Ukiyo-e Prints

浮世絵版画

Port Townsend, Washington

While researching another topic we ran across a rather odd poem which it would appear was written by Edwin Arnold (エドウィン・アーノルド: 1832-1904) even though he wrote that it was the translation of letter from a Japanese officer serving in Korea. But was it? Entitled A Japanese Soldier it was based on an event in the life - the death - of the bugler Shirakami Genjirō, a hero of the Sino-Japanese War. Actually many people wrote about him, but it is the Arnold poem which caught our attention - especially the first stanza and how it seems to relate to this print. The long braid on the sobbing Chinese 'pig'. Clearly the Japanese, like the British, felt an overwhelming sense of superiority. Below is the first stanza.

Shirikami Genjiro,

Bugler in the Line!

You shall let our Westerns know

Why the kiku shine;

Why the Sun-flag, gleaming

Bright from field to field,

Drives the Dragon, screaming

Makes the Pig-tails yield.

It is the last line that gets us most.

Also, the reference to kiku is to the

Japanese flag. See our entry on

hi-no-maru on our Hil thru Hor page.

One more thing: It was set to music by

someone named B. J. F. Varenhorst.

Imagine.