Japan: Once Upon a Time (2)

Japan now makes regularly scheduled expeditions to Antarctica, and for years, the ship the explorers sailed on was the Shirase. The ship was named for Nobu Shirase (1861-1946), who got his start as a niche explorer on an expedition to the Kuril Islands--in the area opened up by Takadaya Kahei.

Nobu Shirase took on another cold ocean when he led an expedition to Antarctica. On his first try, the ice kept him away. More than glory, he treasured his crew members. When the Antarctic ice proved impassible, he withdrew to Australia. Penniless, he and his crew were rejected by the Australian public, but embraced by a former member of the Shackleton Expedition to Antarctic--to the extent that they could make a second attempt to reach Antarctica.

This time, they were able to disembark at two locations, burying mementoes of their expedition as solid evidence of their presence on the icy continent.

Nobu Shirase is, to me, the embodiment of prudence plus daring plus master of the art of the possible. On the first attempt, ice prevented the ship from reaching the continent. On the second attempt, they reached the shore of Antartica but were faced with a 300-foot vertical cliff of ice. Shirase and his crew set to work carving a stairway in the ice, step by slow step, until they reached the top.

There is a famous story from the golden age of the samurai, about a samurai and his blacksmith. A certain Lord prepared two buckets of boiled rice, challenging the samurai and the blacksmith to pound the rice into the smooth paste known as mochi. The samurai attacked the rice with the flat of his sword, smashing away ruthlessly. The blacksmith took one grain of rice, placed it on his anvil, squashed it with his hammer, and repeated the process grain by grain until he was done.

It was the blacksmith who won the contest, and it was Nobu Shirase who not only reached Antarctica but was able to return home to Japan with ship and crew safe and sound, successful in the end.