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Thanks for another great year with JCBC! Congratulations to the...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 22:59:00 -0400

Thanks for another great year with JCBC!

Congratulations to the new 2013-2014 eboard:

Co-Presidents: Jacqueline Fung (‘14) and Greg Yang (‘14)

Vice President: Evan Lam (‘15)

Treasurer: David Park (‘14)

Secretary: Ken Leszkowicz (‘16)

Culture Chair: Yoshika Wason (‘15)

AHANA Caucus Representative: Aaron Potts (‘16)

Public Relations: Vivian Wong (‘16)

the wait is over!

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 22:45:12 -0400

bcasiam:

Check it out—ASIAM’s Spring 2013 issue is here!

ASIAM is Boston College’s only Asian American literary magazine. Click the image to view the Spring 2013 issue.

Sing for Japan was this year’s freshrep/charity event to...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 20:44:50 -0400

flyer by Vivian Wong

encouraging messages that will be given to an elementary school that was effected by the earthquake

representatives from the red and white team

Sing for Japan was this year’s freshrep/charity event to raise awareness of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

Based off of the Japanese New Years program Kōhaku Uta Gassen, individuals and groups were split between the red team and white. Then they sang karaoke style in front of 3 judges and the audience.

Participants also had the opportunity to write encouraging messages that will be sent to an elementary school that was effected by the earthquake and money was raised for the nonprofit Hand on Tokyo.

The history of the Boston Marathon & Japan: Runners from...

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 18:37:07 -0400

The history of the Boston Marathon & Japan: Runners from Japan have had 15 total victories in the Boston Marathon. The only countries that have more total victories than Japan are the U.S. (95), Kenya (29), and Canada (21).

Shigeki Tanaka was the first Japanese person to ever win the Boston Marathon; he won the men’s open at the age of 19 in 1951, finishing with a 2:27:45 time. Tanaka’s personal history as a survivor of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima garnered much media attention. His win was also memorable because instead of typical running shoes, he wore tabi (足袋), which are traditional style split toe Japanese footwear. Today, advocates of barefoot running often look to him as an example.

Other memorable Japanese winners of the Boston marathon include Wakako Tsuchida, who has won the women’s wheelchair division 5 times (most recently in 2011) and Toshihiko Seko who won twice during the 1980’s and is currently on Tokyo’s advisory panel for the 2016 Olympics.

Boston Globe article by Sebastian Smee: West meets East in ‘Portugal, Jesuits, and Japan’

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 12:49:00 -0400

So far as I can tell there’s been no official announcement, so it may be time for us simply to declare here: It’s “Japan Month” in New England.

Even as this region sends its own treasures, both artworks and people, to Japan (masterpieces from the Museum of Fine Arts in Osaka; Caroline Kennedy preparing, according to press reports, to be the next US ambassador in Tokyo), this region is enjoying its own impressive run of Japanese exhibits.

The MFA and the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, N.H., are both hosting, or about to host, exhibitions of samurai armor. Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton has an ambitious show of Asian art, including fine examples from Japan. The MFA and the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., both have exhibits of Japanese prints.

But if you are interested in the history of interactions between Japan and the West, or in the history of globalization itself, the most compelling exhibit of all may be “Portugal, Jesuits, and Japan: Spiritual Beliefs and Earthly Goods” at Boston College’s McMullen Museum of Art. The show was organized by Victoria Weston, an associate professor of art at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and Alexandra Curvelo, curator at the Museu Nacional do Azulejo, Lisbon, in consultation with Pedro Moura Carvalho, chief curator of the Asian Civilizations Museum and the Peranakan Museum in Singapore.

Globalization means different things to different people, and there’s no denying that it can be individually and communally disastrous. (It can also be aesthetically disastrous: The more fluid trade becomes and the bigger the market for products, the more everything starts to look the same.)

But one of the things globalization allows for is the possibility of things rubbing up against one another in curious, random, and often fruitful ways. A resident of Somerville, to take one example near at hand, can walk from heavily Portuguese-speaking Union Square to a little Japanese enclave at Porter Square. He can then drive 20 minutes to a museum at Boston College, an institution founded by Jesuits, where he can see a superb exhibit all about . . . guess what? Portuguese Jesuits in Japan!

