Kawakami’s imagined letter from exile in Jakarta; one of only 15 ‘extra’ copies made in the same year as the first edition.
Kawakami initially printed this book in an edition of 37 copies. The present copy is very slightly taller (by 5mm) and the binding is also subtly different – while the first printing has a printed title slip, the title on the second printing is written by hand. Internally, the book is printed from the same blocks and the hand colouring matches the first printing. Three decades later, in 1974, this title was republished in an edition of 500 copies by Toho Shobo.
Jagatarabumi, or ‘Jakarta letters’, are a fascinating part of Edo-period history (1603-1868). During the period of the Tokugawa shogunate’s strict isolationist policy, there was tight control over which foreigners were allowed on Japanese soil. From the tenth year of Kan’ei (1636), mixed-race children and born to Japanese and Dutch, Portuguese or English (usually traders) were exiled to Macao, then from 1639 they were sent to Batavia, or present-day Indonesia. The exiled mixed-race children and their Japanese mothers were a small but important diaspora, and their letters home were known as Jagatarabumi. Very few of these letters survive in national collections in Japan today.
This is the subject of the present book, which is an illustrated, imagined letter to Japan from Jakarta. In the seventeenth century, it was clear to the exiles that they would never return to Japan. Indeed, regulation only began to ease towards the end of the Edo period, from around 1855. In Kawakami’s book, the letter expresses a deep sadness and longing to return to Japan. The illustrations show Dutch merchants in Jakarta, with images of Dutch-style churches, as well as exported goods such as batik printed cloth.
Made during WWII, the timing and production of this book is particularly pertinent. Just one year prior, Japan had invaded French Indochina. Kawakami made a number of books during the war, often on the controversial theme of Japanese interactions with the West. Having grown up in the bustling port city of Yokohama, he later spent time travelling around America, before returning to Japan and to become an English teacher. A year after the present book was published, teaching the English language was banned from the Japanese school curriculum, and Kawakami swiftly lost his job. Though he had already made many books, it is from this point that he devoted his energy to his artistic practice, continuing to printing small editions of beautiful books which he sold to his private clientele, many of whom were his former high school students. Using his precious supply of paper and wooden blocks, he was able to produce high-quality books and earn a small income during an extremely difficult time.
The present book is one of Kawakami’s exceedingly rare wartime works. Only one copy of this ‘extra edition’ in OCLC (Princeton).
