Real Japan

Am I missing it? Does this guy just have one name? Is he the Madonna, the Cher, the Picasso, the Britney no less, of Japanese history, such that his one name is enough? I'm impressed.

Arigato

Olivia - cleverly hidden in the second paragraph is his other name - Kenneth - he is Dr. Kenneth Pyle whose bio follows here:

Kenneth B.
Pyle is the Henry M. Jackson Professor of History and
Asian Studies at the University of Washington and Founding
President of The National Bureau of Asian Research.

He is the author and editor of numerous
books on modern Japan and its history including The New
Generation in Meiji Japan (1969), The Trade Crisis:
How Will Japan Respond? (1987), The Japanese
Question: Power and Purpose in a New Era (1992), The
Making of Modern Japan (1996), and From APEC to
Xanadu: Creating a Viable Community in the Post-Cold War
Pacific (1997).  He founded the Journal of Japanese
Studies in 1974 and continued to serve as its editor
until 1986.  Dr. Pyle’s forthcoming book, written for the
Century Foundation, is entitled Japan Rising: The
Resurgence of Japanese Power and Purpose (Public Affairs
Books, 2006).

Among his many articles and book
chapters, he has co-authored with former Ambassador to Japan
and President of the Brookings Institution Michael Armacost
studies of Japan and the unification of Korea (1999) and of
Sino-Japanese relations and the challenges posed for U.S.
policy coordination (2001).

From 1978 to 1988 Dr. Pyle was Director
of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at
the University of Washington.  He was appointed by President
Bush to chair the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (1992-95),
a Federal agency that administers a $50 million trust fund
to support Japanese studies in the United States and
American studies in Japan.  Concurrently he served as
co-chairman of the U.S.-Japan Conference on Cultural and
Educational Interchange, the official bi-lateral
organization established to oversee cultural and educational
relations between the two countries.

He is a member of the Board of
Governors of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation (1983- ) and
was a founding board member of the Maureen and Mike
Mansfield Foundation (1981-88). 

Professor Pyle is a graduate of
Phillips Academy, Andover (1954), took his B.A. magna cum
laude from Harvard College (1958), and his Ph.D. from
Johns Hopkins University (1965) where he was the Walter
Hines Page Fellow in International Relations.  He held a
Ford Foundation Fellowship at the Inter-University Center
for Japanese Studies in Tokyo (1961-64). 

In 1999 the Government of Japan
decorated Professor Pyle with one of its highest imperial
honors, the Order of the Rising Sun, for his contributions
to scholarship and cultural exchange. 

Henry Jackson, a late US Senator from the state of Washington, was a neighbor when I lived in Everett WA many moons ago - 

It's been corrected since I looked at it first. I'm pretty sure I'm not THAT blind...

Thanks for the bio, belle! I fell into a rhythm of reading it, like free verse, and that was strange. Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to bed I go!

I'll check on all of you, and the gist of the conversation, this evening. The day is dawning bright and there's an orienteering meet in sight. With all the rain yesterday, there's bound to be mud today...enough to slide down the hills, get mud on all my clothes, and maybe even a little bit in between my toes :)

I'm off in a few short hours to a 3-day hike in Northwest Arkansas, or I'd be posting all day on  THIS topic!  In my stead, I offer a link to my 34-year-old son's blog... I suggest his 'About' page as a starter.... http://www.bugbread.com/?page_id=2

Michael has lived in Japan for the last 12 years (two in Kitakyushu, the rest in Tokyo)... He speaks, reads, and writes Japanese fluently -- but most importantly, he's really, really smart and perceptive...

Enjoy Michael's blog...

A manufacturing perspective of Japan

The significance of the label "Made in Japan" changed dramatically from being the butt of many jokes due to poor design and even worse quality; to becoming the hallmark of manufacturing excellence.

Much of the credit for this transition was do to the American statistician, W. Edwards Demming whose philosophy of Total Quality Control using statistical methods was widely embraced by the Japanese. By embracing and applying his methods and philosophy, Japan quickly went from "worst to first" and became best in class in the processing of steel and in the manufacturing of automobiles and electronics.

It wasn't until he was credited for the success of Japan's turnaround that Demming's methods and philosophies become popular in the United States. Unfortunately for us, we fell so far behind that it was often too-little, too-late.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming#Work_in_Japan

Doc Nolan,

Michael's blog is definitely a good read.  

 Remembering my daughter's wishes to learn Japanese and wanting to go abroad as a Foriegn exchange student; I bought my daughter a beautiful hand- painted Japanese Doll at a great Thrif shop for a gift -so she could visualize her dream. I too, dreamed. as I showed my desire to have a hand-painted floral dressed doll; showing and guiding my father at It's a Small World Shoppe, to buy me a Japenese Doll during Expo '67; it was poreclain white and very fragile. My daughter speakes 7 Langauges and lived, attending school in Japan...then off to University of Hawaii and she has so much talent for play acting and communicating; she did not graduate, as of yet, working three occupations and involved with curriculm beyond my scope on my telescopic rainbow prism rock.

