Nihonmatsu Junior High School Student Visit (2018)

  • Laying flowers in front of Professor Asakawa’s headstone
  • The Nihonmatsu Delegation stand with Professor Asakawa's headstone
  • At the Sterling Memorial Library Nave
  • Inside the East Asia Library
  • Looking at some of the original writings of Professor Asakawa
  • At the Women's Table in front of Sterling Memorial Library
  • Looking at the Gutenberg Bible on display at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
  • At the Asakawa Garden in Killingworth Courtyard, Saybrook College
  • Lunch at the Pauli Murray College Fellows Lounge
  • Professor Frances Rosenbluth addresses the Nihonmatsu Delegation
August 1, 2018

On July 31st, 2018, the Council on East Asian Studies had the pleasure of hosting ten junior high school students from Nihonmatsu, Japan. Coordinated by the City of Nihonmatsu’s Board of Education, two students from five junior high schools in Nihonmatsu are invited each year to take part in a pilgrimage to the United States to honor the memory of Professor Asakawa Kan’ichi.  This year, the Council was also happy to receive Mr. Manabu Tanno, Superintendent of Education, and Jun Nagasawa, a member of the Board of Education and teacher.

Professor Asakawa, a native of Nihonmatsu, was an academic, author, historian, librarian, curator and peace advocate who became the first Japanese-born scholar to receive a professorship at a major American university.  He taught at Yale University from 1907 to 1942, served as curator of the East Asian Collection at the Yale University Library from 1907 to 1948, and built the foundation for Japanese research collections at both Yale and the Library of Congress. (For more information about Professor Asakawa, please click here.)

The students began their visit by paying their respects to Professor Asakawa, laying flowers on his grave. They then had a full tour of the East Asia Library and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and were given the opportunity to see for themselves some of the Professor’s original writings.  The group then visited the Asakawa Garden located in the Killingworth Courtyard in Saybrook College, and ended the tour with a sushi lunch at the Pauli Murray College Fellows Lounge.

We are always happy to receive our friends from Nihonmatsu, and we look forward to seeing them again next year!