43. An Alan Priest Story
In writing about Alan Priest living in retirement in Kyoto, I mentioned that he loved to tell stories, some of them malicious. Here is an example, told me while he was still a curator at the Met.
When plans were afoot for the great 1954 exhibition of Japanese art (which I saw principally at the Met, since I was a fellowship student there at the time), three eminences in Asian art studies were invited to Japan to make the selection, or at least propose pieces for it (making what is called the "dream list"): Langdon Warner, Archibald Wenley, and Alan Priest. They were treated with fitting reverence wherever they went; but the reception for Langdon Warner by the city of Kyoto was to be a particularly glorious event. The Japanese still believed a story that was later shown to be untrue: that Warner had saved the city of Kyoto from destruction during World War II by persuading the American president to order it taken off the list of cities to be bombed, because of its cultural importance. Warner himself always denied this, but was thought to be exhibiting a New England modesty.
So, the city of Kyoto determined to go all-out in welcoming Langdon Warner to their city. Unwisely, someone consulted Alan Priest about what Warner would especially like to do or see. Priest (as he told the story) knew that Warner was especially bored by the Nô dance-drama, and disliked it intensely. So he told the Kyoto people that what they should do is arrange a special performance of Nô for Langdon Warner, who especially loved it. It was summer, when Kyoto, surrounded by mountains so that the air doesn't move, is almost unbearably hot, and the Nô drama is never performed then. But a performance was arranged, and the three eminences taken there. The scene is terrible to imagine: the Nô performers sweltering almost to fainting in their heavy robes, all the city officials and dignitaries sitting uncomfortable in the heat through the long, slow performance, Langdon Warner bored and mystified: why were they doing this for (or to) him? and only Alan Priest smiling his crafty smile, maliciously enjoying the discomfort of everyone else.
Added note: The person really responsible for the "salvation of Kyoto" was a young navy officer who had studied Japanese art and culture, and who found himself at dinner with Secretary of the Navy Stimson and gave him the cultural arguments for saving the city and its great monuments. The true story behind this happy decision was investigated and cleared up by Otis Cary, long-time resident of Kyoto and teacher at Dôshisha University, in a privately-printed pamphlet and an article: "The Sparing of Kyoto - Mr. Stimson's 'Pet City'", Japan Quarterly, Oct.-Dec. 1975, According to his account, Kyoto had originally been the military's choice over Hiroshima.
Conclusion
VI Conclusion It is time to draw back and look, if not at the whole Hyakusen, at as much of him as we have managed to illuminate in this study. Dark areas remain, and doubtless many distortions, but...Read More...