"Whereas women were created solely for amusement of men it ill becomes them to emancipate themselves," begins an article in an 1873 edition of Japan Punch. "As our slaves they are the most delightful of animals, but when they attempt to assume airs of superiority, then they become hateful."
A newspaper that published such a misogynistic, anti-suffragist diatribe today would be picketed before its editor could say "Kate Millet." But Japan Punch was no ordinary publication. Rather, it was the official organ for the publication in Japan of "Jollyfications emanating from His Ethereal Majesty's customhouse and Boat houses," wrote Charles Wirgman (1832-91), publisher, editor, writer and artist, in the inaugural issue, launched in Yokohama in May 1862 with a loan of $50 from the Swiss consul.
The journal's first cover showed a two-sworded, kimono-clad Japan Punch shaking hands with his inspiration: Punch from Punch or the London Charivari -- a satirical magazine founded in London in 1841. The inaugural issue also contained an introduction: "How are you? Short speeches make long friends. Life in East dreary one. Want of amusement. Pursuit of cash principal occupation. . . . Punch required relaxations of from (sic) business -- risible muscles set in motion beneficial to health. Let us smile sublime sublunar sentiment. Snow of Fusiyama melting before genial rays of rising sun. Crabs and oysters rejoice. . . . We introduce you to Punch."
The notification and introduction typify writing in Japan Punch -- parodies of purple prose and heavy use of rhetorical figures such as alliteration and pathetic fallacy. But what delighted residents in the small Yokohama foreign settlement were Punch's cartoons and caricatures of themselves and the Japanese.
Wirgman, by all accounts, was a ready wit and amusing raconteur. Elements of caricature were evident in some of his sketches for The Illustrated London News, on behalf of whom he had gone to China as a correspondent in 1856 and then from there to Japan.
Wirgman published "Japan Punch" for 25 years, at first irregularly, then monthly from 1874. The newspaper remains a valuable source of information on the Yokohama foreign settlement and politics and social issues of the day. In Yokohama, where Wirgman is something of a native son, Japan Punch is well-known, and panchi-e, Punch pictures, tessellate the mosaic of memory -- a template for comparing the city of today with the city of the Meiji Era.
Elsewhere, though, Japan Punch remains within the purview of Meiji or manga specialists. One reason is that it has been unavailable outside of Yushodo's 10-volume facsimile edition, which carries a 170,000 yen price tag. That changed with the summer publication of "The Genius of Mr. Punch." This book presents a generous selection from Japan Punch for less than the price of a pair of movie tickets.
The compiler, Jozef Rogala, intended the book to impart the fun and frolic of life and to acquaint the world with Wirgman's works. His emphasis on text rather than illustrations is counterintuitive, since Wirgman is known for his caricatures rather than prose.
Punch pictures are not modern but are skillful, says Haruo Kobayashi, a former Mainichi Shimbun cartoon editorialist. Wirgman captured fleeting motion like a camera with a fast shutter speed. His sketches of bodily movement and moving animals are superb.
Though in "The Genius of Mr. Punch," Rogala focuses on the writing, he didn't neglect to include a cornucopia of Punch pictures. Text and illustrations are arranged by chapters with topics like sports, puns and insightful propositions. Wirgman did not write long pieces. He did, however, write long sentences. His spoof on Yanks titled "Non-Celebrating of the Fourth of July" consists of a single, 188-word sentence with the sure syntax of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
But his mockery of Americans is subtle compared with his lampooning of Germans. "German Influence in Japan" (1883) begins: "No Edmund, the Germans are not born with spectacles. They begin to grow on them at the age of six months, up to which age Germans are blind." Elsewhere he makes fun of German speech: "I think something ought to be done to prevent the German residents here from quite forgetting their mutter-sprache [mother tongue]. Every third word they use is English. Zum beispiel [e.g.] 'Das war aber so stupid.' "
Wirgman was in the Anglo-American tradition of satirizing Germans -- a staple of war-themed comedies like "Hogan's Heroes." However, he held no group in greater contempt than teetotalers. In "A Good Stiff Drink Makes the Man," the British minister addresses a temperance meeting. But the minister redeems himself: "Bountiful nature in her infinite goodness has given wine unto man to gladden his heart . . . ," he tells the assembly. "A temperance man is lower than the brutes for they know when they have had enough without taking the pledge. . . . All great men have been, are, or will be drunk."
Wirgman can be obscure, especially for today's reader. Editor Rogala forewarns that Punch "must be read with deliberation." Wirgman could pile up surreal images in a sentence as skillfully as Dali in a landscape. Take, for example, this passage from "Chinese Celebration": "Millions of triangular dragon flags waved proudly in the breeze whilst the moon winked knowingly at the moonfaced sons of Han. Roast pigs roamed about freely, sharks fins flew through the air and the gutters flowed with birds nest soup." But the satirist could be guilty of excessive self-indulgence. A writer may, of course, indulge himself till the cows come home, if he is also editor and publisher. Wirgman wrote as he pleased because his readers were primarily viewers of his illustrations.
Wirgman was an accomplished aphorist, and had he lived in England or America his words might follow Wilde in "Bartlett's": "All men are born equal, it is only when they grow up that they become unequal."