The thread is banal, and arbitrary in its way. But that’s globalization. You shake the kaleidoscope and who knows what pattern you’ll get.

We know that the Japanese have had strongly conflicted feelings about what we now call globalization over the past 500 years. Sensing threats as often as opportunities, they have lurched back and forth from strongly isolationist policies to open-armed, avid embraces of outside influence.

One crucial period of openness began in the 16th century when three Portuguese sailors were shipwrecked off the Japanese coast. They came ashore carrying muskets on an island south of Kyushu. Their curious hosts wanted to know how the guns worked. The sailors obliged.

The local lord ordered his craftsmen to replicate them, and pretty soon, a warrior lord struggling for control of the country (it was a period of civil war in Japan) was waging war with his own firearms brigade and 500 matchlock guns.

Within 30 years, that lord, or “daimyo,” Oda Nobunaga, had vanquished his rivals, and the reunification of Japan had begun.

But Japan had not seen the last of the Portuguese. Nor were guns the only imports they brought. For they also bought Jesuits, members of a Catholic order that had only recently formed — in 1534 — and was intent on converting the people of Asia to Christianity.

Their cofounder, Francis Xavier of Navarre, had arrived in Kyushu in 1549, and soon, as Portuguese ships arrived carrying Jesuit missionaries along with rare and desirable items for trade, their faith spread northward through the islands of Japan.

The McMullen show hinges around four spectacular folding screens, three of them pairs. These amazing painted works — there are only about 90 in existence — depict Japanese encounters with the Portuguese trading ships that arrived in Japanese ports where Jesuit communities had already been established.

They show, usually on the left, cargo being unloaded from Portuguese ships and, on the right, the Japanese ports that received the usually rare and exotic commodities they brought.

The style and iconography of the screens is intriguing, and far from straightforward. They were made to divide rooms in the spacious homes of wealthy samurai. They conformed to elite tastes, including a preference for Chinese iconography. Ostensibly realistic, they hold symbols and signifiers of status that are not always easy to parse.

But you don’t have to be an expert to feel the excitement they convey about these foreign arrivals and the marvelous things they brought with them, from exotic animals and ceramics to guns and religion. Some screens, for instance, show Portuguese sailors performing circus-like acrobatics in their ships’ rigging — a humorous (but quietly astounding) reminder of how strange these huge vessels were to the Japanese.

Many of the objects in the show are items that match those depicted in the folding screens: a Mughal-style lacquered shield, for instance, picked up en route, chairs, standing screens, a Chinese picnic box, and of course beautiful textiles (these have been borrowed from the Museum of Fine Arts).

Others are items made by Japanese artisans. Some, such as a writing-utensil box adorned with caricatures of the Europeans, reflect their curiosity — and anxiety — about the people they called “nanban-jin,” or “southern barbarians” (because they arrived from the south).

Others were made specifically for trade with Europe, or for religious purposes. There are oratories holding portraits of the Virgin and Child with folding doors elaborately decorated with Japanese lacquer, gold powder, and mother-of-pearl. A tabernacle and a pyx for holding Eucharistic wafers are similarly decorated.

All of these objects are fascinating, at times almost charismatic evidence from this early chapter in the history of globalization.

By the mid-1570s, the Jesuits had become well organized in Japan. They made a point of learning Japanese (a monitor in the exhibition shows pages of an early Japanese-Portuguese dictionary compiled by Jesuits), and they eagerly shared valuable knowledge, including newfound discoveries about the shape of the world.

Bear in mind, the voyage from Portugal, which rounded the Cape of Good Hope, usually stopping in Mozambique, Goa, Malacca, and Macao, before arriving at ports in Japan, typically took four years. A fascinating section of the show, displaying maps made by both Europeans and Japanese, conveys the thrill of worlds expanding — and identities subtly shifting — as cartographic knowledge was shared between the two cultures.

Nobunaga was assassinated in 1582. At first, his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was as friendly as his mentor had been to the Christians from Europe.

But as Weston writes in the catalog, this changed when he began to perceive Christianity as a threat. He issued an edict forbidding the Japanese elite from converting to Christianity.

