Ohio University and Chubu University students showcased traditional Japanese culture together and celebrated the blooming of the sakura trees.
Ohio University and Japan’s Chubu University students danced together Sunday to celebrate the relationship between the two colleges as well as the blossoming of the sakura trees.
The Japanese Student Association held its 11th annual Sakura Festival, a celebration of the Japanese cherry blossoms, that featured taiko drumming, Japanese pop music, kendo sword fighting and a traditional Japanese dance called the Soran Bushi.
“(The cherry trees) are not just beautiful,” Chris Thompson, a linguistics professor, said during his speech at the event. “They symbolize OU’s engagement with Japan (and) ongoing efforts to bring the people of the two countries together.”
The Sakura festival served both vegetarian and non-vegetarian Japanese bento boxes from Akai Hana, a Japanese restaurant in Columbus. The lunch came with rice, seaweed, seafood and vegetables.
The event, which sold 300 tickets, started with a taiko drum performance led by Eric “The Fish” Paton, a percussionist who teaches at Capital University. Dancing around the drums, the taiko drummers performed four songs, which began slow but got quicker.
After the taiko performance, Thompson spoke about the relationship between OU and Chubu University, a school in Kasugai, Japan.
Throughout its partnership, Chubu University has given OU more than 200 sakura trees. After a tsunami in Japan on March 11, 2011, OU held a ceremony in honor of the Japanese students at Chubu University. The OU Tsunami Relief Project took students to Japan and helped deliver water to areas affected by the tsunami. Thompson said the Japanese sakura trees, otherwise known as cherry blossoms, became a catalyst for global engagement.
Eric Frazee, a fifth-year senior studying music education, said the festival’s music was a combination of both old and new traditions.
“It’s cultural awareness,” Frazee said. “Anything that gives you better cultural awareness is going to not only help you grow as an individual, but help you grow as a global person and becoming a positive ambassador of America.”
The Ohio University Kendo Club demonstrated different strikes and moves used in the Japanese form of fencing, which is practiced by samurai.
After an intermission, Hashim Pashtun, the president of International Student Union, announced next year’s executive board members for the Japanese Student Association and upcoming events during International Week from April 10 through April 16.
Members of the Japanese Student Association performed a skit called the “Tongue-cut Sparrow,” an old Japanese folktale about an injured sparrow who is brought back to health by a husband and wife. At the end, the wife learned not to be greedy.
OU and Chubu University students partnered to sing four Japanese songs as a choir, and to perform the traditional Soran Bushi, a Japanese dance about a fisherman. More than 25 people then ran onto the stage and began the choreographed Soran Bushi dance, which involved stomping and hand movements.
The event ended when OU and Chubu University students took pictures together to capture the partnership between the universities.
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Kat Safreed, the public relations director for Japanese Student Association, said she had grown up in a middle-class, suburban neighborhood, and added that one characteristic that drew her to OU was its diversity.
“It’s important to explore another culture without putting up barriers,” Safreed, a junior studying strategic communication, said. “There aren’t any barriers at Sakura Festival. You see people from all different walks of life, from all over the world. And you can just get a chance to look at the human behind the culture instead of just looking at the culture through the media or television.”
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