Japanese Branch Report

Authors

Itsuyo Shimizu

Date of this Version

2003

Document Type

Article

Citation

The George Eliot Review 34 (2003)

Comments

Published by The George Eliot Review Online https://GeorgeEliotReview.org

Abstract

The sixth annual convention of the George Eliot Fellowship of Japan was held at Tezukayama University in an ancient city, Nara, on Saturday 30 November 2002. Before the opening, the members who arrived early enjoyed Romola (a silent film directed by Henry King, 1924) and opera music (arranged by Kiyoko Tsuda, a head official of the Japanese branch).

The morning session began with an opening address by Kiyoko Tsuda, a professor at Tezukayama University. In the morning, four members read their papers under the chairmanship of Professor Yoshiko Tanaka and Professor Shigeko Tomita.

The first paper, 'Women in Scenes of Clerical Life', was presented by Mariko Asano, a parttime lecturer at Konan University. She pointed out that the gradual moral progress in Milly, Caterina, and Janet was the prototype of women's lives represented in George Eliot's later works. The second paper, 'Birth and Significance of Felix Halt, the Radical: George Eliot's Groping and Challenge', was presented by Teiko Hashimoto, an assistant professor at Showa Pharmaceutical University. She suggested that G. H. Lewes's influence on Felix Halt was clearly seen in the challenge George Eliot took up in creating the political problems, the mottoes in each chapter, the dramatic plot and the real characters. The third paper, 'A Consideration of Middlemarch on Fare brother’, was read by Michiko Kobayashi, a part-time lecturer at Doshisha University. She remarked that we could see George Eliot's ability to create the minor characters in the description of Farebrother, in which his sense of value was set against Lydgate's and Casaubon's. And the last paper, 'George Eliot in Japan: as a Woman Novelist', was read by Kyoko Kishimoto, an assistant professor at Kyoto Sangyo University. She introduced the reception history of George Eliot in Japan, based on reliable materials which show the first introduction of George Eliot into Japan to be in 1885 and the first abridged translation into Japanese in 1901.

The afternoon session began with the general meeting, presided over by Yoshitsugu Uchida, the vice-president of the Japanese Branch and a professor at Kansai Gaidai University. The Japanese Branch elected Shzuko Kawamoto, the former vice-president and an emeritus professor at Tsuda College, as the new president and Kimitaka Hara, a professor at Nihon University, as the new vice-president. And it appointed Hiroshi Ebine, the former president and a professor at Toyo University, as an advisor. After the election, the former and new presidents made speeches, and the president of Tezukayana University, Suezo Ishizawa, gave a welcome address...