Kristin Young
Lilla S. Perry, A Treasure Hunt in Japan
Historical Context
In 1936, Lilla S. Perry was about 54 years old. Though I couldn’t find his death listed in
any records, one moment in the manuscript strongly implies that her husband, Everett, died two
years earlier. She had five children, the oldest about 26 and the youngest 16.1 She writes early on
of her 16 year old daughter, Beatrice, going off to stay with a friend in the mountains when she
leaves and a bit later of how proud she is that Beatrice got all of her plans and preparations for
going to the mountains together on her own. She also makes a few mentions of Mr. Metzgar, her
“print collector friend and teacher” who is staying at his house, presumably with his wife
because Lilla says “The Metzars, both of whom were living at my house.”2 She names a few
friends when they are relevant to what she is doing aboard the ship, but once she actually reaches
Japan, she never really mentions any family or friends from home. They don’t greatly inform a
reading of the manuscript other than through a somewhat conspicuous absence that points out the
adventurous and novelistic qualities of the writing.
In a broad historical context, 1936 seems like a strange time for an American woman to
make a solo pleasure trip to Japan. Relations between the U.S. and Japan were somewhat
strained, American opinions of Japanese people weren’t the highest, and the economic states of
both countries weren’t at their greatest heights either. These are the facts, the cultural milieu, of
Lilla Perry’s 1936 trip to Japan and her resulting diary, A Treasure Hunt in Japan. They give an
important context, but to make more sense of her trip, we must move beyond the generalized
concepts of America and Japan at the time and look at what Lilla thought, the things she was
interested in, and the people she met.
1
Year: 1930; Census Place: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Roll: 140; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 195;
Image: 875.0.
2
Manuscript page 2.
The American view of Japan in the 1930s wasn’t strictly negative. Though many
scholars agree that Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in 1931 was the beginning of the road to war,3
Americans weren’t being fed negative information about the Japanese. “In contrast to news
reports describing Germany’s seemingly mono-lithic transformation under the Nazis,
correspondents and reputed foreign policy experts routinely depicted a divided Japan”; many
American opinions held the Japanese as a good people with almost American ideals (as
evidenced by their love of America’s pastime, baseball) that was being pushed by a militant
minority.4 These opinions were probably influenced greatly by the “government interest in
showing the continuing good relations between Japan and America and the peaceful intentions of
Japanese society,” especially because “shared popular culture was becoming increasingly
important in the relationship during the 1930s.”5 This fostering of good will included student
conferences and professional baseball tours.6 This general tone of camaraderie is what I believe
kept Lilla from mentioning any hesitation or fear about travelling to Japan, especially when
paired with the Orientalist ideas of quaint Japan that had been common until a few decades
earlier.7 Rising political negativity toward Japan, caused by such events as the Manchurian
Incident8 and Japan’s withdrawal from the Navel Limitation Treaty,9 doesn’t hardly seems to
John Gripentrog, “The Transnational Pastime: Baseball and American Perceptions of Japan in the 1930s,”
Diplomatic History 34, no. 2 (2010): 247-73, PDF, 247.
4
John Gripentrog, “The Transnational Pastime: Baseball and American Perceptions of Japan in the 1930s,” 249.
5
Michael R. Auslin, Pacific Cosmopolitans (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2011), 149.
6
Michael R. Auslin, Pacific Cosmopolitans, 149-150.
7
John Thares Davidann, Cultural Diplomacy in U.S.-Japan Relations, 1919-1941, (New York: Palgrave Mamillan,
2007), 171.
8
In September 1931, Japanese soldiers planted a bomb that caused minimal damage to a section of “the South
Manchurian Railway near Mukden, where the bulk of the Japanese Army was stationed,” blaming it on Chinese
bandits as an excuse to invade Manchuria.
John Thares Davidann, Cultural Diplomacy in U.S.-Japan Relations, 1919-1941, 171.
9
In 1922, delegates meeting in Washington D.C. from the United States, Great Britain, Japan, France, and Italy
signed a treaty of naval disarmament that fixed their numbers of naval ships at a ratio of “5 each for the United
States and Great Britain, 3 for Japan, and 1.67 each for France and Italy.” In the mid-1930s, Japan demanded as
many ships as the U.S. and G.B. but was denied, and after Japan gave warning of its intent to abandon the treaty, the
nations allowed the treaty to expire in 1936.
3
make it into Lilla’s travel diary at all and is definitely not prominent. Art and people are the most
prevalent topics in her writing.
Lilla made one close friend while in Japan: Miss Mary Florence Denton. In 1936, Miss
Denton was nearly eighty years old and had been living in Japan for most of the past 48 years.
She had come as a missionary and spent most of those years teaching at and fundraising for the
Doshisha schools.1011 Lilla and Miss Denton had mutual friends living in California, one of
whom wrote a letter of introduction for Lilla. In this way, Lilla came to spend her time in Kyoto
staying at Miss Denton’s house. This suggestion that Lilla ran in the same circle as at least one
missionary provides some insight into her possible feelings about Japan. Missionaries both wrote
circulating letters home to keep parishioners informed of the work they were supporting and
went on lecture tours while on furlough,12 connecting their audience to a perspective influenced
more by experience with Japanese people and culture than whatever was in the newspapers.
