Rhythms, Rites and Rituals
My Life in Japan in Two-step and Walt z-time
Including her survival of Japan’s Great Kanto Earthquake, this book is an enthralling account of Dorothy Britton’s life, loves and discoveries in an amazingly varied life and career.
Bilingual from birth, she found the immense joy of blending in with peoples of different cultures simply by getting the sound right when speaking their languages to the extent that she herself sounds Japanese. While interviewing Talent Education’s Shinichi Suzuki, she realized his peerless ‘mother tongue method’ for learning the violin was ideal for foreign languages too.
While composing music for many documentary films introducing Japan to the world, in Empire Photosound’s beautiful My Garden Japan she used the ancient instruments of the Imperial Court Orchestra. The film was shown daily at Montreal’s EXPO 67 where it garnered a prize.
Amusing episodes and stories of fascinating people and relationships abound in the book, as do valuable insights into topics such as the postwar Occupation and its impact on everyday life, the role of women, learning Japanese, marriage customs, food and many other aspects of Japanese culture and society.
Appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2010 for her highly regarded contributions to bridging two cultures, this long-awaited memoir will be widely welcomed. Here is the remarkable and remarkably frank story of a life lived to the full by the doyenne of British residents in Japan that has benefited so many and touched the lives of countless others.
COVER ILLUSTRATION:
Front: Dorothy Britton as a young writer for Asahi Shimbun’s ‘This is Japan’ annual, appearing in the cutout figure of a girl from Tokushima, Shikoku, dancing the famous Awa Odori. Back: Dorothy on the occasion of receiving her award from the Tokyo Club, 2014. Photo courtesy Geoffrey Tudor
RENAISSANCE BOOKS
1-978-898823-12-4
RHYTHMS, RITES AND RITUALS
My Life in Japan in Two-step and Waltz-time
Derek and Dorothy at her cousin Pat Hiller Chadwick’s house, London,
after her investiture of the MBE, 2010, at Buckingham Palace
RHYTHMS, RITES AND
RITUALS
My Life in Japan in
Two-step and Waltz-time
by
Dorothy Britton
RHYTHMS, RITES AND RITUALS
MY LIFE IN TWO-STEP AND WALTZ-TIME
By Dorothy Britton
First published 2015 by
RENAISSANCE BOOKS
PO Box 219
Folkestone
Kent CT20 2WP
Renaissance Books is an imprint of Global Books Ltd
ISBN 978-1-898823-12-4
eISBN 978-1-898823-26-1
© Dorothy Britton 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publishers.
SPECIAL THANKS
 | The Publishers wish to express their grateful thanks to the Great Britain-Sasakawa Foundation and The Tokyo Club for their generous contribution towards the making of this book. |
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Typeset in Bembo 13 on 15 by Dataworks.
Printed and bound in England by CPI Antony Rowe
To my Parents
And three wonderful men in my life:
‘Boy’, Ikuma and ‘Ted’.
And, of course, darling Derek,
my delightful ‘walking doll’
Contents
Plate section faces
4.How Marrying Changes My Father’s Life