MARTIN, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee at Martin and the Martin Public Library will ahowcase Far Eastern culture in West Tennessee on Monday and Tuesday, March 11-12.
The Duncan Ballroom in the Boling University Center on the campus of UT Martin will be the host site for the events of Monday, March 11, and the Martin Public Library in downtown Martin will be the host site for the Tuesday, March 12, events.
Kyoko Hammond, a lecturer of Japanese in the UTM Department of Modern Foreign Languages, said the festival will offer several insights into Japan’s history and culture.
“The door opens at 5 p.m. Monday,” she said. “People can enjoy a sampling of California rolls and some Japanese candy. People can mix and mingle for about a half-hour, and then, the stage will be ready.”
The event will feature a performance on the shamisen, a three-stringed traditional Japanese instrument played with a plectrum called a bachi.
“Then, we will have a shotokan demonstration – a kata,” Hammond said. Shotokan is a style of karate, and a kata is a demonstration of shotokan. Kyle Dedmon of Fulton, Kentucky, will perform the kata.
Tye Edel, the program coordinator for the Japan Exchange Teaching (JET) program, and Jonathan Contrades, the JET cultural program coordinator, will come to the festival from the Consulate General of Japan in Nashville to discuss the JET program.
“After students graduate from college, they go to Japan as a teaching assistant for the English classes through the JET program,” Hammond said. “UT Martin students have worked and are working in Japan through this program.”
There will also be a calligraphy demonstration held, and then, there will be a demonstration and tasting of mochi, a short-grain rice cake. Mochi making is an important cultural event in Japan that involves members of a local community or family.
A display of kimono, traditional Japanese clothing, will also be offered.
“People can try on a cotton, casual kimono called a yukata,” Hammond said. “They can take pictures or just see how it feels.”
The Martin Public Library event will be held from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. it will also feature a shamisen performance from 11 to 11:15 a.m. and will have a sushi-making workshop from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
The sushi-making workshop had a capacity of 20 participants and has been filled. However, people may watch those participants in action.
A box will be available for visitors to make a donation to help the people of Japan following the 7.5-magnitude earthquake that struck the west coast of Japan on Jan. 1. Several severe aftershocks followed, and at least 62 people died, with 57,360 people fleeing their homes.
The festival is made possible by a grant through The Japan Foundation, New York. Other sponsors include Asian Culture of Tennessee, the Japan Outreach Initiative Program, the Department of Modern Foreign Languages and the Department of English.