Hideyoshi soon became preoccupied with an invasion of Korea and then China, so enforcement of the edict was lax. By 1593, when the Chinese pushed back Hideyoshi’s forces, he actually welcomed other Catholic religious orders into Japan, including Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians (this, as Weston points out, may have been a canny attempt to counteract or diffuse the Jesuits’ influence).

Three years later, however, Hideyoshi had a band of 26 Franciscans executed in Nagasaki. It was an ominous sign.

Hideyoshi died himself the following year. In 1600, after two years of strife, a new strongman, Tokugawa Ieyasu, emerged, receiving the title of “shogun,” and inaugurating 268 years of Tokugawa rule. Ieyasu was at first happy to coexist with the Catholics, so long as they did not convert any more members of the elite.

But by now, more than 300,000 Japanese had converted to Catholicism. Anxious to consolidate his power, and nervous, too, about Spanish maritime might, Ieyasu eventually decided that he could no longer tolerate the spread of Christianity. He issued a new, stricter edict.

Seeing the writing on the wall, the Portuguese departed for Macao en masse in 1614. Within a few years, the possibility of European contact with Japan had been effectively strangled, with only a few tightly controlled trading posts allowing for trade — not with Iberian Catholics but with the less religiously zealous Protestant Dutch.

What might have happened if the Jesuits had been allowed to continue their incursion into Japan? How would Japanese culture have changed, and would Japan have exerted anything like the pull on the Western imagination that it later did, particularly in the 19th century?

Impossible questions. When, in 1622, two Catholic missionaries were caught trying to sneak back into Japan, the new shogun, Ieyasu’s successor, was so livid that he ordered the execution of all Christians then held in Japanese jails. Fifty-two priests and lay brothers were burned at the stake or beheaded.

The “Great Martyrdom of Nagasaki,” as it became known, is depicted in a painting now in Rome. It is presented in large-scale reproduction here, as a grisly bookend to this show and its fascinating story of a suddenly curtailed interaction between two cultures from opposite ends of the earth.

The original article can be found here.

Note: I have gone on a guided tour of “Portugal, Jesuits and Japan” and highly recommend it. Free guided tours take place every Sunday at 2pm. I have also seen The Arts of Japan exhibit at the MFA and intend on visiting the Samurai! exhibit when it is open to the public. Take advantage of these unique and close by opportunities to immerse yourself into the history and art of Japan before these exhibits are gone!

-Yoshika

JCBC 2012-2013 tank tops are now on sale for $15. To purchase...

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 22:53:57 -0400

JCBC 2012-2013 tank tops are now on sale for $15. To purchase click:

1. https://commerce.cashnet.com/bcSPO

2. Japan Club of Boston College

3. JCBC Tank Sales

Japan Club Culture Show Dazzles This past Saturday the Japan...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 22:28:00 -0400

Japan Club Culture Show Dazzles

This past Saturday the Japan Club of Boston College put on their annual culture show. This year marks the centennial anniversary of Japan’s gift of the cherry tree to the U.S., which was the theme of the show. The title of the production,Harumatsuri, is the Japanese word for the annual spring festival in Japan, and JCBC definitely brought the feel of this Japanese tradition to life here on campus.

Before the show even started there were tables set up where audience members could play traditional Japanese games, take photos with life-size anime cut outs, or write a message to the victims of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in 2011. The culture show coincidentally fell just days after the second anniversary of this tragic natural disaster, which was the largest magnitude earthquake to hit in Japan’s history.

Instead of being in chairs, the audience was seated on the floor in true Japanese fashion.

The actual show kicked off with a colorful parasol dance performance, a traditional display of Japan’s culture. The first half of the show incorporated many traditional elements of Japan’s rich history. The sword performance, which incorporated many different types of Japanese martial arts that are centered around the sword, was a powerful demonstration of a long standing component of Japanese culture. The “Soran Bushi”dance was performed to a song of the same title, which is one of the most famous traditional songs in Japan. It has been said that the fishermen of northern Japan first sang the song, and the choreography reflected the fisherman traditions in depicting ocean waves, and the labor of fishing in rough seas.

