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Tuesday, 20 November 2012 |
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This year (2012) marks the 60th anniversary of bilateral relations between Sri Lanka and Japan. Ceylon established diplomatic relations with Japan in 1952, four years after gaining independence, and the Ceylonese Embassy in Tokyo was set up in May 1953. Japan has been one of the most consistent supporters of Sri Lanka's economic development efforts, and for a long time was the source of highest proportion of overseas development assistance. The links and friendship between the two countries and peoples go back much further in time, and extend well beyond the inter-governmental links to also include strong cultural, religious, scientific and economic cooperation entirely at people to people level. Wiz Quiz today looks at Sri Lanka - Japan links, and explores other aspects of fascinating Japan. 1. The first Japanese national to visit Sri Lanka in recent history was a Buddhist monk. According to documents in Tokyo University's Meiji Library, he had arrived in Sri Lanka in 1886 and studied Pali and Sanskrit at a temple at Galle. He received his higher education in Malwatte Temple, Kandy, in 1890 under the name of Konen Gunarathne. His teacher was the scholar monk Ven Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Maha Nayaka Thera of Vidyodaya Privena. What was the original name of this Japanese monk? 2. In 1889, two lay Buddhist leaders from Ceylon made a historic visit to Japan. They carried a Sanskrit letter of good wishes addressed to the Chief High priest of Japan, written by Ven Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Maha Nayaka Thera, a leading scholar monk. The visitors arrived in Kobe, and during a brief tour, met hundreds of monks, officials, professionals and ordinary Japanese citizens. This was the first formal contact in several centuries between Theravada tradition of Buddhism practiced in Ceylon and Mahayana Buddhism of Japan. One of these emissaries from Ceylon was Anagarika Dharmapala. Who was the other?
3. A Cambridge educated Ceylonese lawyer turned journalist and politician, he was deputy speaker of the State Council of Ceylon in the 1930s. He became a pioneering diplomat in post independent Ceylon, serving as Ceylon's first ambassador to Burma and then as first ambassador to Japan, where he set up the Ceylon Embassy in 1953. While being posted to Japan, he mastered the Japanese language, and together with the Buddhist scholar Dr G P Malalasekera, organized a conference of the World Fellowship' of Buddhists. He promoted Theravada Buddhism and built a dagoba in Japan. Who was he? 4. On September 8, 1951, the Treaty of Peace with Japan (also known as the Treaty of San Francisco or San Francisco Peace Treaty) was signed in San Francisco, United States of America (USA), formally ending Japan's imperial power as part of the settlement of World War II. At this conference, Ceylon was a major player by speaking in support for a free Japan. While many countries insisted that the terms of surrender should be rigidly enforced, the Ceylonese Finance Minister J R Jayewardene spoke in defense for a free Japan and announced that Ceylon would not accept any payment of reparations that could harm Japan's economy. He famously cited the Buddha's words 'hatred ceases not by hatred but by love.' Three delegates from Ceylon attended this conference where Ceylon's role was highly appreciated by Japan and many others. Who were the other two members - one, a leading politician, and the other a diplomat? 5. Prof. Ediriweera Sarachchandra (1914 - 1996) was a renowned Lankan novelist, playwright, poet, literary critic, essayist and social commentator. In the 1950s, he spent time in Japan on a fellowship, studying Japanese drama. He wrote to well known and well loved Sinhala novels Malagiya Aththo (1959) and its sequel, Malawunge Avurudu Daa (1965). The two novels contain two different aspects of the same love story between a Lankan artist and a young Japanese girl, which has entertained Sinhala fiction readers for two generations. In 1987, the author himself translated these novels into English, which was published as part of an Asia series by Heinemann/UNESCO. What title was given to the combined English novel? 6. A Lankan scholar who did his post doctoral studies in Japan has become the most prominent translator of Japanese literature in Sri Lanka. Amongst his translations were Akira Kurosawa's film scripts (Rashoman and Ikiru), Yasunari Kawabatha's work and Japanese dramas. With proficiency in Japanese, English and Sinhala, he has also translated some original Japanese film scripts into English. Who is this important bridge-maker between cultures, who earlier served as the head of Department of Sinhala at the University of Peradeniya? He is an internationally recognized authority on Japanese literature. 7. This Japanese national studied Sinhala language at the University of Peradeniya in the 1960s as a foreign student, and has been active in cultural exchange between Sri Lanka and Japan for nearly half a century. He has translated Sinhala novels into Japanese, and Japanese novels into Sinhala. Among other works, he has translated into Japanese late Dr Ediriweera Sarachchandra's famous Sinhala novels about Japan ( Malagiya Etto and Malavunge Avurudu Da ) into Japanese under the title Nakihito, and also some works by Martin Wickramasinghe. He also wrote an original novel in Sinhala titled Anithya Jeevithayak (Life amidst impermanence). Who is he?
9. The Genroku Kabuki theatre was so named not only to describe the grand and colourful style, but etymologically so named to mean 'wild and deviant behaviour'. What social-economic class did Kabuki originally describe? From that it has come down through the ages to be viewed as a much more refined form of art. 10. We find frequent allusions to 'floating' in the titles of Asian art and literature. It refers to the delicate nature of painting, and the transient nature of our lives. Who was the Japanese writer first credited with the Tales of the Floating Worlds, written in 1666 in the early Edo period? In his writing, he turned traditional Buddhist teaching on its head in an expression of urban ideals. 11. This Japanese Neo-Confucianist philosopher and botanist lived during the Tokugawa period. His most important contribution was the study of nature based on a blend of Western natural science and Neo-Confucianism, and the translation of the complex writings of Neo-Confucianism into everyday Japanese. His writing is useful to modern Japanese philosophers and historians, as much as Aristotle is for modern Westerners even today. He has been called the 'Aristotle of Japan'. Who is he? 12. This Japanese theoretical physicist was the first Japanese Nobel laureate (in any area covered by the Nobel Prizes). In 1935, he published his theory of mesons, which explained the interaction between protons and neutrons. He had a major influence in worldwide research into elementary particles. He became a professor at the prestigious University of Kyoto, and won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1949. Who was he? 13. Ceylon was the older name for Sri Lanka, phased out in 1972 when the country became a republic. However, Ceylon is also the name of a small town in the USA, with a total land area of 1.6 square km, and had a population of 369 people in 2010. In which American state do we find Ceylon? 14. English novelist, poet and essayist D H Lawrence (1885 - 1930) adopted a mythical bird as his personal symbol, and upon his death, his widow commissioned an elaborate headstone for his grave bearing a mosaic of this creature. What was it? 15. 'Utopia' is an ideal community or society that has highly desirable or perfect qualities - where everything is fair, plentiful and as it ought to be. The word was coined in Greek by the author, social philosopher and statesman Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book titled Utopia, which described a fictional island society in the Atlantic Ocean. What does the original Greek words combining to make Utopia literally mean? Last week’s answers1. 60 degrees South latitude
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8. The first person of Japanese descent to travel to outer space
(Earth orbit) was a Japanese television (TV) journalist working for the
Tokyo Broadcasting System, TBS. In December 1990, TBS paid the Russian
space agency for their correspondent to visit the Mir space station
aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and spend a week in space. This was
the first commercially organized spaceflight in history for an
individual. He is known as the "Space Journalist" in Japan. Who is this
first Japanese astronaut? 
