An actor and a rare one

It is with a heavy heart that I turn to my keyboard to note the passing on 31 March of the actor who for many devotees of Sherlock Holmes, was Sherlock Holmes – Douglas Wilmer.

Wilmer portrayed Holmes on BBC television in 1964-65, with staunch support from Nigel Stock as Dr Watson.

While not so well known these days, Wilmer was a great character actor who featured in a number of very well-known films. Remember King Pelias in Ray Harryhausen’s Jason and the Argonauts?  Or Moutamin in El Cid?  Or Khalifa Abdullah in Khartoum?  Or Major General Francis de Guingandin in Paton?  Or, back with Ray Harryhausen again, the Vizier in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad?

 

As the Police Commissioner in The Revenge of the Pink Panther he even had to deal with Insp. Clouseau and with Fu Manchu when he portrayed Nayland Smith in the “Fu Manchu” series of films.

He appeared in numerous televisions plays and series over the years, including The Avengers and The Saint. Despite having retired from acting many years ago, he most recently appeared in a notable cameo role in Sherlock – as the old gentleman in The Diogenes Club who is horrified that Watson dares to speak in the club!

Born in 1920, Wilmer was educated at King’s School Canterbury and at the alma mater of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Stonyhurst.  He went on to study at RADA, interrupting this to serve in West Africa during the War. Wilmer wrote his autobiography a few years ago, giving some fascinating insights into his career, Stage Whispers.

Everyone has their own favourite television Sherlock Holmes – you can read up on most of them in the Sherlock Holmes Collection:

  

On a happier note, the Sherlock Holmes Collection was honoured in late May by a visit from the star of a current television Sherlock Holmes series.  No – not Benedict Cumberbatch – the puppet 15 year old schoolboy Holmes from the Japanese NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) series, which is sadly not yet commercially available in English. Written by Kōki Mitani, Holmes and Watson meet as boys at Beeton School, a school where James Moriarty is the deputy headmaster and Mrs Hudson is the housemother! Holmes was accompanied by Mr Bunta Inoue, the creator of the puppets, and his assistant and cameraman.  Holmes spent some time looking at treasures from the Collection and discussing our 1951 Festival of Britain website.

 

[Catherine]

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Irregular Observations is an occasional series of musings from the Sherlock Holmes Collection in Westminster Libraries.  The Collection started life in 1951 and is now one of the most comprehensive in the world. If you enjoy Sherlock Holmes and want to learn more, have a look at our website or get in touch.

Late night lute plus…

An evening recital at Westminster Music Library was never going to be an ordinary affair. Over the years we’ve hosted a variety of ensembles and performers, but this was to be our first concert for the lute, but not just the lute: two sopranos and a pianist joined the musical ranks last Thursday evening.

Soprano Ai Sakabayashi accompanied by lutenist Wezi Elliot opened the concert with some baroque masterpieces from J.S. Bach, including three arias from Anna Magdalena Bach’s Notebook. After studying at the Kyoto University of Arts in Japan and the Royal College of Music, Ai gave her debut recital in Japan in 2013 and has performed a wide range of repertoire from baroque to contemporary. Ai’s voice, sweetly expressive, was perfectly matched with Wezi’s delicate and thoughtful lute playing. After a cantata by Heinrich Schutz – O Jesu, nomen dulce, they finished their set with some music by Purcell – Musick for a while from the incidental music to Oedipus, and finally Purcell’s setting of Bishop William Fuller’s Evening Hymn, a contemplative meditation.

After a short break and a “performer” changeover, soprano Jessie Tse and pianist Jiyeon Kim took centre stage.

Jessie is a former member of the Opera Hong Kong Chorus and has performed in concerts and fully-staged operas including Manon, La Bohème, L’elisir d’amore, Lucia di Lammermoor and Carmen.

