[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Japonisme_poster1.jpg” caption=”Consul General of Japan Koichi Kawakami will give a public lecture on Soft Power: From Japonisme to Anime on Wednesday, Feb. 6 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in Convocation Hall. “]Things started slowly, with the arrival of two Canadian missionaries in Japan in 1873. Four years later, a man named Manzo Nagano became the first documented Japanese immigrant to Canada. A decade later, the waterway between Yokohama and Vancouver was opened to steamships, and the number of Japanese immigrants coming to Canada began to increase.

The relationship between Japan and Canada was cemented in 1928 when the two countries established diplomatic relations and a Japanese delegation opened in Ottawa later that year. This laid the groundwork for a continuing relationship between Japan and Canada, which, in the years since the temporary suspension of relations during the Second World War, has deepened and flourished.

To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the agreement, the Consul General of Japan in Toronto, Koichi Kawakami, has organized a series of events this year to showcase all aspects of Japanese-Canadian relations — political, economic, business, scientific, cultural and educational.

Thanks to Tsuneko Iwai, assistant professor of Japanese in the Department of Linguistics & Languages, McMaster will be part of these celebrations, playing host to the Consul General as he gives a public lecture in Convocation Hall tomorrow.

“I knew the Consul General of Japan was very knowledgeable about politics, cultural aspects, literature, and when we found out that he was organizing the anniversary celebrating the start of diplomatic relations between Japan and Canada 80 years ago, I thought it was a very good opportunity for McMaster to join in,” Iwai explained.

With a long and fascinating career in the Japanese diplomatic service, Kawakami's lecture will prove to be interesting. The Consul General was born in Kanazawa City in 1950, graduated from Tokyo University's Faculty of Law in 1976 and then joined the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He served at Japan's Embassies in France, Myanmar and Malaysia, and taught at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies before assuming the post of Consul General in Toronto in April 2006.

His lecture, Soft Power: From Japonisme to Anime, will focus on Japan's cultural influence on European, specifically French art in the mid 1800s to its present-day influence on animation worldwide.

By inviting Kawakami to speak at McMaster, Iwai hopes to introduce this topic to members of the University and Hamilton communities who may not have been exposed to Japanese culture, and are not aware of the broad influence it has had on the rest of the world. The event will also highlight the study of Japanese language and culture at McMaster.

Japanese Studies students at McMaster are encouraged to attend. Nicole Benz, a fourth-year Multimedia and Japanese Studies student, was the creative mind behind the promotional poster for the lecture currently displayed on campus.

Explaining her inspiration behind the stunning black and white design, Benz said, “The lecture will be about the subtle influence of Japanese culture on Western society. I came across the work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a French artist whose work was heavily influenced by Japanese art. I found a high quality digital version of his piece Reine de Joie par Victor Joze and decided to work with it. I wanted to include an anime-related image in the poster as well. When I came upon the image of two anime-style characters kissing, I thought it complemented the man and woman kissing in the Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec work.”

Benz has taken full advantage of the opportunities available to McMaster students to deepen their understanding of Japan. She studied at one of McMaster's partner universities, Seinan Gakuin, in Fukuoka last year.

Soft Power: From Japonisme to Anime will take place Wednesday, Feb. 6 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in Convocation Hall. All members of the McMaster and Hamilton communities are welcome to attend.