Lilla sometimes mentions discussing art with Miss Denton and notes that Miss Denton is
an esteemed figure in Kyoto, having been the friend of many important people such as Ernest
Fenollosa, a Harvard graduate who taught at Tokyo Imperial University earlier in his life and
moved on to be curator of the Imperial Art Museum of Japan and of Oriental art at Boston’s
Museum of Fine Arts. Davidann uses him as his example of one of the “Americans [who] were
fascinated with Japanese art,”13 going on to say that “American women became very interested
“Washington Conference,” Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition, 2011, 27 Nov. 2011.
10
Kyoto’s Doshisha Academy was founded in 1875 by Joseph Hardy Neesima, and today the Doshisha comprises a
kindergarten, two elementary schools, four junior/senior high schools, and two universities. “Neesima learned the
Christian conceptions of conscience and liberty during his stay in America. Upon returning to Japan and
establishing Doshisha, he defined them as the Doshisha spirit.” Neesima was Amherst College’s first Japanese
alumnus. His portrait hangs in Johnson Chapel.
The Doshisha, The Doshisha, 26 Nov. 2011. http://www.doshisha.ed.jp/english/index.html.
11
“Denton, Mary Florence,” in Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary, ed. Edward T. James
(Radcliffe College, 1971), 465-66.
12
John Thares Davidann, Cultural Diplomacy in U.S.-Japan Relations, 1919-1941, 12.
13
John Thares Davidann, Cultural Diplomacy in U.S.-Japan Relations, 1919-1941, 14.
in art trinkets from Japan and they sold well in the United States in the interwar years.” I
speculate that Lilla’s interest in Japanese print and other art object is a combination of
conformation to this generalization and a true taste for art.
I find at this point that I may sometimes suffer from the same issue that I could discern in
Lilla’s writing: an assumption that the average American has a solid knowledge base of Japanese
culture. This is clear in A Treasure Hunt in Japan through casual mentions of the Heike,14 the 47
rōnin,15 and art objects such at netsuke16 and inrō.17 Some of these references I understood and
some I did not, but I realize now that there are some I didn’t realize may have needed more
explanation than I was affording them. Upon mentioning to a friend the high price of the prints
that Lilla Perry was hunting for, I received the incredulous response of “Prints? Like a printed
picture?” The “prints” that Lilla adored so much and spent so much time and, I now realize,
money on “strictly speaking,…are not prints as understood in the modern sense, since no
printing-press was used, and the colours are not from inks, but from paints mixed with rice-paste
as a medium.”18 Three artisans are needed to produce a print, each having his stage of the
“Heike monogatari, English The Tale of the Heike, [is a] medieval Japanese epic, which is to the Japanese what
the Iliad is to the Western world—a prolific source of later dramas, ballads, and tales…Based on the actual historical
struggle between the Taira (Heike) and Minamoto (Genji) families, which convulsed Japan in civil war for some
years, the Heike monogatari features the exploits of Minamoto Yoshitsune, the most popular hero of Japanese
legend, and recounts many episodes of the heroism of aristocratic samurai warriors. Its overall theme is the tragic
downfall of the Taira family.”
“Heike monogatari,” Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition, 2011, 27 Nov. 2011.
15
“Chūshingura…also called The Loyal Forty-seven Rōnin, [is a] classic play cycle of the Japanese kabuki theatre.
The kabuki drama was adapted from an original written about 1748 for the puppet theatre (bunraku)…In 11 acts it
dramatizes the incidents that took place from 1701 to 1703, when 47 rōnin (masterless samurai) waited two years
before avenging themselves on a man who had forced their overlord to commit suicide. Because of the great length
of the drama, many shorter versions have been produced. It has also been the basis of a number of popular films.”
“Chūshingura,” Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition, 2011, 27 Nov. 2011.
16
A “netsuke [is an] ornamental togglelike piece, usually of carved ivory, used to attach a medicine box, pipe, or
tobacco pouch to the obi (sash) of a Japanese man’s traditional dress.”
“Netsuke,” Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition, 2011, 27 Nov. 2011.
17
An “inro, Japanese inrō, in Japanese dress, [is a] small portable case worn on the girdle…About the 16th century
they were adapted by the Japanese for holding medicine, tobacco, confections, and other small items and became a
part of the traditional Japanese male costume.”
“Inro,” Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition, 2011, 27 Nov. 2011.
18
Basil Stewart, On Collecting Japanese Colour-Prints (London: Kegan, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1917), 4.
14
process. First, the artist draws the design for the print then the engraver uses that paper to carve
the design into a wooden block. A different block must be carved for each color in the print.
Lastly, the printer paints the color onto a block and lays a paper on the painted block, rubbing the
impression onto the paper. Many prints are done with one block before the next color block is
applied to them.19 It is a clearly strenuous form of art that, according to Stewart in 1917, had died
out because “it did not pay to produce these prints by the old hand methods, and still sell them at
the prices people were accustomed to give for them,”20 which is a huge factor in explaining why
these prints could be the subject of a treasure hunt and why they cost so much.
