Sensory Journey with Japanese Scholar -"Beautiful Japan, Beautiful Mount Fuji: How Do We Appreciate Beauty?"

On April 21, 2021, Dr. Hayakawa Taki, a scholar from Japan, was invited to give a lecture. Dr. Hayakawa shared his experiences in cross-cultural travel with Ginkgo students and faculty. Dr. Hayakawa talked about how to appreciate and discover beauty from the perspective of tourism culture and life aesthetics. He suggested that students of tourism-related majors should not only have the ability to appreciate and discover "beauty", but also learn to guide others to appreciate and discover beauty for themselves.

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Dr. Hayakawa shared with the students and faculty a concept that Tsuneo Kosano (1940-) of Kawaguchiko Town in Yamanashi Prefecture advocated and practiced successfully, using the "five senses experience" strategy in the tourism industry as an example. Dr. Hayakawa concluded by quoting two lines from Ming Dynasty philosopher Wang Yangming to illustrate the importance of the "five senses experience": 'When you do not look at a flower, the flower returns to silence with your mind.When you look at a flower, the color of the flower becomes clear and you know that the flower is already in your mind.'

Dr. Hayakawa introduced his hometown Yamanashi Prefecture to the students and faculty and shared the origins of Kofu City in Yamanashi Prefecture and Narita City.

Note: Dr. Taki Hayakawa is a Doctor of Literature. He is a native of Yamanashi Prefecture in Japan. He is a special researcher at the Society for the Promotion of Scholarship under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan, a part-time lecturer at the Faculty of Science and Technology of Waseda University, and a researcher in the Academic Committee of the Incense Culture Research Center of the Chinese Ethnic Society. He specializes in Tang and Song literature and music, and has published more than ten papers in academic journals in China and Japan, including Oriental Studies, Japanese Chinese Society Journal, Japanese Song Literature Association Journal, Song Culture Research, Folk Culture Forum, and Chinese Literature Journal. In addition to his academic career, he is engaged in poetry composition and is talented at playing the guqin, pipa, shakuhachi, and other instruments. He was awarded the 27th Ashikaga Prize in 2017 and the 38th Oriental Society Prize in 2019.