DAVID RUSSELL 1934-2024

It is with deepest sorrow that we inform you that our dear friend and member David Russell passed away peacefully on 29th January 2024. All members will have had communication with David, as he served on Council for many years and was our membership secretary up to the end. He will be a huge loss and we will miss him dearly.

David was always supported by his dear wife Lena and we know you will all join us in sendng sincere condolences to her and her family at this very sad and difficult time

A funeral service was held at 11am on Friday 23rd February at Warriston Crematorium, Edimburgh.

As a mark of respect, we held a minute’ silence at the beginning of our AGM on Saturday 3rd of February 2024.

JIM CLARK: Remembering Japan’s Temple of Speed

This event was supported by JSOS.

Date – from Mar 1st to Nov 30th 2024

Location – Jim Clark Motorsport Museum

Pricing – Included with admission to the museum

The society is very pleased to announce our support for this special exhibition on Joe Honda’s photography of Japan’s first IndyCar style race.

The photography of Joe Honda (Nobuyuki Jozuka), Asia’s ‘father’ of motorsport photography, brings to life the behind the scenes at the inaugural Indy 200 exhibition race at the Fuji Speedway International circuit in October 1966.  Joe Honda had always been fascinated by speed and the Indy style race was an opportunity to get close to the reality of motor racing. We go from behind the scenes at a race briefing, visiting the pits with mechanics working on the cars, shots from the race to its conclusion capturing Jackie Stewart with the winners trophy.

Although he did not take part in the end Jim Clark dominates the event in Joe Honda’s lens. Jim Clark and Lotus were the reigning Formula One world champions. Jim is seen talking with fellow drivers and mechanics, and also his team owner and friend Colin Chapman. It also inspired Joe Honda to move to Europe in 1967 where he started a lifetime covering motorsport across the world, the first photographer from Asia to do so. Emiko Jozuka, Joe’s daughter said “I’m genuinely grateful to the Jim Clark Motorsport Museum for the opportunity to share these historical and rare images with a broader public.”

Click here for more information and how to book…

JET AA Scotland Summer Japanese Festival

This event is supported by JSOS.

Date – The weekend of the 24th and 25th of August 2024

Venue – Shambellie House, New Abbey near Dumfries in Southern Scotland

We are pleased to announce this event and to help organise it alongside JET AA Scotland and Shambellie House.

We are looking forward to two action packed days with a full range of Japan related events and activities including:

• Tea ceremony

• Japanese Archery

• Clan Sumo Scotland

• West of Scotland Kyudo Society

• Pottery workshops

• Yukata Dress Up

• Bonsai

• Cosplay

• A Raffle

• Japan related Talks

• Martial arts

and lots more…

Tickets and how to get there:

Located just outside the market town of Dumfries, Shambellie House is accessible by road, rail and public transport. See their website for more details. Tickets will be available on the day or from Shambellie House website nearer the time.

https://www.shambelliehouse.org

A percentage of the ticket sales will go to support Ashinaga, a non-profit organisation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan that provides educational funding and psychological support to children who have lost one or both guardians, as well as to those whose guardians suffer from serious disabilities

https://www.ashinaga.org/en

For more information about the event, please contact:

scotlandchair@jetaa.org.uk

PAST EVENT: Communicating beyond the spoken word in Japan: with some reference to its arts and crafts

At our recent March meeting, Professor Joy Hendry gave a fascinating talk drawing on her four decades and extensive collection of personal photographs and extracts from her famous book on the subject of Japanese wrapping. The lecture was well attended by members and friends, both in-person and via zoom, as well as academic staff from Japanese studies and social anthropology. There was lively interaction in terms of questions, and informed comments from the audience, which clearly indicated how much they enjoyed this very well presented lecture, which will be available to view shortly via our website. Thank you Joy.