The audience was very much a part of the show as well. The judo demonstration excited the audience, and even frightened a few. But don’t worry—these guys are pros. In fact, the demonstrator, Spencer Augustine, A&S ’14, is a first-degree black belt and ranked fifth in juniors martial arts in the U.S. He even brought up three volunteers who learned how to throw someone to the ground. A dance group outside of BC, 10tecomai, presented a style of dance called “yosakoi,” a style defined by its a mix of Japanese and other cultures, both past and present. Their graceful display of both powerful and fluid movement got the audience pumped. The group got the crowd to chant and dance along to their final number, which added an interactive and personal touch to the culture show as a whole.

The second half following the intermission was equally as exciting as the first, this time focusing more on the fusion of Japanese and American culture. It began with a set by the Japanese Music Act, featuring three modern Japanese rock songs. The group asked the audience to stand up to give their performance a music festival feel, an added hype factor to their enthusiastic performance. JCBC invited the local breakdancing group Bon Kyu Bons to perform. Breakdancing has become huge in Japan (who knew?) and this group’s Japanese fusion performance was extremely lively and showed how talented these guys are. They could definitely gain some profit breaking on the streets of New York.

The show capped off with a modern dance performance, which featured four routines. First the girls performed, then the fellas, and the two groups combined for two numbers: “You Belong With Me” and “Brave It Out.” Following the show was a reception with a smorgasbord of Japanese bites, the best way to top off the comprehensive event. This year’s show was extremely relevant given the centennial of the cherry tree gift to the U.S., as well as the tragic earthquake, and was overall an excellent medley of both traditional Japanese and modern Japanese-American culture.

The above article was published in The Heights. Read the original article here.

For a majority of college students, instant ramen noodles are a...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 16:06:00 -0500

clockwise: tom yum ramen, curry ramen, traditional ramen and tomato ramen

Princess & the 10 Bens created a tom yum ramen

Team Sugoi made curry ramen

event flyer

For a majority of college students, instant ramen noodles are a dietary staple. But how absolutely delicious can people make instant ramen? 4 teams took up this challenge by participating in JCBC’s Iron Chef: Ramen Edition. Each team had a limited budget of $25 and was given stringent time constraints. The audience and 3 judges voted for their favorite creations, taking into consideration the taste, creativity and presentation of each dish.

Here were the results (highest ranked to lowest):

Traditional Ramen: The Noodlers recipe was by far the favorite. It stood out because of its savory broth.

Curry Ramen: Team Sugoi created a curry ramen that included carrots, mushroom and beef.

Tom Yum Ramen: this hot and sour soup had an unforgettable taste with lemongrass and lime. Also notable for being the only vegetarian option

Tomato Ramen: The Winners Team used a recipe that included chunks of tomato and cheese to create a dish that is not quite ramen and not quite spaghetti.

Everyone had loads of fun and left with happy tummies.

The unique pressures of being a model minority and the stigma of...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:57:16 -0500

icon designed by Christina Nguyen

encouraging messages on the #beafriend board

The unique pressures of being a model minority and the stigma of mental illness has made mental health one of the most pressing yet unaddressed issues within the Asian and Asian American community.

In response Boston College’s Asian Caucus and cabinet (consisting of the presidents of AC & the the 8 Asian Culture Clubs) has launched Silver Week to raise awareness and open up dialogue on mental health.

Events this week include:

The Breaking Silences Project, an outside acting group that encourages Asian Americans to speak out about mental health.
The #beafriend campaign to remind us of the impact being there for a friend has
a health & diet workshop
Spoken word, song, dance and other performances. Including a joint spoken word performance by JCBC’s co presidents Jackie & Greg
opportunities to visit University Counseling Services (UCS).

This past Tuesday, The Japan Club hosted a Day of Remembrance...

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 20:28:00 -0500

the front page article of The Heighs

some eboard members with Dr. Kobayashi

flyer for the event

This past Tuesday, The Japan Club hosted a Day of Remembrance event to commemorate the wartime experiences of Japanese Americans during WWII.

Read The Heights article about the event here

The Japan Club of Boston College would like to let you know...

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 02:06:00 -0500

The Japan Club of Boston College would like to let you know about this opportunity to let your voice be heard on campus. ASIAM is Asian Caucus’ Literary Magazine that has a focus on Asian American identity. The magazine will be published online later this semester and is currently open for submissions. Don’t hesitate to send in your work!

