Ito and Isabella in the Contact Zone: Interpretation, Mimicry and Unbeaten Tracks in Japan

This paper examines Isabella Bird's interaction with Ito, her interpreter-guide, in Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (1880/1885). Concentrating on the textual manifestation of their relationship, and the possibilities for its theoreticisation, I initially consider Ito as first written: obedient and useful, an often-unstated but nevertheless constant presence. Then, I shift perspectives, using the work of Homi Bhabha and others on translation and mimicry as a lens through which to read the text against the grain, arguing that the ambivalence of Ito's role as interpreter (a 'silent-speaker') works to challenge authorial and narratorial power. Finally, I broaden the discussion in order to suggest that, though the text may attempt to contain Ito, the heterogeneous identities he has since appropriated in commentary and rewritings testify to the impossibility, not only of his, but of all determinate meaning.