From Japan to Toronto: Learning about the Great Detective in a Digital Age

Is it already the end of July?  Time passed by this month in a blink of an eye! Some of you know that for the past few weeks, I’ve been incredibly busy starting up an online teaching and learning service called Japanese for Nikkei with a colleague here in Toronto. I will blog more about our initiatives as we draw closer to launching the website and pilot course! So, stay tuned for exciting updates about our collaborative project! 

In other exciting news, I am so happy to report that I successfully managed to organize an international “mini-symposium” featuring guest-talks by Yuichi Hirayama and Yumiko Shigaki of the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club at our Bootmaker’s meeting, which took place earlier this month.

This month’s story meeting featured Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Dancing Men,” one of my top ten favorite stories! In tribute to this story, our Meyers, Mike Rainer created an almost impossible code for us to crack based on… you guessed it, the dancing men “alphabet.” Here’s the code again. I’ll reveal the answer at the end of this blog! The session began with a very interesting video about Conan Doyle’s creation of the code, which I’ve linked below. Consider watching it as it gives clues about how to crack the code! This was followed by a special birthday announcement from the “Queen” herself for Doug Wrigglesworth who turned 80! Celebrating a birthday during the pandemic isn’t ideal, but there are ways around it thanks to technology! 

But let’s get back to the guest speakers! Drumroll, please!

Yuichi Hirayama is a member of the Baker Street Irregulars, the editor of The Shoso-in Bulletin, a member of Bootmakers of Toronto and Sherlock Holmes Society of London. He is a translator who studies Japanese classic detective stories and also a dentist, who has a waiting room designed after Holmes’s study! (I definitely want to see that one day!). Yumiko Shigaki is a collector of Sherlockian goods and has been a member of the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club since it was established in 1977. She currently serves as the club’s secretariat. Both Yuichi and Yumiko gave talks related to their area of specialization. Yumiko’s presentation gave us insight into the world of Sherlock Holmes in Japan as she showcased some of her very valuable and interesting Sherlockian souvenirs. These included, but were not limited to, a replica of the bronze statue of Holmes, snack packages depicting Holmes and a series of limited edition Sherlockian goods created by the Japanese Society. During the Q & A, I remember a question was asked about why Sherlock Holmes in Japan appears so “cartoonish.” One reason, according to Yumiko, is that the detective is quite popular for children. Yuichi added to this by telling us that it is not uncommon to see adaptations of Sherlock Holmes made for children and that Conan Doyle’s works were in fact used as an English textbook for students in Japan. Yuichi too has a collection of rare books that any book collector would envy! What was most memorable about Yuichi’s presentation was the game he played with us, which I will call “Guess the Story,” where he showed us the front cover illustration of books and had the audience guess the title. Some of them were quite challenging but they were all really fun and amusing!

The meeting ended with a quiz, a song and a really interesting paper by Thelma. To know absolutely everything that happens at the Bootmakers meeting, I really recommend you to subscribe to Canadian Holmes as it keeps a detailed record of our meetings! It’s also filled with lots of interesting facts, essays, and other writings by fans, academics and so on, who have dedicated their lives to the study of Conan Doyle and his stories. 

BUT WAIT! THE BLOG DOESN’T END YET! 

Soon after the Bootmakers meeting, I joined another meeting with the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club, and little did I know, but I was in for a treat. The activities of the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club are published in Japanese, but for those who are not able to read Japanese it will forever be shrouded in mystery. The most effective solution to this problem would be to learn Japanese, but all jokes aside, I would like to share my experiences with you because I think what they did at the last meeting was so cool, which justifies staying up till 4 am (due to the time difference).

The JSHC hosted something called “Holmes Contents Royal Rumble.” 

What is it THAT you ask?

I was so incredibly lucky to receive the complete digital collection of Shoso-in Bulletin. Learm more about it here. (It was like Christmas). Thank you Yuichi and George!!

It was a competition among members of the Club to showcase their favorite Sherlockian adaptation or story. In short, members who participated had a maximum of five minutes to pitch the reasons why/how their selected work is either Sherlockian, interesting, or both. There were several memorable ones:  one of the members dressed up as a zombie to talk about a zombie adaptation of Holmes, there were two others that talked about Sherlock Holmes video games, one which I wrote an article about, which you can read here. It was just so fascinating to see and hear about the various ways in which Sherlock Holmes remains relevant and popular in Japan.  

Being able to connect with International Sherlockians is always so rewarding. If you or someone you know is interested in delivering a special talk about Sherlock Holmes around the world, please reach out to the Bootmakers!

By the way, did anyone crack the code? The answer is “Welcome Bootmakers to another exciting story meeting.”