The Japan Group of the T. E. Lawrence Society


Last Updated 24 MAR. 2007

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*About the Japan Group

Some of Japanese members of the T. E. Lawrence Society organized themselves into a group in Summer of 1999 (see the T. E. Lawrence Society Newsletter No.50, Summer 1999, p.8). YAGITANI Ryōko, the webmaster of this site, is the coordinator of the group. We are planning on holding a meeting, open to members and non-members.

*The Next Meeting

To get information, please [address] (Ms. YAGITANI Ryoko).

*The Previous Meetings

The Japan Group held its first meeting on Sunday 7 November 1999 in Kōbe City, which had been widely reconstructed after the severe earthquake of 1995. It was a fine and rather hot day, which British people call St. Martin's summer.
Eleven Lawrence enthusiasts including one British, gathered here, about 600 kilometers west of Tōkyō, from Tōkyō, Saitama, Chiba, Nagoya, Kyōto, Okayama and Hyōgo. The group first met at the San'nomiya railway station to have lunch then walked ten minutes to the Kōbe YMCA Hotel, according to the plan drawn up by the efficient Ms. FUKUDA Kazuyo, the organizer of this meeting.

Most of us were meeting together for the first time, though nine of us are had already exchanged e-mails via the Internet. We soon opened out to each other, and enjoyed talking about how we came to know TE, and how we have been developing our interest in him. Curiously enough, three of the Japanese men have experience of working with foreigners, especially Arabic people, and expressed sympathy with TE in his Arabian days.
The only non-Japanese attender, a Mr Dorey, who now lives in Kōbe, is a distant cousin of the former curator of Clouds Hill, Mrs Joyce Knowles (née Dorey) of Wool, Dorset.

The beautiful photo albums, taken by Mr TOMINAGA Yasuji, who had worked in Syria, and by Mrs MICHINOBU Haruko, who joined the Society Lebanon and Syria tour in 1999 and was sadly absent from this meeting, were greatly appreciated. This first meeting of the Japan Group in the Far East was judged a success.

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The second meeting was held in Ochanomizu, Tōkyō on Saturday 25 March 2000. After lunch, seven members were gathered in a coffee room and enjoyed watching a video A DANGEROUS MAN. We spent the afternoon in a brisk conversation.

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On Sunday 18 June 2000 five women Lawrencians attended the second Kōbe gathering, organized by Ms. FUKUDA Kazuyo again. It was reported that they had a relaxed talk together about Lawrence for hours.

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The second Tōkyō meeting was held in Ginza on Sunday 24 June 2001. Seven members were amused by a video 100 nin no 20 Seiki, and a French documentary programme.

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The third Kōbe meeting, which was set up by Ms. FUKUDA, came off on Sunday 18 November 2001. After a visit of the Kōbe Muslim Mosque from 13pm, nine members including YAGITANI moved to a Hyōgo Kyōsai Kaikan to talk away. Special thanks to Haji SUGIMOTO, who kindly guided us in the Mosque, which founded in 1935.

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On 2 February 2003, seven Japanese members were gatherd in a beautiful restaurant, called Cafe de Kobe. The meeting was planned as a farewell party for Mr Dorey, who had lived in Kōbe for some years and would return to Dorset in this March. However, unfortunately, he was unable to attend it. So, members enjoyed lunch and talking. A group picture taken in this occation sent Mr Dorey as a gift from the Japan group. Later, we were told that he would remain Kōbe for the present.

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Eight members gathered again in Kobe, Hyogo prefecture on 21st May 2006, after an interval of three years.
We brought various goods and topics on T.E. and shared them each other in a small room of a public facilities, arranged by a good organiser, Ms FUKUDA. A newcomer from Tokyo, a photographer, Ms YOSHITAKE who had spent several weeks with a bedwin family in Syria almost every year since 1995, told her unique experience [her story appears in The Japan Times, on 9th April 2006]. Beautiful photos taken by her unstinted earned praise from us. Ms YAGITANI reported the Lawrence Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum visited on April, and a new Japanese translation work of the 1922 Oxford edition of Seven Pillars, due to be published in 2008. Mr KUME shown us his collection of a silver Lawrence of Arabia medal and British military decorations. [See The T. E. Lawrence Society Newsletter, Summer 2006, No.78]

Unfortunately, our old members, Mr Robert Dorey and Ms MICHINOBU Haruko were absent from the meeting, however, we received messages from them later, that they are well.

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