Multifaceted literary critic Katō Shūichi on Mexico

«My first impressions of Mexico were of course not limited to my experiences with the two exiles I met [Frederick Vanderbilt Field and Sano Seki]. With its roots in pre-Columbian civilization, the country’s culture –and in particular its architecture and sculpture– was far more refined, more regionally varied, and more magnificent than that of indigenous American Indians north of Mexico. In the realm of formative arts, I came to realize that Mexico is not simply a region or a country; rather, it represents quite another world altogether. Moreover, the Mexican character manifested itself not only in the past but also in numerous forms in the present –in its sense of color and its expressions of violence, in its capacity for deep compassion, its poverty, its nationalism, and the cosmopolitan character of its upper classes» (A Sheep’s Song. A Writer’s Reminiscences of Japan and the World, 1999, p.418)