People ASIAN ART 9 YOSHIKO USHIODA By Xenobe Purvis


many friendships she has forged. Mrs Ushioda describes her growing infatuation with Japanese art, and the education she received through her work at the Chester Beatty Library. Historic moments also feature:


Yoshiko Ushioda © Motoko Fujita 2018


taken a job at University College Dublin. In 1970, a chance request introduced her to the Chester Beatty Library, which houses the remarkable collections of Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968). She worked at the library as a volunteer, translating and cataloguing the many extraordinary works of Japanese art there, and in 1980 was promoted to the position of curator of the Japanese Arts Collection. Under her watch, the Japanese collection at the Chester Beatty Library has undergone vital restoration work, and


Y


oshiko Ushioda (b 1931) moved to Ireland in 1960 to join her husband, who had


– through exhibitions, publications and conferences – has been brought to the attention of scholars worldwide. For her work at the library, she was awarded the prestigious Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays in 2007. Tis year, Mrs Ushioda’s delightful memoir of the half-century she has spent in Ireland has been published in English. Her book – Caring for Japanese Arts at the Chester Beatty Library – contains many memories of her time working with the Japanese Arts Collection at the Chester Beatty Library, threaded among anecdotes of surprising encounters she has had over the years and the


Mrs Ushioda mentions a visit to Ireland by JF Kennedy, months before his assassination, and another by Michelle and Barack Obama in 2011 (‘they shook every hand in the crowd, and enjoyed the perfect pint of Guinness in the local pub’). Occasionally, celebrated events in Ireland during this period directly affected Mrs Ushioda and her husband, Satoshi Ushioda. In 1963, Dublin hosted the International Skill Competition; Mrs Ushioda found herself responsible for making a daily Japanese lunch for the entire Japanese delegation (clearly energised by this, Team Japan attained first place in the games). Tis book gives readers a fascinating insight into the experience of a newcomer to Ireland in the 1960s, and the emerging Japanese community in Dublin, as well as underscoring the significance of the Japanese collections at the Chester Beatty Library. It was a great pleasure for the Asian Art Newspaper to be able to ask Mrs Ushioda about the themes and experiences touched on in her memoir. We are extremely grateful to her for her time. AAN: Ireland and Japan have had a


fascinating history of intercultural exchange (the writing of Lafacadio Hearn and WB Yeats’s interest in noh plays are two examples that spring to mind). Te work you have done at the Chester Beatty Library – introducing Japanese culture to an Irish audience – has furthered this cross-continental relationship. Were you aware of the cultural affiliation between Japan and Ireland before you embarked on your life there? Yoshiko Ushioda: During the six months in Japan before I moved, I read many books about Ireland. So I had some kind of knowledge from these books. Lafcadio Hearn wasn’t so well known in Japan in 1960 – nowadays more. Literature students who had read WB Yeats were keen


When I came from Tokyo to London, I was practically the only Japanese person on the plane


to visit Ireland, but in those days – 1960s, just after the war – it was very difficult for Japanese to go abroad, except for a few government officials and those, like my husband, who got scholarships from universities. But people like me – housewives and university graduates – found it almost impossible to travel. It was so expensive. So when I came from Tokyo to London I was practically the only Japanese person on the plane!


AAN: Were you able to speak English when you arrived in Dublin in 1960? Moving there must have been very daunting! How was your experience of living there in those first few years? YU: I did not major in English Literature or English Language – I studied Japanese Literature. So I could not speak English, but I had a little conversation book in my handbag, and I counted on that little book! I was able to pick up a little English. I spent three years in the US as well. When we came, we were the only Japanese. Tere was not a Japanese embassy – we were the ambassador and the ambassador’s wife!


AAN: You came to volunteer at the Chester Beatty Library through a stroke of good fortune – you were asked to teach Japanese to Ms Jan Continued on page 10


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