Japanese historian Nick Kapur unearthed "Osanaetoki Bankokubanashi" (童絵解万国噺), a wonderfully bizarre illustrated Japanese history of the USA from 1861, filled with fanciful depictions of allegedly great moments in US history, like "George Washington defending his wife 'Carol' from a British official named 'Asura' (same characters as the Buddhist deity)." They just get weirder and better from there: "Washington's 'second-in-command' John Adams battling an enormous snake"; "George Washington straight-up punching a tiger"; a snake eating John Adams's mother and seeking help to avenge himself upon the snake from "a magical mountain fairy"; and so on. If you like this kind of stuff, you should check out Franz Kafka's first novel, Amerika, which was published posthumously and against Kafka's wishes.
童絵解万国噺: A Wonderfully Bizarre 19th Century Japanese Fanfic History Of America
Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing
Mon, 02/18/2019 - 1:17am
Topics: osanaetoki bankokubanashi washington english as she is spoke osanaetoki bankokubanashi kaikoku zushi amerika ittōshi carol british asura buddhist second-in-command john adams john adams franz kafka kafka spoke new york el doctorow the creationists kanagaki robun utagawa yoshitora thanks fipi lele goddess nick_kapur november nick kapur japanese usa george washington the america stuff
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