[Ads-l] Japanese duel was Re: Antedating of "Cold War" in General Sense

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Thanks for your comments Amy and LH.
The following 1927 citation discussed Victorien Sardou's 1860 play
"Pattes de Mouche" (anglicized as "A Scrap of Paper") which contained
a "pseudo-Japanese duel, namely a double suicide by disembowelment".

Year: 1927
Book title: The Imaginative Interpretation of the Far East in Modern
French Literature, 1800-1925
Author: William Leonard Schwartz
Publisher: Librarie Ancienne Honoré Champion, Paris
Quote Page 20
https://books.google.com/books?id=wtoxAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Japanese+duel%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
Moreover in act II, scene II, Sardou introduced an extraordinary
pseudo-Japanese duel, namely a double suicide by disembowelment with
Japanese swords 2.
[End excerpt]

[Begin footnote excerpt]
2. Ancient Japanese law merely fixed judicial suicide as the
punishment for duelling. Sardou's conception of Japanese duels may be
based on an article by L. de Rosny, "La Civilisation japonaise",
reprinted in Études Asiatiques de Géographie et d'Histoire, 1860, p.
10: "Ces duels, peut être plus fréquents au Japon que partout ailleurs
y ont aussi des suites plus funestes. Lorsque l'offense est de nature
à entacher l'honneur des deux champions, chacun mourra de sa propre
main en face de son adversaire. L'adresse est inutile, le coupable ne
survivra pas à l'innocent la souillure sera deux fois couverte de
sang." Compare also Fraissinet, Le Japon, Histoire et description,
1857, Vol. II, pp. 226-227.
[End footnote excerpt]

Here is the DeepL translation: These duels, perhaps more frequent in
Japan than anywhere else, also have more disastrous consequences. When
the offense is such as to tarnish the honor of both champions, each
will die by his own hand in front of his opponent. Skill is useless,
the guilty will not survive the innocent - the stain will be covered
twice in blood.

Garson

On Tue, May 30, 2023 at 12:22 PM Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:
>
> On 5/30/23 00:00, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
> > Date:    Mon, 29 May 2023 11:05:01 -0400
> > From:    Laurence Horn<laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject: Re: Antedating of "Cold War" in General Sense
> >
> > I was wondering about that too--but a Mexican standoff is more of a
> > reference to mutual assured destruction, where the threat is that each will
> > slit the other's throat, not their own. "Japanese duel" seems more like a
> > reference to hara-kiri and/or seppuku (I've never understood the
> > difference, assuming there is one), although I'm not sure how those
> > practices would relate to duels.
> >
> > LH
>
> Well, it's ironic, and I think instead of the mutual assured destruction
> of a "Mexican stand-off", the "Japanese duel" has mutual
> *self*-destruction in it.
>
> ---Amy West
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org