JAPAN FOUNDATION WORLDWIDE

Players under a barrage of questions and requests for signature from audience. This is a scene right after a concert of Japanese music in January 2008 in Delhi. Indian audience, excited with marvelous performance, climbed into the stage to thank players and ask questions on musical instruments. It is always easy to see Indian people’s reaction and it is obvious this time too, that performance of Japanese music surely reached them.

The Japan Foundation, New Delhi invited Tenbi and Kazuhiro Fukui: sister and brother Tsugaru Shamisen players, Yasukazu Kanou: Shino Fue player, and Hiroko Suzuki: pianist to host a concert at the Shri Ram Center. In addition to performance in New Delhi; as the last event commemorating Japan - India Friendship Year 2007 from January 2007 to March 2008, they toured Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai in cooperation with the Japanese Embassy and the Consulates. The performance was well received at each site.

In this way, the Japan Foundation, New Delhi tries to introduce “Japan” to Indian people living in New Delhi, the capital. At the same time; moreover, we visit local cities and neighboring countries to introduce Japanese culture.

In March, we dispatched an Indian master of Sogetsu school of Ikebana (flower arrangement) to Islamabad and Lahore in Pakistan to hold demonstration and workshop. Though India and Pakistan are politically at odds, they are originally in the same one area. Japanese Ikebana is popular both in New Delhi and Islamabad. Is it an exaggeration that we promote international friendship via Japanese culture?!

Now New Delhi is in the height of summer. Due to heat in which temperature exceeds 40 degrees centigrade from mid-May to early July, schools are closed for holiday and many people take holidays with their family or go out of town to a summer resort. As a result, population of New Delhi decreases a little in this season every year.

In spite of this heat wave, the Japan Foundation, New Delhi will host a calligraphy workshop entitled “summer activity” on June 18 and 25. Although Japan - India Friendship Year 2007 ended without any mishaps, exchange between both countries never ends. We are determined to market Japan to 13 million people in New Delhi and 1 billion in India.

The Japan Foundation, São Paulo has analyzed crossover phenomenon of Japanese and Brazilian culture and produced diverse programs. In March 2008 it subsidized “Tokyogaqui” hosted by SESC (Social Service of Commerce) São Paulo and provided the exhibition with contents. This project started from ”Tokyo-Ga” by German master film director Wim Wenders, and was made up to introduce Tokyo through multifocus perspective in Brazil.

A couple of floors in the building of SESC on Paulista Avenue, a main street in São Paulo, were used to set up thematic floors for “Homage to Kazuo Ohno, father of Japanese Butoh Dance” and “Tradition of Pop Culture.” At the floor for butoh, strongly influenced performing arts in Brazil, memorial pictures and video of Takao Kusuno who introduced butoh to Brazil were also exhibited. Yoshito Ohno, Ko Murobushi and Yukio Waguri participated to the project to perform in collaboration with Brazilian dancers.

Moreover, the Japan Foundation, São Paulo provided young artists, whose production process have been watched by the Foundation for several years, with an opportunity to exhibit their works. At the floor for pop culture; on the other hand, para-para dancing contest and cosplay competition were carried out in addition to poster and animation exhibition, drawing much attention from young people. The guides for exhibition wore a costume to enhance the mood.

We could also exchange views on post-war development of Japanese art and culture in workshops and seminars, drawing attention from academics. We believe that it is Brazil, where diverse cultures intersect to cause special hybrid, to inspire “Tokyogaqui. ”Mass media covered it as an event suitable for the 100th Anniversary of Japanese Emigration to Brazil, and it had about 100 thousand visitors for one and a half months.

Japanese food draws increasing attention in Germany, as in other countries. According to one estimate, there are more than 200 Japanese restaurants in Berlin, though only one fourth of them are said to accept orders in Japanese language. On TV; moreover, a charismatic German cook introduces his original sushi and sashimi salad like carpaccio.

Against this background of Japanese food boom, we held an event to introduce Japanese food culture in cooperation with Nuchi-masu Co., Ltd. and with assistance provided by Dusseldorf office of Japan External Trade Organization. The process of nuchi-masu manufacture, different from that for other salts available on markets, drew much attention from audience. In the process, seawater is transformed to a fine mist and then crystallized at once to maintain its minerals. Cooking demonstration by Kyoko Onishi to introduce Japanese yakuzen tradition to modern Europe using European ingredients, in addition, was also extremely well received, thanks to her personality and health fad.

The Japan Cultural Institute in Cologne; however, had hard time because we have little experience in introducing food culture with tasting. As cooking with gas and electricity during demonstration is strictly prohibited by the fire protection law, we videotaped a process to make tofu with nuchi-masu beforehand, and could only introduce the process right before heating at the site. Even so, we could make our audience feel that they can cook it by themselves at home, maybe because German translation of the recipe was prepared.

After demonstration, we asked audience to taste a variety of samples, though a little, starting from sushi wrapped with this tofu and seaweed, soup made of juice left over from tofu manufacturing, and to desert of raisin bread soaked in muscovado syrup and coated with cream of tofu and almond syrup. Each and every one of them was well accepted and went quickly. About 80 participants listened to explanation throughout the event with much interest, and were well satisfied. Furthermore, former president of Japanisch-Deutsche Gesellschaft e.V., familiar with Japan, was also much satisfied with the event and said, “I’ve known events hosted by the Japan Cultural Institute in Cologne for decades, but I cannot remember one as much fun as this one.” All staff members were pleased with this comment, and now happily think of this and that for the next event, forgetting about everyday stress from our work for a moment.