Why are there many Musketeer's fans in Japan, although Japan and France are very different cultures?
The most obvious answer to the question is as follows : Because this great novel written by Dumas moves people deeply in all the world. --- But we also thank that the people introduced the French cultures to our Japanese from 100 years ago.
From the 17c same as the time of musketeers, Japan had closed the country for 3 centuries. It was an age of Tokugawa shogunate, well-known as an age of samurai.
At 130 years ago, our country opened to foreign trade and diplomatic relations. Japan joined
the international exposition of Paris in 1867. And cultural exchanges between Japan and France have become very active from then. It was in the age after Dumas written "The Three Musketeers".And soon a civil war between the Japanese Emperor and the Tokugawa shogunate broke out in Japan. Part of
a French military advisers disobeyed an order of French Emperor, and they helped the inferior Tokugawa shogunate like the musketeers who tackled to save the King Charles I in England.After the war it became the age of the Japanese Emperor, the Meiji Restoration. New govement introduced Western technology. Many French engineer came to Japan, and many young students also went to France by ship. When the Franch shipping company opened the Far East line, it put
the ships named Athos, Aramis, Porthos and d'Artagnan on this line.A lot of French literature was translate in those days. "The Three Musketeers" was first translated into Japanese as name of
"Sannin Jyusotu" in 1887. Some translater tried to write it as Japanese-style. The name of characters changed into Japanese name and the plot of the story also change to be easy reading.This descent flowered as popular literature in the 1920s. Japanese general public welcomed Dumas' novel as well as Hugo's and Boisgobey's. They read
"Sanjyushi" (The Three Musketeers) and "Tekkamen" (The Man in the Iron Mask) with eager anticipation. They also loved a silent film as popular entertainment at the same time. Of course, they appalauded American Douglas Fairbanks' d'Artagnan shown in 1921.In this way, "The Three Musketeers" had been well-known to Japanese People. But most people think the novel was for boys, because it was emphasized the fun of adventure. After the Second World War, in 1952 the first complete translation of the musketeer's story was published under the title
"D'Artagnan Monogatari" (D'Artaganan's story). And in 1968 Rikie Suzuki translated the story based on this book into polished Japanese, so we can read easy all the musketeers' story and can feel the great fun today.<©The Three Musketeers Club Japan / Report: No.19 Louis Isezaki>