Gustina,

Nice to hear your voice again here at the omnipresent "Eye".  It sounds like your daughter is well accomplished.You must be proud.

btw - I have always had a fondness for hats and your's is awesome.

See ya'll later. Off to Ted's Montana Grill for some grilled bison and then scope out the new Orvis (a distant second choice I might add) that's opening near by.

Speaking of Ted, as in Turner & Montana Grill & recent inductee to the Eye's Cowboy Hall of Fame, he is being presented the "Key to the City" in Naperville and will be doing a book signing at a local independent book store down the block from his restaurant next week I do hope I get to meet him.

As Felix Cavalier sang with the Young Rascals, hope your all "grooving, on a Sunday afternoon"

Olivia - you're right - his first name appeared magically during my 35 page Google search before I located the NBAR website and his resume.  

Japanese language is taught in one of the five high schools in our local district and a step-grandson developed initial fluency and continued at U of Oregon and parlayed that into ESL teaching skills.  He is setting off on his second contract to teach English to students in Japan - his first venture found him uncomfortable with the compact spaces of the country.  Perhaps he was homesick for his band he had formed here, a girlfriend, all of the above - but he is on his way back to teach again.  

A sea-faring cousin brought me many treasures that were "made in Japan" - including sets of dishes made immediately post-WWII, pigeon-blood vases, the inevitable and gorgeous kimonos and the strings of pearls.  I treasure them now - kimonos never worn - and still have the wooden crate the dishes were shipped in with the pattern number on the side.

Our Willamette University has long had a sister-college relationship with higher education in Japan and Tokyo University has an adjacent campus here that has enriched our understanding and awareness as well.  

My kids are obssessed with all things Japanese, stemming from anime and manga and video games, as well as the films of the wonderful director Hayao Miyazaki. They have friends from Japan, both exchange students and those who have made Arkansas their home. Their efforts to learn Japanese and kanji are desultory at best, but they are leaders of shinnichiha among their peers, and I've always encouraged their interests in other cultures. I find Japanese and Chinese language very challenging. I absorb Romance languages fairly easily, but these, along with Russian and Arabic, are so different that one must truly apply oneself to make any progress.

Hiroshige and Hokusai are well-known artists of Ukiyo-e, but there are so many others of that age (Sharaku, Yoshitoshi, Gekko) that are wonderful, and even contemporary practitioners of this varied and beautiful representative form. Teraoka would be the best example in my opinion.

We would do well to pay close attention to the Japanese and Chinese world views, for they certainly take the long view in their planning, while Westerners have, to our great detriment, focused on short-term gain and disposability in far too many things, from architecture and housing to packaging and 'durable' goods. I have a strong retro bent, and I like things, especially friendships, homes, crafts and professions, that last. I miss some things the Japanese still honor, such as manners in public, respect for elders, and a general courtesy and grace and simplicity in life.

Japan is a fascinating country.....interesting food, strange language, tough business deals.  I visited the southern most island of Japan, Okinawa, while in the Marines.  I was stationed there for about two months before going to Vietnam. 

Over the years I studied Japanese martial arts including Japanese swordsmanship (which I used to teach many years ago). I have Japanese friends.

I remember when the skyline of L.A. was mostly owned by the Japanese.

The Japanese believe war is business and business is war.  If you don't win at one you win at the other.  Considering the outcome of WWII for the Japanese, one wonders if Japan's post war success is merely a continuation of the war by means of business. So who really won the war, then?

Konbanwa. Good evening. I hope everyone had a wonderful day.

Doc Nolan, I have very much enjoyed your son's blog. The first time I went to visit his site was during our sushi topic. His observations are quite interesting.

My son, a Marine, had a two year tour of duty in Okinawa. He loved his time there, especially the food and the people. However, he said that they were very adamant about being called Okinawans and not Japanese. They felt separate and distinctive; their language and culture being quite different from that of mainland Japan.
Also, while there, and during some time he spent in Toyko, he was amazed at how much the Japanese and Okinawans love American fast food, music and clothing. There is now much concern about rising obesity levels, as more people embrace Western eating and lifestyle habits.

Olivia, SB had never seen a Miyazaki film so we had a cartoon weekend this week.  We watched Castle in the Air, Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle.  We also rented an awesomely bad Japanese teen movie "Yo-yo Girl Cop"...it was spectacularly awful.

Kindlee, most Okinawans will tell you that they are absolutely NOT Japanese.  My friends that have served on that island and been to the more mainstream Japanese islands say there is a difference in culture and food but it is similar in many ways.  I've noticed that Okinawans and Japanese have a wonderful way of embracing other cultures and then making them their own, while respecting and maintaining their heritage and unique culture.  They are amazing inovators.