Because Lilla often mentioned the prices she was paying for the prints (almost always
with pleasure because they go for much more in America) and because it is hard to think about
them or her fascination with them without a concept of their monetary value, I’m going to do a
few calculations.21 One of Lilla’s main treasure hunting goals is to find prints by the artist Goyō.
On one of her first print searching excursions, she finds a print shop owner with a good stack of
prints in the back of the shop:
He had one Goyo, the woman combing her long hair. Goyo prints were one of the
things I had so hoped to find in Japan for they are so expensive in America. I have
never seen one less than a hundred dollars. Was I thrilled when he brought this
one from a safe in the back of the shop, and said I might have it for twenty
dollars! I said yes at once, but decided not to take it home on the water-taxi that
night, it was so large. Besides it was evident that I must come back in the morning
to go over the old prints.22
$20 in 1936 is about $315 now, which is the excitingly low price she got the print for, while the
lowest American selling price of $100 in 1936 is about $1,570 in today’s money. I the library’s
19
Basil Stewart, On Collecting Japanese Colour-Prints, 1-3.
Basil Stewart, On Collecting Japanese Colour-Prints, 11.
21
All calculations are done using MeasuringWorth.com’s calculator of “Seven Ways to Compute the Relative
Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount - 1774 to Present,” which gives results up to 2010, and the amounts given are those
computed using the Consumer Price Index, based on comparative costs of goods and services used by average
consumers, which usually yields the second lowest calculation of the seven ways to compute.
22
Manuscript page 1764-65.
20
bound copy of a 1987 auction catalogue from Christie’s of New York, there are eight Goyō
prints listed for auction. A few of them go for as low as $2,000-$3,000, but the most expensive is
expected to sell for $10,000-$15,000. And this is in 1987. In today’s money, that’s about
$19,200-$28,800.
What I believe to be the design Lilla found for $20 ($315).
The design listed for $10,000-$15,000 ($19,200-$28,800).
In light of how much money Lilla seems to have spent on this one print, it is almost hard
to believe that she bought many, many more prints during her time in Japan. A lot of them were,
of course, much cheaper, but she doesn’t say how much she paid for the majority of them. When
she does say, it is always at least two or three yen, which I believe was about 60¢-90¢ or about
$9.44-$14.20 today. Spending at least $10 per print, buying around 50 of them, along with her
first Goyo, she must have spent at least $500 (in today’s money) just on prints. She also bought a
kimono, some netsuke, and at least a few other souvenirs, along with paying for her freighter
ticket, food, and lodging. Thinking about A Treasure Hunt in Japan form this financial
perspective sheds light on the circumstances and means of Lilla Perry, and it also gives the
factual understanding necessary to really engage with the diary, in the same way that it is
necessary to find out what netsuke are or what she means by “print.” Most importantly though, it
further clarifies Lilla’s passion for these art objects. One does not spend $500 on something
because it is a minor interest. Especially when paired with the vague political unrest surrounding
Japan at the time, the fact of her taking a trip alone to a place where she knows no one and
doesn’t speak the language is a true testament to her love of Japanese art.
I have thus far paid little attention to Lilla’s attitude toward the Japanese people. Her
general reactions are mainly of pleasure at their kindnesses and interest in (and sometimes
admiration of) the differences between their habits and ideals and those of Americans. She talks
about their lack of body consciousness in a positive tone and has only one anecdote about an
unpleasant encounter with a Japanese person, and in this instance, she had had such good
previous experiences with the Japanese that she initially mistook the man’s stinginess for
kindness.23 The artistic and financial contexts for looking at art give an even clearer image of
how much Lilla must have respected Japanese artists. I think that going to Japan with a firmly
established respect for and awe of artists that came out of the culture made Lilla less susceptible
to stereotypical thoughts, either in the direction of simple quaintness or of frightening militancy.
She also demonstrates a solid knowledge of basic Japanese history and culture24; it is always
easier to respect and appreciate people when you understand them better. I think this is why
political issues get little to no attention in A Treasure Hunt in Japan. The politics of U.S.-Japan
relations didn’t affect her personally, and Lilla had too much understanding of and respect for
23
Lilla tells a story of a cabdriver who misunderstood her directions and ended up driving her to one place before
she could correct him. When she paid him the standard fee, he handed it back to her, and while she thought he was
being kind by refunding her because he made a mistake, he was actually asking for more money because he had
driven her to two places. She eventually realizes this when he follows her and waits while she buys her water taxi
ticket.
24
Page 8 and half of page 9 of the manuscript are filled with single spaced notes from her reading of The History of
Japan by William Elliott Griffis.
Japanese culture to let modern politics or antiquated stereotypes affect how she viewed a
population that was close enough to be viewed without any such lenses.
This is what I believe to be the Japanese wood-block print design that is most well known to Americans. It is by the artist
Hokusai, much less recent than Goyo. A print of this design, about 10 in. by 14 in. is listed in the Christie's catalogue for
$30,000-$50,000 ($57,600-$96,000 now).