After opening with some more Purcell – Hark! the echoing air, from his opera The Fairy Queen,  we were transported forwards in time to the 19th century with some well known songs by Franz Schubert including Die Forelle – The trout. Not stopping there long we were off into the 20th century with a selection of beautiful songs by Francis Poulenc and Roger Quilter. Blessed with a voice of extraordinary purity, it was astonishing to hear this diminutive soprano belting out these glorious songs with such professional ease.

Four artists on their way to the top of their profession, inspiring one another in the performance of music they are all patently passionate about. Lucky for us they stopped by…..

[Ruth]

ロンドンの中の日本 – Japan in London

Japan comes to Trafalgar Square on Saturday 5 October for the 2013 Matsuri festival – a lively, colourful celebration of Japanese food, crafts, fashion, music and dance. The London Matsuri has been an annual event since 2009 and is now in its second year in Trafalgar Square. Matsuri is the Japanese word for festival or holiday.

The Matsuri is not the first time Japan has come to London. In January 1885 a model Japanese village was constructed within Humphrey’s Hall, near Albert Gate, at the top of Sloane Street in Knightsbridge. Promoted by a merchant, whose wife was Japanese, the venture aimed to demonstrate the creative and technical sophistication of Japanese decorative art and design. “Erected and peopled exclusively by natives of Japan”, the little colony included dwellings, workshops, a tea room, temple and garden – set against a backdrop of a painted Mt Fuji. 

Artists at work in the ‘Japanese Village’, 1885. Image property of Westminster City Archives

Paying visitors (over 250,000 in the first few months) saw Japanese artists and craftsmen at work fashioning pottery, wood and ivory carvings, toys, fans, cabinets, cloisonné lacquer-work, textiles and embroidery. Displays of Japanese dance, theatre and martial arts were also programmed.

Built from imported Japanese raw materials (bamboo, woods, paper) the buildings proved singularly combustible when a fire broke out in May 1885: the village entire was consumed in the blaze. A Japanese woodcarver died in the flames and his hundred or so compatriots became homeless until re-housed by well-wishers. The promoters were not deterred, rebuilding a larger village, re-opening in December of the same year. Among the additions was a “Nippon Theatre” promising “outstanding entertainments by Japanese artistes”. The village remained in business for another two years but English music hall turns and Italian opera were staged in the theatre to sustain attendances. But, losing money, the Japanese Village Company ceased trading in June 1887.

Japan-British Exhibition, White City, 1910. Image property of Hammersmith & Fulham Archives.

Twenty three years later Japan was represented on an altogether larger scale at the White City in Shepherd’s Bush. The vast Japan-British exhibition of 1910 comprised an array of model villages, temples, gardens, dioramas, arts, crafts, manufactures, and martial arts displays.  The venture was primarily funded by the Japanese government with the ambition of promoting a favourable public image of Japan, fostering trade, and celebrating the new Anglo-Japanese Alliance. It proved a popular success, receiving more than six million visitors in its six month tenure. Westfield now occupies its White City site but a small survivor is the Chokushi-mon gateway which was removed to Kew Gardens.

[Rory]

Turning Japanese

Lian Hearn, under her real name, Gillian Rubinstein, is a highly-successful author of books for children. She chose to use a pen-name when she turned to writing novels for adults about Japan. She also immersed herself in a period of Japanese history – the middle of the 19^thCentury – which was possibly its most turbulent.

I knew a little about the enforced opening up of Japan to Western traders, but almost nothing about the catastrophic effect it had upon the social fabric of the country, as old rivalries were magnified and blood (lots of it) was spilt in what amounted to civil war. Sound a bit distant, or a bit “exotic”? In Blossoms and Shadows, Lian/Gillian makes it immediate and very human.

In her fascinating talk to a packed house at Mayfair Library (in a joint project with the Japan Society), she revealed the lengths she had gone to to make her narrative historically accurate (including several stays in Japan), and spoke of some of the devices she had used to meld the facts into a novel. Her narrator is a young Japanese woman with aspirations to become a doctor – a revolutionary idea, and a surprising but brilliant choice of guide to the male-dominated era and its high drama. Great book, great talk.

