Rabindranath visited Japan five times between 1916 and 1929. A conference was organised by The Asiatic Society, Kolkata in March, 2017 to commemorate the centenary of Rabindanath's first visit to Japan. The essays in this book, emerging out of the conference, explore the entire spectrum of the cultural and intellectual encounters between these two ancient civilisations using the visits as a context. Authors have touched upon a wide range of subjects history, culture, art history, poetry, aggressive nationalism, and the role of Japanese women in society to name a few. These may be summed up as: a) Tagore's perceptions of tradition and modernity in the context of Japan; b) the ideas of Pan- Asianism; c) Tagore's critique of aggressive nationalism; and d) Japanese response to Tagore's creativity and his thinking.
Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty, Vice-President, The Asiatic Society, Kolkata, was a member of the West Bengal Education Service and retired from Presidency College. He was the Historical and Archaeological Secretary from 2006 to 2014. He edited two volumes published by the Asiatic Society, Kolkata.
Shyam Sundar Bhattacharya, Philological Secretary, The Asiatic Society, Kolkata, is a linguist with experience of working in different capacities in three premier institutions of Government of India- -Anthropological Survey of India, Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore and Language Division, Office of the Registrar General, India. He has contributed to the areas of sociolinguistics,linguistic demography and so on.
The Asiatic Society, Kolkata, had decided to organize an International T Conference on 15th March, 2017 based on a suggestion received from Professor Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, the former Vice-Chancellor of Visva- Bharati, Santiniketan, West Bengal. The initial idea was to observe the centenary occasion of Tagore's first visit to Japan in 1916. It was thought to be a befitting proposition to fruitfully look back into the historical context where two: formidable civilizations of the continent of Asia confronted each other through exchange of ideas embedded into the core of each other's cultural excellence. Both these ancient civilizations had their marks of differential turning points in the great journey of progress from a relatively tradition based institutional structure to a path of progress embodying economic growth as a marker of overall development. In course of this sojourn, while India, by and large, stuck to a controlled exposure in the broad game of power, hegemonic in quality of leadership, Japan by conscious cultivation of the existing knowledge somehow decided to push through military preparedness in achieving the leadership in a different power domain. Not only as individual but perhaps also as a spokesman of the pristine Indian culture and civilization, Tagore terribly felt disturbed and pained in such a historic development of a Nation which owes the heredity of a custodian of a different culture and civilization bearing age-old traditional social ethics and cultural values. This was the beginning of an accidental politico-historical juncture of these two great Asian Nations to know each other even more deeply and seriously through the interactions of their cultural Ambassadors, Tagore and others on our side and Okakura Kakuzo and others on their side. At the end of the story the journey culminates looking for spiritual unity of the civilizations beyond Asia, integrated into the overall international humanism.
The decision of the Council of the Asiatic Society to commemorate the 100 Tyears of Rabindranath's first visit to Japan in 1916 was seen as the opportunity to take a close look at the larger theme of what has been titled as "An Encounter Between Two Asian Civilisations: Rabindranath Tagore and the Early Twentieth Century Indo-Japanese Cultural Confluence".
As Tagore set out for Japan in 1916, the country itself was caught in a cusp of history. Having undergone massive industrialization, Japan had emerged as an Asian superpower. Tagore appreciated the Japanese strides in technology and its challenge to European categorizations of Asia as irrational. Tagore also had a deep respect for Japanese culture that had been deeply influenced by Buddhism.
Tagore's initial reception was extremely cordial and he lectured at Osaka and the Imperial University of Tokyo, where he addressed a distinguished gathering of Buddhist monks and academicians. The result was three important essays: "Dhyani Japan" ("Meditative Japan" in Bengali), "To the Indian Community in Japan" and "The Soul of the East". Tagore lauded Japan's strides in technology and industrialization that even outstripped Europe:
Japan has taken great lessons from Europe in the devotion to work, science and armaments. Japan, the child of the Ancient East has also fearlessly claimed all the gifts of modern age for herself ... she has come in contact with the living time and has accepted with an amazing eagerness and aptitude the responsibilities of modern civilization.
At the same time Tagore cautioned Japan about carefully using her power so as to avoid the traps of ugly imperialism. Tagore's search was rather for a Japanese culture that emphasized the twin aspects of human tolerance and the sense of aesthetic beauty. It was in this binary that he located Japan. In fact, it was in the power of control of emotions and capability to forgive, that Tagore located Japanese heroism.
Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore set sail for Japan from the harbour of Kolkata on a ship called Tosamaru on April 30, 1916 and reached the port of Kobe on May 29, 1916. During his first visit he stayed in Japan for approximately three months and presented us a beautiful travelogue - Japan Jatri - of the country and her people. The subsequent visits took place in 1917, 1924 and 1929 (twice). His experiences and invaluable interactions, in Japan opened up the door for exchanges of academic and cultural relations between Japan and India in general and Santiniketan, Bengal in particular.
However, the first Japanese person Tagore had earlier met was Tenshin (Kakuzo) Okakura in the year 1902. The iconic relationship between the two great thinkers of the orient paved the way for a wider academic, artistic and cultural interactions at various levels. This also laid the foundation for the study of Japanese language and culture, thereby fostering the understanding and enrichment of both the oriental cultures. This historic meeting made Tagore an ardent admirer of Japan and he welcomed anyone who came with an introduction from Tenshin Okakura.
On the occasion of the Centenary year of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore's maiden visit to Japan which fell last year (2016), a variety of events were organized at Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan. The Department of Japanese (Nippon Bhavana) in collaboration with other Departments of Visva-Bharati and the other external organizations viz., the Japan Foundation in Tokyo and New Delhi, the Consulate General of Japan in Kolkata, the Embassy of Japan in New Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Chikushi Jogakuen University in Japan, organized a number of programmes in an appropriate manner.
Our primary endeavour was organization of the International Conference on 'Tagore and Japan & Various Aspects of Japan and Her Culture', in association with Rabindra-Bhavana, Visva-Bharati and in collaboration with Reitaku University, Japan, during August 26 - 27, 2016. Eminent speakers from Japan, Bangladesh and India participated in the conference. In addition to the Conference, Rabindra-Bhavana presented an exhibition on 'Gurudev Rabindranath's visit to Japan: Centenary Celebration'.
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