SYNOPSIS
“Anne of Japan” is a documentary video on the subject of the longstanding Japanese fascination with Prince Edward Island in general and with “Anne of Green Gables” in particular. The documentary’s focus is on Japanese visitors to Prince Edward Island, and aims to shed light on questions of cultural identity, propriety, and the ways that communities represent themselves to the world through tourism.
Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of the Anne books, with her vivid portrait
of Prince Edward Island’s landscape and insightful portrait of Anne Shirley, an orphan adopted by a rural couple in need of help on the farm, has held the attention of several generations of Japanese fans, as evidenced by the now defunct theme park, called “Canadian World” (essentially a large reconstruction of Green Gables), on the northern island of Hokkaido, as well as the still functioning “Anne’s Academy” on the southern island of Kyushu, not to mention the popularity of pre-built Green Gables-style houses in rural Japanese communities.
A link will also be drawn between Montgomery’s worshipful prose descriptions of nature and the Japanese religions of Shinto and Buddhism, which it has been suggested are yet another factor in the strong following Montgomery’s books have among the Japanese.
Academics at universities in Hiroshima and Yokohama have written extensively
on Lucy Maud’s book, thanks to Shincho-Sha publishers in Tokyo, who first published Hanako Muraoka’s Japanese translation of “Anne of Green Gables” in
1954.
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