{"id":1489,"date":"2020-04-27T13:48:52","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T13:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/rutgers-meets-japan\/?p=1489"},"modified":"2020-05-31T01:11:52","modified_gmt":"2020-05-31T01:11:52","slug":"sas-newletter-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/rutgers-meets-japan\/sas-newletter-article\/","title":{"rendered":"SAS Newsletter Article"},"content":{"rendered":"

We were featured on the SAS Newsletter<\/a>!<\/p>\n

A Tragic Death and a Fateful Journey \u2013 How Rutgers and Japan Forged an Enduring Connection<\/h2>\n
\n
Written by John Chadwick | SAS Senior Writer<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n

Seminars, samurai, and t-shirts will mark a milestone year<\/p>\n

\n

\"KD20<\/p>\n

An undergraduate honors seminar this semester is exploring the early connections between Rutgers and Japan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Rutgers is known as a diverse place.<\/p>\n

But not everyone knows that the university\u2019s inclusive, globally-engaged culture was developing as early as the 1860s, when Rutgers became one of the first American colleges to enroll Japanese nationals.<\/p>\n

\n

\"13<\/p>\n

Kusakabe Taro with Yokoi Brothers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And few today know the tragic tale of how the first of those students\u2014a brilliant samurai named Kusakabe Taro<\/a>\u2014died from tuberculosis weeks before his graduation in 1870 and was buried in New Brunswick after a funeral service hosted by the Rutgers president.Later that same year, Kusakabe\u2019s fellow Rutgers student, friend, and tutor\u2014William E. Griffis<\/a>\u2014accepted an offer to teach in what is now Fukui, Japan. He went on to become an influential figure in Japan\u2019s modernization, and a renowned writer, lecturer, and scholar of Japan.<\/p>\n

The Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences this year is marking the 150th anniversary of Kusakabe\u2019s death and Griffis\u2019 journey with programs aimed at educating the university community and the public about Rutgers\u2019 early encounters with Japan, and the wealth of university resources documenting those connections, including The William E. Griffis Collection<\/a>\u00a0in the Special Collections and University Archives, Alexander Library.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story of Kusakabe and Griffis is a great example of how people from very different cultures met and learned to appreciate each other,\u201d says Haruko Wakabayashi, a professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures who is organizing the events. \u201cAnd it\u2019s worth remembering that just a few years after the Civil War, Rutgers is accepting Japanese students, and in fact, educating the future leaders of Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The anniversary is also being commemorated at the University of Fukui<\/a>, where the legacy of Griffis still looms large.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe laid the foundations of education in Fukui as well as for the whole of Japan,\u201d says Ryuhei Hosoya, a professor at Fukui.<\/p>\n

To mark the anniversary at Rutgers, Wakabayshi is teaching an undergraduate honors seminar this semester\u2014\u201cRutgers Meets Japan: Revisiting Early U.S.-Japan Encounters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"54<\/p>\n

William E. Griffis and Boys from Fukui Tokyo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The seminar includes a two-week visit to Japan in May after the end of the semester that\u2019s timed to coincide with a symposium at the University of Fukui titled: \u201cGriffis\u2019 Fukui: 150 Years On.\u201d Wakabayashi and others at Rutgers are closely monitoring the coronavirus outbreak and will decide later this month whether to continue with the trip or to postpone it.Students taking the honors seminar say they\u2019re fascinated by the Rutgers-Japan connection.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I realized Rutgers had such a long relationship with Japan, I just had to take this class,\u201d says Evan Feldman, a sophomore in the SAS Honors Program majoring in computer science and economics. \u201cThis is very outside of my main fields of study and it\u2019s like a breath of fresh air.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aishwarya Sridhar, an honors program junior majoring in cell biology and neuroscience, hopes one day to go to medical school and work in another country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really wanted to learn about another culture,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd this class is completely eye-opening!\u201d<\/p>\n

Other events include a symposium titled \u201cRutgers Meets Japan: Foreign Teachers, Missionaries, and Overseas Students in the Early Meiji Era\u201d that will feature presentations from renowned scholars in the field. The conference has been postponed until fall 2020.<\/p>\n

\n

\"KD20<\/p>\n

Aishwarya Sridhar and Camille Romano exploring the Rutgers-Japan connection<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Zimmerli Art Museum, meanwhile, has opened a new exhibition, Japan that Griffis Saw: Prints and Photographs from Meiji Japan<\/em><\/a>, which displays items from the late 19th century, just around the time that Griffis arrived in Japan.And to commemorate the anniversary with Rutgers spirit, SAS will be producing special commemorative t-shirts that will be available universitywide and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important, especially for students, to know the history of your own institution,\u201d says Wakabayashi. \u201cIt\u2019s important to recognize the role that Rutgers played and to celebrate that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The connection between what was then Rutgers College and Japan goes back to the college\u2019s roots in the Reformed Church in America. Christian missionaries in Japan encouraged Japanese students to study at Rutgers.<\/p>\n

From the late 1860s to 1912, as many as 200 Japanese students came to New Brunswick, most of them to Rutgers Grammar School (later Rutgers Preparatory School), and, if successful, to Rutgers College. The students came during what is known as the Meiji era in Japan when the country began moving from an isolated feudal society to a modern industrialized nation.<\/p>\n

Kusakabe Taro became the first to attend Rutgers College. He studied mathematics and physics as well as humanities subjects such as Latin and English. He excelled in all. He died on April 13, 1870 and is buried in Willow Grove Cemetery. He was 25, and posthumously awarded his bachelor\u2019s degree and Phi Beta Kappa key.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was number one in the Class of 1870,\u201d Fernanda Perrone, curator of the Griffis collection, Special Collections and University Archives, told students during a recent session of the seminar. \u201cWhich is really amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffis, meanwhile, arrived in Japan in early 1871, teaching English and science at a local school and later relocated to Tokyo. He visited Kusakabe\u2019s father, and presented the deceased student\u2019s Phi Betta Kappa key. Griffis returned to the U. S. in 1874 and embarked on a 50-year career preaching, lecturing, and writing.<\/p>\n

In the following decades, a number of Rutgers graduates as well as a professor, David Murray<\/a>, visited Japan and exerted a modernizing influence on the educational system. Some came as missionaries and started schools. Murray served as an advisor to the Japanese government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many dimensions to this,\u201d says Paul Schalow, Chair of the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures. \u201cAnd it started with that early welcoming spirit at Rutgers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"KD20<\/p>\n

From left, Haruko Wakabayashi, Ryuhei Hosoya, and Fernanda Perrone<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We were featured on the SAS Newsletter! A Tragic Death and a Fateful Journey \u2013 How Rutgers and Japan Forged an Enduring Connection Written by John Chadwick | SAS Senior … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":481,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-news","post_format-post-format-link"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSAS Newsletter Article - Rutgers Meets Japan: Early Encounters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/rutgers-meets-japan\/sas-newletter-article\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SAS Newsletter Article - Rutgers Meets Japan: Early Encounters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We were featured on the SAS Newsletter! 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