Having got acquainted with 11th-century traditional Japanese versification, those interested could visit some of the programs of the Day of Japan’s Old Literature and Culture organized by the Centre for Foreign Languages, Faculty of Humanities (FH), University of Debrecen (UD and could enjoy a real time travel.
Although the majority of the course offerings is available in English, students can study the basics of Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, German and Japanese languages.
Teaching Japanese at UD was launched in 1995 with the support of the Japanese government. Sato Aya, a native instructor of the centre, has been offering courses since 2011. In the second semester of the present academic year the number of students is 60.
The primary feature is language teaching on a primary and advanced levels but we place great emphasis on teaching students about Japanese culture and traditions – hirek/news.unideb.hu was informed by Sato Aya, language teacher of the Centre for Foreign Languages (FH), who has been living in Hungary since 2004.
Japanese is the most popular language taught at the centre, though it is not easy to master, but the love for the culture and the language helped all of our students to get through the initial difficulties – said László Pete in his opening speech.
The director of the Centre for Foreign Languages (FH, UD) emphasized that it was important that besides studying different languages students ccould also learn about the culture of several far-away countries such as Japan, therefore the course would be continuously supported by the centre in the future, too.
The program was held on 4 March and focused on the improvised poetry of 11th century Japanese woman poets on which Áron Fittler, a professor at Waseda University, Japan, delivered a lecture titled “Sharp Mind, Sweet Words”.
In the imperial court of Japan a lot of educated women served the women of the dynasty. The scope of duties and the current social traditions demanded the ladies to be able to compose a 31-word poem, called waka in a few minutes – described Áron Fittler in his lecture, he introduced not only the original Japanese poems but their Hungarian translation, too.
Orsolya Károlyi, researcher at the University of Doshisa Yoshi, Kyoto participated in the event online and delivered a lecture titled “Legends about Ono no Takamura”.
The two Hungarian literary translators with a long-time commitment to classical Japanese literature published a richly illustrated volume, Poems by a Hundred Poets in 2022, which collects the most significant traditional Japanese poems spanning six centuries.
The programme featured a mini-exhibition of preserved poetry cards and printed publications from the 18th-20th centuries, as well as a waka-poetry competition, a poetry card game demonstration, kimono dressing and origami folding.
