she was actually very beautiful woman that could attract any man. Indeed she was once married when she was 20 to 21. But she never was remarried after the divorce of first marriage.   

The will she left said that she wanted to donate all her fortune to the Auschwitz Museum. That may be a biggest mystery of her. What made her want to do such thing?

The speaker held the will in his hand and said,

"To begin with, we have to talk about her connection between this museum and her early life experience. This is the part rarely known about her life. She never wanted to talk about that part in her life. But that was most important part in her life as mentioned in the will. Now let us unveil one of the most important mysteries of this woman."

Berlin, Germany, October, 1932

Masako Chikano arrived in Berlin. She came to capital of Germany, Deutcheland all the way from Yokohama, Japan. First by ship, almost 1 month travel to Marseille, France via Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and then  from Marseille to Berlin by train for a few days.

She was heart broken after the divorce. Because of the divorce just a year after marriage, she was treated as embarrasment of her family, Baron Chikano, a noble man who rooted from highest rank of samurai clan. Her father, Baron Kozo Chikano was a member of House of Lords and ran business of finance and military equipments. Her family belonged to elite class in Japan.

The reason that she got divorce was she had an affair with her husband, Yoshio's best friend Takeshi. Actually Yoshio regarded him as his sworn brother. Both of them belong to Japanese Imperial Navy. Her affair with Takeshi made him angry and kick her out. She could have been prosecuted of adultery but her husband did not because of her family's influence in the society and he did not want to prosecute his sworn brother either. After she came back to her home, her family had to kick her out because of biggest blunder in the family's history. She had dishonored her family's name. They had to hide her until the bad reputation would fade away. Her father ordered her to leave Japan for several years. She had to stay in foreign country where no one knew her.

She had good command of English and Germany since she learned those languages from childhood as part of upper class education. She chose to go to Berlin, Germany. She did not have specific reason to choose it. She just prefers learning modern art. She heard good reputation of German born modern art, Bauhaus.

Here she was in Berlin. She opened a door to her new life. She believed she could forget about all the mess.

Continued to Chapter 1.

This novel is copywrighted by this blog's manager, Masagata.