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Japanese Things in Berkeley
Sep. 12th, 2022 10:11 pmBerkeley, in Gloucestershire, is not an obvious place of Japanese pilgrimage, even if it has the Temple of Vaccinia.
Here is my friend Eriko, clutching a COVID-19 vaccine plushie, and standing in front of the world's first free vaccination clinic, in Dr Jenner's back garden.
Still, there are some interesting Japan connections to be found. Witness, for example, this portrait (dated 1591) of Thomas Cavendish - the first Englishman whose name we know ever to meet a Japanese. In his case, it was off the coast of Baja California, where he captured a Spanish galleon and found two teenaged boys aboard, whom he then brought back to England. They'd have been there when this picture was painted, in fact.
Then there's this bit of Edo-era propaganda, persuading Japanese people to take the smallpox vaccine by picturing it as a demon-slaying kami astride a cow. Hey, whatever works!
And what about this kid who somehow found herself timelipped back to Civil-War era Berkeley castle, where she used her karate skills to break the siege?
A fun break in the middle of Monday, and I hope to see Eriko - whose visit was fleeting indeed - again in the Spring, when she returns to resume her work on spiritualist churches in Bristol.
Here is my friend Eriko, clutching a COVID-19 vaccine plushie, and standing in front of the world's first free vaccination clinic, in Dr Jenner's back garden.
Still, there are some interesting Japan connections to be found. Witness, for example, this portrait (dated 1591) of Thomas Cavendish - the first Englishman whose name we know ever to meet a Japanese. In his case, it was off the coast of Baja California, where he captured a Spanish galleon and found two teenaged boys aboard, whom he then brought back to England. They'd have been there when this picture was painted, in fact.
Then there's this bit of Edo-era propaganda, persuading Japanese people to take the smallpox vaccine by picturing it as a demon-slaying kami astride a cow. Hey, whatever works!
And what about this kid who somehow found herself timelipped back to Civil-War era Berkeley castle, where she used her karate skills to break the siege?
A fun break in the middle of Monday, and I hope to see Eriko - whose visit was fleeting indeed - again in the Spring, when she returns to resume her work on spiritualist churches in Bristol.