The self-promotion of a maverick travel writer: Suzuki Tsunenori and his Southern Pacific Islands travelogue, Nanyō tanken jikki

Abstract

Suzuki Tsunenori (1853–1938; also known as Keikun) was one of the pioneering writers on Pacific Islands in the Meiji period. Recent scholarship has exposed flaws in his representation of Pacific Islanders in his landmark travelogue, Nanyō tanken jikki [A True Chronicle of South Seas Exploration] (1892). While the criticism undermined his reputation for his ethnographic eye, this essay employs an alternative critical angle on self-presentation. Suzuki promotes himself as a shrewd multi-talented traveller, culturally astute and willing to venture into the wild. First, this essay sketches the circumstances under which Suzuki embarked on his southern Pacific Islands journey of 1889–1890. Then it analyses how Suzuki projects his desired persona in Jikki. He seeks to develop and exploit these attributes to advertise his performance as a reporter, a cultural interlocutor and a grassroots ambassador. An inward-looking orientation helps us to present a clearer picture of Suzuki’s life and travelogues.

Keywords:

• Suzuki Tsunenori (1853–1938)
• South Pacific
• Japan
• travel writing
• self-representation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Ryota Nishino http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2815-1295

Notes

1. This essay follows the East Asian convention of surname–given name order when referring to works by Japanese authors. Exceptions apply to the authors who publish their original works in English.

2. Yano Tōru (1979, 54) makes a crucial but under-appreciated distinction between two sets of writing about the south. Naming the earlier writing, of which Suzuki’s Jikki was a part, nanyōron (南洋論), Yano claims it built the Japanese awareness of the south between the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. As the symbol shin (進) indicates “advance”, nanshinron intimated the Japanese interest in colonising the south.

3. This and all other translations from Japanese secondary sources are my own.

4. The secondary sources examined have made, at best, cursory remarks on how Jikki came to be published. Takeshita Gen’nosuke’s biography (1943) is the most comprehensive one, though it says scarcely anything about the stories behind Suzuki’s publication. It is hoped that this essay provides impetus for a new biography.

5. I thank an anonymous reviewer for this phrase.

6. Though outside the purview of travel writing, in recent years there has been a quiet resurgence of historical works about the Japanese who worked and lived in the South Seas (Okaya 2007; Shōguchi 2011). The English-language academy has generated a handful of seminal works on the Japanese literary representation of the South Seas. These works examine a broad range of writing including fiction and memoir but travelogues are treated as a subordinate genre (Kleeman 2003; Sudo 2010; Tierney 2010).

7. Takeshita (1943) provides a most detailed biography on Suzuki, though lacking in critical appraisal.

8. Andrade (1996, 66) states that from the legal viewpoint, the evidence was compelling enough to prove Wilcox’s role in inciting of an insurrection, but he was fortunate to face a Hawaiian jury whose decision swayed in his favour.

9. This and all translations from Suzuki are my own.

10. Kava (piper methysticum) is a plant grown in southern Pacific Islands. The Islanders dry and pulverise the root and make a drink in ceremonious occasions. It has a bitter taste and induces a mild anaesthetic effect.

11. In central Vanua Levu, the insect is known as kasiwalu and kasuwalu as opposed to how Suzuki recorded the name. (Prof. Paul Geraghty [an expert linguist in Fijian vernaculars], personal communication, December 2013.)

12. The Fiji Times (December 11, 1889, 2) reported of the vessels: “They are fine vessels, sister ships, armour plated, built in England, and are on service as training ships. […] The complement of the Hiei is 333, inclusive of officers.”

13. Takeshita provides a thorough account of Suzuki’s life after his Southern Pacific Island journey (1943, 156–277) but at least in respect of his decision to publish the travelogues, the two sections of his life merit separate studies.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a research grant from the Faculty of Arts, Law and Education at The University of the South Pacific.