Re-discovering internationalist Tagore

The title itself of the book drew my attraction and it immediately received my thorough reading. I devoured all the chapters which stand fourteen in total. While reading it seems that the book bears a document of relations between India and Japan. The reading of some other chapters shows a series of examples of cultural and literary history of Japan, India and Bangladesh. The literary examples and creations of Japan and India-Bengal invariably make a bridge between the two cultures. Probir Bikash Sarkar a Bangladeshi writer and researcher has presented many untold stories about that relation in his publication Rabindranath Tagore India-Japan Cooperation Perspectives. A group of intellectuals of Japan considered the ideologies of Rabindranath the most important to revive the national enthusiasm and so they decided to celebrate the birth of centenary of Rabindranath with grandeur and the world has already celebrated 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. Okabura Tenshin, the renowned philosopher and towering literary figure of Japan developed an exclusive interest for Bengali literature in general and Rabindranath in particular. Okabura's 150th birth anniversary is going to be celebrated. India-Japan relations opened a new horizon in 1902 when these two literary giants met in Kolkata. Firstly, Tenshin knew it well that India was the motherland of Buddhism which got spread to Japan through China and Korea. Secondly, he knew the name of Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), the religious reformer of modern India. It is also assumed that, he was well aware of the historic Chicago speech of Vivekananda in 1893. The book tells us about the close link between Bengali and Japanese. It also makes us familiar with several Rabindra and Bangla lovers of Japan whose contributions have made Bengali known to that part of the world. Their love for Bangla drew them to India several times which has been recorded nicely in this book. The story of Rabindranath Tagore's meeting with the Japanese industrialist and dreamer of modern Japan Shibusawa Eiichi is forgotten now. Shibusawa was an influential government bureaucrat of the Meiji-TaishoShowa era who made it possible for Tagore to visit Japan. During this visit the poet had companions like William Winstenley Pearson, C.F. It is important to know the type of tea at the Tea Ceremony. It is no ordinary tea, rather green tea of green dust, a tea like Rojuch or Machha, the preparation of this tea is also different and artistic. Rabindranath had many female disciples along with the huge number of male ones. Madam Kora Tomi of Japan was such a friend and disciple of Rabindranth. She worked as the Director of Tagore Memorial Association founded in 1960. Rabindranth had a dream to set up Nippon Bhaban i. e. Japan House like the China Bhaban in Shantiniketon. In 1972 Prof Azuma Kazuo, a former Professor of the Department of Japanese at Visva-Bharati formed Tagore Samity in Japan. Prof Biyoda and Prof Azuma became the President and the Secretary of the Samity respectively. Prof Azuma Kazuo did his masters from Tokyo University in Indian Philosophy in 1959 and in German Language and Literature in 1960. Though he would have been more benefited in Germany, he went to Visva-Bharati in 1967 due to his inclination to Rabindranath Tagore. It was Prof Azuma who worked as the interpreter of the then Prime Minister of Bangladesh Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during his visit to Japan in 1973. Gitanajli has been translated into Japanese at least nine times. But the first translation was done by Watanebe Shoko, possibly in 1916 when Rabindranath first visited Japan which is a testimony that Shoko knew Bangla. In 1902 the Japanese scholar and art-researcher Okakura Tenshin met people like Tagore, Swami Vivekananda Surendranth Tagore in Kolkata and befriended with them. With the cooperation of Dr Nakmura Hajime, a noted Ideologist of Japan, the department of Japanese was established at Visva-Bharati. A good number of Japanese professors and researchers and students showed interest in Bangla language and literature along with the music, religion and philosophy of Rabindranath in Shanti Nekaton. Prof Azuma got acquainted with the writings of Rabindranath at the age of ten through his Dakghor. At the age of twelve he read Gitanjali and never could he leave Rabindranath in his later days. He fell in love with Bangla at his maturity. For his sincere devotion he was conferred with the PhD degree in 1967 when a department for Japanese was established in Visva-Bharati. Azuma joined there as a professor and worked for three years. A great part of his life he passed in Kolkata and Shanti Neketon. His contribution in the Liberation war of Bangladesh and in raising funds for the war is worth mentioning. He prepared a text book for the Japanese to learn Bangla in 1998. He authored a very excellent research book on Rabindranath's paintings. Azuma and his friend researcher Amitra Sudhan Bhattacharya jointly translated the novel Niji with the title Indradhonu by the Nobel laureate Japanese writer Kwabata Yasuari. The translation got published in Desh in 1969 serially. Azuma also wrote many thought-provoking articles on the origin of linguistic of Bangla language. He was the Chairman of Japan-Bharat Rabindra Association in Japan. The 12-volume Japanese translation of Rabindranath's works was undoubtedly a mammoth task. In 2006 his new Japanese book Tagore was published. Dr Nakamura Hajime teaches Bangla to the Japanese at Toho Gakuen School, established by the ideologist Dr Nakamura. Hajime received her MA from Tokyo University where she submitted a dissertation on Rabindranath's Balaka. Prof Usuda got his PhD on the history of modern Bengal from Kolkata University. In 1916, some poems of Rabindranath were published in Hngul (Korean Language) in the literary journal Chongchun. Gitajnali got a Korean translation in 1920 while Dakghor along with some essays in 1926. The prediction of Rabindranath could be heard in the speech of APJ Abdul Kalam, the then President of India on February 8, 2006 where he rightly said, "A lamp of the East that have inspired the whole Korean nationals for the last eighty years and been placed in the textbooks of Korean schools too." During all his visits to Japan in 1916, 1924 and 1929, Tagore remembered the influence of Tenshin. When they met in Boston in 1913 for the last time, Tenshin invited Tagore to visit China with him. He desired to show Tagore the unknown and unseen China though he could not fulfill his desire for his illness. Similarly, Tenshin was supposed to visit Tripura, at an invitation from the Royal family there, and that also remained unfulfilled. The economic giant and the most flourishing country of Asia--Japan experienced the serious devastation during the Second World War. The first atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki exposing the brutal power of mankind used to kill the fellow humans. Still the world remembers this tragic event. A good number of noted intellectuals organised a movement on the basis of the birth centenary of Rabindranath to spread the message of peace and love across the globe. They tried to depict Rabindranath as a symbol of peace and love. The readers will see the vivid descriptions of these events and records in this book. The writer is Programme Manager, BRAC and can be reached at email: mmbillah2000@yahoo.com