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      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

       www.renaissancebooks.co.uk

       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

       Preface

       List of Plates

       1.Rhythms Are What Divide Us

       2.My Mother

       3.My Father

       4.How Marrying Changes My Father’s Life

       5.The Great Kanto Earthquake

       6.Hayama

       7.Mother Contacts Her First Japanese Friend

       8.Royal Friends

       9.The Japanese Language

       10.Winters in Yokohama

       11.Father’s Sudden Death

       12.England

       13.Bermuda

       14.Mills College, 1943-1945

       15.London, 1945-1949

       16.Innocence and Ignorance

       17.Back in Japan – 1949

       18.Love and Sex

       19.Meeting ‘Boy’

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