Japanese Studies Program News and Events

News

MU Junior Awarded Summer Business Internship in Japan

Kirsten Seaberg

Junior Kirsten Seaberg is one of two students in the State who have been selected to participate in the International Business Internship Exchange, administered by Webster University in partnership with the Department of Economic Development of the State of Missouri. Kirsten will live with a Japanese host family in the Osaka area and will be placed in a Japanese company from mid-May through mid-July. Kirsten has previously traveled to Japan to study on a Mizzou summer program and for fall semester at Nanzan University in Nagoya on an MU exchange.

Nine Students in the Japanese Studies Program Advance to Interviews in the JET Program Application Process

A remarkable nine of the ten MU students who applied for the Japan Exchange Teaching (JET) Program in December 2007 were advanced to the next stage of the process and received interviews at the Japanese Consulate in Chicago and Houston. These nine students are now awaiting word on acceptance into the Program.

The JET Program places college graduates from English speaking countries both in Japanese public schools as Assistant Language Teachers to help with classroom English instruction and in municipal governments offices as Coordinators for International Relations, who assist local administrators of international endeavors in their work.

This year marks the largest number of MU students ever to reach the second stage of the application process. All but one of the ten MU applicants had studied in Japan on MU programs for a summer, a semester, or an academic year, in addition to their work in the Japanese Studies Program on campus.

Mrs. Kinoshita of the Imada Puppet Troupe helps Vince with the Kiyohime puppet.

Rob and Alice focus on learning the role of the Boatman while other students study the part of Kiyohime at the Imada Puppet Hall.

Jeanne, Aaron, and Vince rehearse the Sanbaso at Imada Puppetry Hall in Iida, Japan June 2007

Bunraku Bay Puppet Troupe Appears with the Imada Puppet Troupe for a Joint Performance at the University of Chicago

Four members of the Imada Puppet Troupe of Iida, Japan, who have trained MU students in traditional Japanese puppetry for the past several years, traveled to the United States to join members of MU’s Bunraku Bay Puppet Troupe for a performance in Assembly Hall at the University of Chicago on October 4, 2007. Student members of Bunraku Bay enjoyed a reunion with their teachers from Japan and performed with them before an enthusiastic audience that filled the house.

Describing the opening piece in the show, performed entirely by MU students, the Chicago Weekly reported, "The entrance was enough to send chills down everyone's spines . . . a wonder in craftsmanship and coordination."

In February 2008, MU’s Bunraku Bay Puppet Troupe made three separate trips to perform at Penn State University, Knox College, and the University of Southern Indiana. All three shows played to full houses who welcomed the opportunity to see the only traditional Japanese puppet troupe at work outside Japan.

Plans are now in the works for Bunraku Bay performance tours during 2008-2009 to New England, Florida, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin, as well as shows in Missouri.

The departure of four more students in March, brings to 17 the total number of Mizzou students now studying in Japan for a semester or academic year in 2007-2008. The 17 participants, most of whom are in the Japan for a full year, represent the largest number of students from the University of Missouri to be studying in Japan at one time. The students are distributed among several institutions in Japan: Nanzan University in Nagoya in central Japan; the Japan Center for Michigan Universities in Hikone, Shiga Prefecture, just northeast of Kyoto; Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies in Nagasaki, on the western island of Kyushu; Sophia University in Tokyo; and MU’s newest exchange partner, Kwansei Gakuin University in Nishinomiya, located between Osaka and Kobe, not far from Kyoto.

Study abroad in Japan is open to any academically qualified student who has completed at least one year of university study. At MU many students travel to Japan to study immediately after their freshmen year.

Martin Holman, Program Coordinator of the Japanese Studies Program, was featured in two recently-published articles. The MU publication Illumination, which highlights research, scholarship, and creative achievement at the University of Missouri, devoted eight pages and the cover art of the fall 2007 issue to Prof. Holman’s work in the traditional Japanese puppet theater and his direction of MU’s Bunraku Bay Puppet Troupe. In addition to a number of compelling photographs of puppet performances, the online version of the article includes video of most of the Troupe’s October 2007 performance at the University of Chicago (see above for more information on the Chicago performance).

The Illumination article and video are available at http://illumination.missouri.edu/fal07/hol1.php.

The other article appeared the 2008 issue of Mosaics, a magazine for alumni and friends of the College of Arts and Science at MU, and featured comments by seniors Andrew St. John and Edward Selvey, who have participated in cultural exchange through puppetry training in Japan and in performances of Bunraku Bay Puppet Troupe in the States.

The Mosaics article and accompanying photographs are available at http://coas.missouri.edu/alumni.html#mosaics.

Fourteen students are preparing to spend the summer in Japan on an MU program training in the traditional puppet theater with the Imada Puppet Troupe (see images above) in the city of Iida in Nagano Prefecture in central Japan. While in Japan, students will study techniques of puppet manipulation and some will also study the samisen, a traditional three-stringed instrument that accompanies performances of the puppet theater. The summer will also involve training in taiko drumming and the lion dance, as well as participation in a range of community activities that include hiking, language exchange, sightseeing, school visits, martial arts, and other sports. Students will also be able to use many free days to tour Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo, and other parts of Japan.

The summer will culminate in the nine-day Iida Puppetry Festival, the largest such event in Japan, which draws tens of thousands of visitors from all over Japan and around the world. MU students will demonstrate what they have learned on the summer program in performances during the Festival at which they will also act as guides for foreign visitors to the city. This year is the third that MU students have spent the summer training in Iida, Japan. The Program runs from the second week in June until mid-August. Several of the summer participants plan to remain in Japan after the conclusion of the summer program to enter academic-year study programs with MU’s exchange partner universities.

For more information on the summer program, consult http://asianinterstage.com/summer2008japan/.