Click here for the original event notice…

Communicating beyond the spoken word in Japan: with some reference to its arts and crafts

Date – 12 March 2024 at 19:00

Venue – Room G.02, 50 George Square

Guest Speaker – Professor Joy Hendry ORS (Oxford Brookes University)

Indirect communication is important in Japan, where, as in other Pacific societies, it may be positively rude to speak too directly. This language is not easy to learn out of context, but various material means have been devised to make unspoken communication quite clear, and some of these are also examples of Japanese arts and crafts. The talk will be based on Joy’s research in various parts of Japan, including her study of politeness which long ago became a book about wrapping culture. She will illustrate her talk with photographs.

Click here to sign up for the in-person event…

Click here to sign up for the online event…

About the speaker:

Joy Hendry is Professor Emerita of the Social Anthropology of Japan, Oxford Brookes University, founder of the Japan Anthropology Workshop and the Europe Japan Research Centre. She carried out fieldwork in Japan over 45 years, including research on politeness which inspired her interest in non-verbal communication.  She has published many books and articles, including the regularly updated textbook Understanding Japanese Society, and a publication related to the talk entitled Wrapping Culture: Politeness, Presentation and Power in Japan and Other Societies, which she wrote while working with Professor Gow at the Scottish Centre for Japanese Studies at Stirling University. Her latest book is a memoir entitled An Affair with a Village, published by Extremis Publishing, also Stirling (http://tinyurl.com/affairvillage). In 2017, the Government of Japan bestowed on her the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette. 

Birthday of The Emperor of Japan Reception

On the evening of the 6th of February 2024, members of JSOS were delighted to attend a reception in Edinburgh to celebrate the Birthday of The Emperor of Japan, hosted by the Consul General of Japan in Edinburgh, Mr Tadashi Fujiwara.

It was lovely to meet with others attending and enjoy exchanging interests and experiences of Japan. The Consul General welcomed guests from across Scotland and the North of England, highlighting all the various activities. The Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, Alison Johnstone MSP and Cabinet Secretary, Angus Robertson MSP, both spoke about Scotland/Japan relations. Deborah Hathorn, once again constructed the most beautiful Ikebana arrangements and we are delighted that Deborah will be giving an Ikebana Demonstration for the Society, later in the year.

It was a special opportunity to renew longstanding friendships and to forge new ones.

Annual General Meeting 2024

Held on Saturday 3rd of February 2024 at 11am

The 37th AGM of The Japan Society of Scotland

Members in-person and on zoom joined us for our annual AGM on the morning of the 3rd. It was brisk and efficient with all necessary matters approved and ratified. We would like to thank all those who have faithfully followed us for many years and supported our efforts.

We are grateful for your membership subscriptions which enable us to continue to offer events and support other Japan related causes. We encourage new ideas and would welcome nominations to join the council.

A special thank you to Deputy General Ishii for attending and for her kind words.

Click here for the original AGM notice…

Found in Translation: Mackintosh, Muthesius and Japan

A big thank you to our guest speaker, Professor Neil Jackson, who gave a fascinating talk on Charles Rennie Mackintosch and the connections of his work to Japan.

This year we tried a new approach to the Guest speaker portion of the event. We advertised the talk separately so that those who did not wish to attend the full AGM could join us only for the talk.

Click here for the original talk notice…

We hope to have a successful 2024 for the society.

Stay posted for new events and updates!

Found in Translation: Mackintosh, Muthesius and Japan

IF YOU HAVE ALREADY SIGNED UP FOR THE 2024 AGM THERE IS NO NEED TO REGISTER FOR THIS TALK

This event is part of our AGM, but if the talk is the only part that interests you then please find the sign up details for it below.

Click here to sign up for the in-person talk…

Click here to sign up for the online talk…

Click here if you would like to attend the JSOS AGM…

Topic of the talk:

The theme of the talk is the presence of the Japanese influence in the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and, in particular, the Glasgow School of Art. This has often been observed but never satisfactorily explained. Rather than simply listing the evidence, this talk will investigate the relationship between him and Hermann Muthesius against the background of the time Muthesius spent working as an architect in Tokyo. Using the correspondence held in the Deutscher Werkbund Archiv, Berlin, as evidence of the close relationship between the two men and the others of Mackintosh’s close group, The Four, which suggests that it was Muthesius’s sensitivity to Japanese architecture which encouraged the direction of Mackintosh’s work in the late 1890s and early 1900s and in so doing, offers an explanation of the more idiosyncratic and unexplained features of the library at the Glasgow School of Art.