[David]

Helen McCarthy on Manga

To conclude the Graphic Novel Season, academic and author Helen McCarthy visited Pimlico Library to give a special talk on the evolution of manga.
Please note: the reference links given in this post  will lead you to some of our subscription databases. Just enter your library card number for free access.

Far from being esoteric the talk was accessible to both seasoned manga readers and newbies. Helen began by looking at the history of the medium, tracing its (rumoured) origins to drawings by the Buddhist priest Toba Sojo in the 12th century. However the general consensus credits the creation of manga to Katsushika Hokusai circa 1814.

Interestingly, although manga is considered a purely Japanese graphic narrative form, it has had a lot of western influence throughout its history. In 1862 just after the Edo period (when Japan was placed in total isolation from the outside world) a British Army officer Charles Wirgman launched a political cartoon called Japan Punch, which inspired Japanese artists to rebelliously poke fun at politicians.

Then in the early 20th century Japanese artists were influenced by European multi-panel comic strips published in magazines such as France’s Le Rire and Germany’s Münchener Bilderbogen.

The next wave of western stimulus came in World War 2 in the form of animation and silent film. In fact early Disney cartoons would provide the impetus for Osamu Tezuka, a young medical student to eventually become the “God of Manga”(Ode to Kirihito, Astro Boy and Black Jack).

With Helen being an aficionado of the uber-prolific Tezuka, his life and work formed the crux of the talk. However, she also referred to other manga pioneers. Discussing Tezuka in great depth she used his influence on future manga artists as a platform to discuss the current state of manga. She stressed its importance in not only broadening the graphic novel medium but also progressively pushing forward animation (anime). Referring to key titles such as Lone Wolf and Cub, Death Note, Naruto and Bleach she concluded by observing that manga is not only integral to Japanese culture but also to global culture.

[Francis]

Splendours of the Orient

The reception room at 28 Ashley Place in 1893: a stunning example of the oriental style of interior design that was all the rage in the late 19th century. Image property of Westminster City Archives.

Muji, manga and martial arts… Japanese culture seems to be a very modern British obsession, but our taste for all things Japanese is by no means a new one.

At Westminster Archives you can find plenty of evidence of the influence of the Japanese arts, from 18th century tradecards advertising ‘japanning’ lacquer work through to pictures of Japanese-inspired sets and costumes for theatre productions at the turn of the last century.

Advertisement for Eastern Art Manufactures by Liberty and Co. East India Merchants, c.1880. Image property of Liberty & Co Ltd.

For British consumers in the late 19th century, the Japanese arts were the height of fashion. The Victorians’ taste for all things Japanese led to a booming trade between London and Tokyo. At the forefront of this commercial wave was Arthur Liberty, founder of Liberty & Co. In 1875, he opened a shop at 218a Regent Street, selling oriental fabrics, ornaments, and decorative furniture from the Far East. The trend for oriental fashions grew and grew, and so did Liberty’s business.

On Wednesday 17 November, visitors to the Archives Centre had the opportunity to discover catalogues of intricate Japanese objets d’art, exhibition advertisements and other beautiful items from the Liberty archives. Accomplished lecturer Akemi Solloway set the items in context with a fascinating talk on Japanese culture, including Japanese dress and the discipline of the tea ceremony. During her presentation, Akemi explained the intricate designs of the kimono, which inspired Liberty’s costume designs for Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera The Mikado.

Sybil Grey, Leonora Braham and Jessie Bond in “The Mikado” 1885. Image property of Westminster City Archives.

You can explore the archives of Liberty and Co yourself by visiting Westminster Archives Centre, or discover more about Japanese cultural events in the UK by visiting the Embassy of Japan’s website.

[Judith]