Reader, I invite you to join me on a journey that I had no intention of travelling upon, indeed did not even know existed, but which has since becoming unfurled occupied many a waking hour. It is a journey that uncovers what I believe to be the true story of a shady gentleman called Tannaker Buhicrosan, feted as the bold entrepreneur who brought the much-acclaimed Japan Native Village Exhibition to Knightsbridge in 1885.
What has made this quest so exciting is that the version of Mr Tannaker Buhicrosan that I have uncovered is completely different to any version that has gone before. It is the result of painstaking and methodical research relying solely on certified proof, along with the addition of a few grey areas and just one coincidence too many.
What I love about this story and what has kept me researching it, even when the way ahead looked blank, is that it is more like a Victorian melodrama than a real life account, twisting and turns between ever shifting identities so that it is not always clear whether the person that we are reading about is the true Tannaker Buhicrosan or someone else entirely. Such was his ability to shift his shape in order to fit the environment he was in.
To obtain what I believe is enough evidence to lay the legend of Tannaker Buhicrosan to rest once and for all, I have travelled across continents and timeframes, consulted graphologist and gravestone tap tapping away at a story that has succeeded in startling me at every turn.
It has taken ten years for me to discover the truth about this gentleman, which is perhaps hard to believe as this was a man who held such a position of prominence in London society but is was also a man who did not want the truth to be known. Someone who went out of his way to steer himself clear of the limelight and who, every step of the way, made sure to cover his tracks.
The process of tracking him down has at times been incredibly hard with so many possible trails running dry that I have, from time to time, got the impression that the protagonist is laughing at me from his grave as if we are playing a game of cat and mouse where he is willing me to fail in my task. The up side of this is when I have uncovered new avenues, I go down them with all the more determination.
My purpose in writing this book is to lay before you all of my research and findings and to let you decide who you believe the man Tannaker Buhicrosan to be.
It is a book I could not have written it without the help of some very significant people; Brian & Annette Gibbs, Kazuyo Matsuda, Ian Parker Dodd and Corinne Bible who offered invaluable research and input throughout the course of my journey.