Neil Jackson is an architect and architectural historian and Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the University of Liverpool. From 2009 to 2019 he was a Professorial Research Associate and a member of the Japan Research Centre at SOAS. He has published widely on nineteenth and twentieth-century architecture and is currently working on a study of the architect Josiah Conder, the ‘father of modern Japanese architecture’, supported by a Fellowship from the Japan Foundation and the Ishibashi Foundation. His writings on Japan have included the book, Japan and the West: An Architectural Dialogue (2019), and essays in Sir Banister Fletcher’s Global History of Architecture (2020), Setting the Scene: Perspectives on Twentieth Century Theatre Architecture (2015), The Journal of Architecture (April 2013), The Blitz and Its Legacy: From Destruction to Reconstruction (2013) and Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, 7 (2010). In 2017 he led the 20th-Century Society’s tour of Japan.

Annual General Meeting 2024

Saturday 3rd of February 2024 at 11am

Please note that the venue for our AGM has had a last minute change, fortunately it will be in the building next door!

Room LG10, 40 George Square

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this unforeseen change.

The 37th AGM of The Japan Society of Scotland

Join us at our AGM to hear what we have been up to for the last year, vote on the election of council members, and network with like-minded individuals interested in Japan-Scotland cultural connections. Formal business includes a summary of our accomplishments in 2023, approval of our minutes from the previous AGM, approval of the annual report, an update on our online presense, and more. See the bottom of this post for a full agenda.

After the close of formal business, this year our guest speaker will be professor Neil Jackson who will giving a fascinating talk on Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Japanese influences on his work. See below for a blurb on his talk.

There is no formal requirement to be a member of the society to join us, only an interest in Japan or the connections between Japan and Scotland. Additionally, while we would encourage you to sign-up through the Eventbrite links below, the limit for tickets through the Eventbrite service is 25. We have capacity for more than this, so if tickets are sold out then please get it touch with us through our facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/JapanSocietyofScotland/?locale=en_GB

To sign up through eventbrite, please click one the links below:

Click here to sign up through Eventbrite for the in-person event…

Click here to sign up through Eventbrite for the online event…

If you would prefer to only attend the talk by Professor Neil Jackson then please click here.

Found in Translation: Mackintosh, Muthesius and Japan

The theme of the talk is the presence of the Japanese influence in the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and, in particular, the Glasgow School of Art. This has often been observed but never satisfactorily explained. Rather than simply listing the evidence, this talk will investigate the relationship between him and Hermann Muthesius against the background of the time Muthesius spent working as an architect in Tokyo. Using the correspondence held in the Deutscher Werkbund Archiv, Berlin, as evidence of the close relationship between the two men and the others of Mackintosh’s close group, The Four, which suggests that it was Muthesius’s sensitivity to Japanese architecture which encouraged the direction of Mackintosh’s work in the late 1890s and early 1900s and in so doing, offers an explanation of the more idiosyncratic and unexplained features of the library at the Glasgow School of Art.

Neil Jackson is an architect and architectural historian and Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the University of Liverpool. From 2009 to 2019 he was a Professorial Research Associate and a member of the Japan Research Centre at SOAS. He has published widely on nineteenth and twentieth-century architecture and is currently working on a study of the architect Josiah Conder, the ‘father of modern Japanese architecture’, supported by a Fellowship from the Japan Foundation and the Ishibashi Foundation. His writings on Japan have included the book, Japan and the West: An Architectural Dialogue (2019), and essays in Sir Banister Fletcher’s Global History of Architecture (2020), Setting the Scene: Perspectives on Twentieth Century Theatre Architecture (2015), The Journal of Architecture (April 2013), The Blitz and Its Legacy: From Destruction to Reconstruction (2013) and Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, 7 (2010). In 2017 he led the 20th-Century Society’s tour of Japan.