Author, Researcher and Lecturer with a Passion for History, Music and Japan
Zwei Seelen wohnen, ach! in meiner Brust (Goethe, Faust 1, verse 1112) Two souls, alas! reside within my breast (transl. Bayard Taylor, 1887) ‘Scratch a Japanese of the most advanced ideas, and he will show a samurai.’ (Bushido, p.89). Such is the essence of Inazo Nitobe’s (1862-1933) message in his…
Come to think of it, it’s a really long way to Tipperary from the provincial town in northern Japan. But that didn’t prevent a Japanese high school student from singing the テッペラリーソング (‘Tipperary Song’), in a concert at Miyagi Teacher Training College in Sendai in February 1916. Published in 1912…
As described in my previous blog, The Suzuki String Quartet and Kate I. Hansen’s Slesvig, the first performance of the entire quartet, Slesvig (or “Schlesvig”, as Hansen spells the title), took place on 11 June 1932, at Miyagi College in Sendai. Hansen had taught at the college since 1907 and…