Description
Book SynopsisIncluding her survival of Japan’s Great Kanto Earthquake, this book is an enthralling account of Dorothy Britton’s life, loves and discoveries in an amazingly varied life and career. Bilingual from birth, she found the immense joy of blending in with peoples of different cultures simply by getting the sound right when speaking their languages to the extent that she herself sounds Japanese. While interviewing Talent Education’s Shinichi Suzuki, she realized his peerless ‘mother tongue method’ for learning the violin was ideal for foreign languages too. While composing music for many documentary films introducing Japan to the world, in Empire Photosound’s beautiful My Garden Japan she used the ancient instruments of the Imperial Court Orchestra. The film was shown daily at Montreal’s EXPO 67 where it garnered a prize. Amusing episodes and stories of fascinating people and relationships abound in the book, as do valuable insights into topics such as the post-war Occupation and its impact on everyday life, the role of women, learning Japanese, marriage customs, food and many other aspects of Japanese culture and society. Appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2010 for her highly regarded contributions to bridging two cultures, this long-awaited memoir will be widely welcomed. Here is the remarkable and remarkably frank story of a life lived to the full by the doyenne of British residents in Japan that has benefited so many and touched the lives of countless others.
Table of ContentsPlate section faces page 128
Preface
List of Plates
1. Rhythms Are What Divide Us
2. My Mother
3. My Father
4. How Marrying Changes my Father’s Life
5. The Great Kanto Earthquake
6. Hayama
7. Mother Contacts Her First Japanese Friend
8. Royal Friends
9. The Japanese Language
10. Winters in Yokohama
11. Father’s Sudden Death
12. England
13. Bermuda
14. Mills College, 1943-1945
15. London, 1945-1949
16. Innocence and Ignorance
17. Back in Japan – 1949
18. Love and Sex 114
19. Meeting ‘Boy’
20. Society in Japan
21. Marriage Customs
22. Washoku and O-furo
23. My Royal Neighbours
24. Two Composers
25. London and Paris
26. Harps and Angels
27. Back to Work in Japan
28. Dreaming of Elephants
29. Finding the Britton
30. Sea Shells
31. The ‘Katakana Prison’ and Mr Suzuki
32. Poetry
33. The Island in Between
34. Marrying ‘Boy’ – 1968
35. The Japanese Crane – Bird of Happiness
36. Comfort and Solace with Ted
Dorothy Britton’s Published Works
Index