JCBC eboard

Here is a visual recap of JCBC’s 2nd General Meeting

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 18:30:00 -0500

flyer for the event

Here is a visual recap of JCBC’s 2nd General Meeting

JCBC’s last event of the fall 2012 semester was an arcade...

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 21:49:32 -0500

people gather to watch a super smash tournament

snacks

flyer

JCBC’s last event of the fall 2012 semester was an arcade night study break during finals week. Many people came out to play classic video games like super smash brothers and mario kart on on wii, game cube and old school N64.

Happy Holidays from the JCBC eboard! Also, here is an article...

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 13:21:00 -0500

Happy Holidays from the JCBC eboard!

Also, here is an article about Christmas in Japan

BC’s own Alessa Natale lead a karate workshop with the...

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 13:39:00 -0500

Alessa gives a demonstration with Jonny

stretches

participants pracetice a punch

BC’s own Alessa Natale lead a karate workshop with the Japan Club of Boston College during International Education Week. She gave us a brief history of martial arts and the development of Isshinryu in Okinawa then she taught us the first three katas, or forms, in this style of karate. We had loads of fun and hope to do more martial arts in the future!

The Japan Club brought the matsuri (Japanese festival)...

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 17:03:00 -0500

Oneill plaza decorated with lanterns

tanabata wishes

poloroids from autumn festival

more wishes

The Japan Club brought the matsuri (Japanese festival) experience to Boston College through games like shogi, go and paper sumo, traditional bon odori dance and taiko drum lessons. At Autumn Festival we also made tanabata wishes and took polariods with hole in face characters and we can’t forget about the delicious soba!

Health & Sports Day (Taiiku no hi) is a Japanese tradition...

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 19:12:00 -0400

rajiou taiso stretches

red team

tug of war

basket toss

white team

race

stretcher relay

maroon team

participants have to jump up and grab a bun with their teeth then eat it

Health & Sports Day (Taiiku no hi) is a Japanese tradition that promotes physical and mental health. For our health & sports day, four teams competed against each other in track and field events, cultural games and obstacle courses. We also did rajiou taisou stretches and learned about health and wellness in Japan.

our eboard is expanding!

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:27:00 -0400

CO SERVICE CHAIR: Teresa Ki

Teresa used to live in Japan and is BC’s tutor for all levels of Japanese! She’ll be working with her Co-Service chair Jonathan Higa during the first semester and will be taking over once he goes abroad

FRESHMEN REPRESENTATIVES:

Aaron Potts

home town:Chicago, IL

Major:Linguistics

Vivian Wong

home town:Long Island, NY

Major:Biology

Ken Leszkowicz

home town:Englewood, New Jersey

Major:Chemistry

Hey Class of 2016! Applications for the position of freshman...

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 23:14:00 -0400

the current 2012-2013 eboard: this could be you, become a freshman representative!

flyer for JCBC's 1st General Meeting

Hey Class of 2016! Applications for the position of freshman representative have been released; applications include an in person interview and a short form. All forms are due September 23, 2012 at 11:59 PM

JCBC’s 1st General Meeting: Thanks to all those who joined us Wednesday! We played an intense game of game of musical chairs, listened to a presentation on upcoming events (Sports Day & Autumn Festival coming soon!), watched a hilarious eboard video (which will be posted here shortly) and ate delicious yakisoba. Needless to say, the event was a success! Special thanks to all the students from Showa University Boston who came out!

The Japan Club would like to thank everyone for making the...

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 16:19:00 -0400

The Japan Club would like to thank everyone for making the 2011-2012 school year a memorable one. Above are snapshots of some of our favorite moments. During the 2011-2012 school year, JCBC was able host numerous events, including: First General Meeting, Autumn Festival, Tea Ceremony, New Years Festival, Second General Meeting, Game Show Night, Charity Ball, Japanese Film Festival, Karaoke, and Harumatsuri Culture Show.

This upcoming year, expect new things like outings to local Japanese restaurants, increased interaction with Showa Boston and more great events. As you have probably noticed, some changes have already taken place: we have a new eboard and a revamped website.

And…Welcome Class of 2016! Don’t forget to check out JCBC’s booth during Student Involvement Fair on Friday, September 7th at Linden Lane.

We look forward to seeing you then!