The Inland Sea

One cannot enter the world of Japanese studies without hearing the name of Donald Richie, considered an expert in Japanese film and culture. Many wish to emulate his success and many more try to surpass him. This is his tale of his explorations of the Inland Sea of Japan to try and find what has been forgotten in Japan. The Inland Sea is located within the main island of Honshu (Japan is composed of 5 main islands) and Shikoku and is comprised of a series of tiny little islands that Donald Richie visits via boat over the course of a few months in the 70s. Reading the book was eerily mesmerizing as we are both horrified by some of his opinions, viewpoints and stories, while also entranced by his lovely opinions, viewpoints and stories. show more

Yes, reading the book is both painfully cringe-worthy and beautiful in the sense that Donald Richie is one of those men you would love to invite to dinner to introduce to your friends but you're also afraid of his words offending the majority of your guests. I tried to keep in mind that this book was written in the 70s but Donald Richie is certainly a man carrying rose-colored glasses when it comes to certain aspects of Japan. Japan can do no harm even when it he admits that it does. He praises its xenophobia while also asking to be wanted by the Japanese. Donald Richie feels like the middle child craving attention from his stern father who can do no wrong in his eyes. Let's not forget his experience with the 15 year old girl whom he tries to seduce despite being well into his 40s. (Worse for me, I have only the face of the 77 year old Donald Richie in my mind so that made the scene extra-cringeworthy.) Now, I'm not entirely against sex tourism (not paying for sex, but involving yourself in sexual adventures with "the locals"); it's true what they say that you can learn a lot about a language and a culture when in the arms of a lover. But please leave the 15 year olds alone, Mr. Richie. And stop trying to seduce the female owners of the local bars. Now you just sound desperate. But Mr. Richie does address his own faults (he provides an incredibly personal look at his failing marriage) and you do see that he really is trying to understand himself.

And within that, the trip he takes is really beautiful and he describes it quite eloquently. I cannot fault him for that and I actually say thanks. His anecdotes are humorous, many of his encounters are delightful and he adds additional notes on the history of the islands that is fantastic. All in all, a book worthy of reading. show less

According to its cover blurb, this has been 'long considered a masterpiece of travel writing' and its author is 'an internationally recognized expert on Japanese culture and film'. Both those claims may well be sound, and some parts of the book are wonderful -- charming and illuminating anecdotes abound, and I loved the final section, in which he shares the experience of a visit to the shrine at Miyajima with a small Japanese boy and his grandmother. But for my taste there's too much information about the author's sex life (and even more implied), justified towards the end of the book on the grounds that 'there are few better ways of learning the language, of taking the temperature of the land, of measuring the inner state of its show more inhabitants' than sexual encounters. Sex tourism, anyone? There's also far too much derisory pontification about what goes on in the minds of 'the Japanese'. One relatively non-noxious example: 'All of these girls [who buy particular objects] are virginal, all of them are as pretty as flowers, and all of them have vegetable intelligences.' His observations on Japanese culture may have a lot going for them, and my visit to the Inland Sea was the richer for having read his account of visiting it more than 30 years earlier (an awful lot has changed!), but his fascination with matters sexual and his essentialising of 'the Japanese' are both sufficiently dominant to undermine my willingness to trust him. show less

I cannot recall a more insightful or colorful travelogue about Japan (article or book), and it's 40 years old. Richie seems that rare and perfect in between of both cultures to serve as guide/interpreter to the foreign reader. I wish he had done more.