Taking Shakespeare to Japan

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/23/shakespeare-japan-first-folio

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I sometimes struggle with the intricacies of airport customs, especially after mind-crushing 11-hour flights. Last Christmas, I was almost refused entry to the United States for illicit citrus-running (I blame my wife; she made me her unknowing satsuma mule). But arriving in Tokyo last week, I had more on my mind than stray oranges. Landing at Narita airport at something like 4am UK time, I set to work on the customs paperwork. Definitely no fruit, plants, or cats; but value of objects being imported? Um … what's the Japanese for "priceless"?

I am head of English and drama at the British Library, and came to Japan last week as part of the Great! campaign organized by the British Council, and in partnership with friends and colleagues at De Montfort University and the British embassy in Tokyo. Tagging along for the ride with me are travelling companions of the highest order: a handwritten Sherlock Holmes manuscript of The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter and an original First Folio of 1623, the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays.

Our press release talks, not unjustly, of the arrival of two great British literary icons in Japan (three, if you include me, I optimistically suggested to our press officer), and if you're thinking of the ways literary artefacts can embody a national sensibility, you'd be hard pushed to find better examples.

Today, 23 April, is assumed to be Shakespeare's birthday – and to celebrate, we'll be hosting a number of special events at the British embassy in Tokyo – located next to the imperial palace, and one of the most impressive embassies in the city (and, I suspect, the world). In the morning, we'll be running workshops for local junior high school children. Last night, eating with friends who teach at universities in Kyoto, I asked them how much knowledge of Shakespeare I might expect from the kids. They were unsure and thought that while young people know Shakespeare "the brand", fewer today had much sense of the narratives of the plays. One colleague, who teaches Shakespeare to undergraduates, reports an increasing fascination, almost obsession, among her students with the authorship debate, perhaps only encouraged by the recent release in Japan of the film Anonymous.

In fact, in the local Twittersphere, Conan Doyle appears to be outshining his compatriot so far. When I tweeted that Sherlock and Shakespeare were on their way, we were overwhelmed by the response, and decided to open up the embassy later in the week to allow enthusiastic local Sherlockians to have a glimpse of their master's manuscript. Although Japanese enthusiasm for Holmes is longstanding (he first appeared in a Japanese magazine in 1894), friends suggest the success of Guy Richie's franchise may have re-ignited interest in the detective. Perhaps Ritchie should tackle the Bard next: "Oi! Tybalt! Yer farckin ratcatcher!"

After the schools workshops, later that evening, we'll be hosting a reception for key local leaders, from presidents of major Japanese multinationals to cabinet ministers, and a range of ambassadors. But the guest of honour, of course, will be the First Folio.

Gathered besides these literary treasures, I'll be talking about some of the Shakespeare work we are leading at the British Library – including our recent CD of Shakespeare performed in the original pronunciation (OP) that his early audiences would have experienced. After that, Dominic Shellard, vice chancellor at De Montfort – who says that he can still remember his primary school teacher first impressing upon him the importance of the First Folio as the only record of Shakespeare's work (half of his plays appeared for the first time in the Folio) – will lecture on Shakespeare as part of a double-act with the UK ambassador to Japan, David Warren. Warren, in his time a member of the Oxford University Drama Society, is a keen theatre scholar, and will give an ambassador's personal view of Shakespeare.

As courier, and guarantor, of the First Folio, I am however mindful of the diplomatic hot water that the RSC got into in 1964, when they took their own Folio to the Vatican for the Pope to bless. Something got lost in translation, and the pope understood he was being given the Folio as a gift. What could they do? It may not have been meant that way – but isn't the pope infallible?

And so I won't be resting on my laurels in having successfully got the Folio out here – I have a feeling my CEO would like it back as well. I hope all those who come to see the Folio this week appreciate this greatest of literary treasures … but I also hope they let me have it back.