This week’s East Asian Studies class will be a visit to a ‘yatsuhashi‘ shop in downtown Kyoto to learn how to make this traditional cookie famous in Japan. Yatsuhashi is a uniquely Japanese kind of confectionary made from rice flour, sugar and cinnamon and is one of the best known meibutsu (famous regional products) of Kyoto. It was created in 1689, four years after the death of Kengyo Yatsuhashi, a well-known koto player, and its shape is said to resemble his flat, harp-like instrument. To get to the shop where the class will be held, Alex and Michael should meet Yuki at 11.45 am at the Center while Bryan and Marie should be at the north corner of Shijo at Teramachi at 12.45 to meet up with the rest of the party and then proceed together to the shop located a few minutes walk away.

Featured essays this week are Michael Wakeley’s piece which looks at the endangered traditional art of ‘Kamishibai‘ (a form of storytelling using a set of illustrated cards) while Alex Margoisian revisits the Himeyuri Peace Museum in Okinawa which commemorates the tragic fate of high school girls who were forcibly recruited as nurses during the Second World War.

Kamishibai by Michael Wakeley
“I’ve got you now,” says the man in a black Batman suit, “You can call your precious golden bat for help all you want, he won’t hear you. MWAAA-haaa-haaa-haaa” The scene changes to show the face of the captured princess. “Gooooldeeen Baaaatt!! Heeelp!!” she yells. This isn’t manga, nor is it anime, it is a story told by a medium that quite possibly inspired both. This is kamishibai, or a Japanese picture show… <Read more>
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Himeyuri by Alex Margosian
Concrete Angels
The Himeyuri Peace Museum offers a window into the struggle of a group of high school girls, 14 to 19 years old, recruited as nurses during the Battle of Okinawa. The museum chronicles the lives, studies, and trials faced by these girls. Caught in the crossfire of raging battles and rampant disease, approximately 200 students died in the Battle of Okinawa. They are the face of the innocent victims that lost their lives fighting someone else’s war. <Read more>