CULTURE DAY OF THE LAND OF THE RISING SU

The annual “Day of Japanese Culture” was held at the Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Almaty 3 November. The Embassy of Japan held the event in the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Kazakhstan - Japanese Human Resource Development Center, Narhoz University, the Association of Japanese Businessmen in Kazakhstan, the Japanese Association in Kazakhstan, the organization of Terracaya and the Kazakhstan-Japan Silk Road Association.

The aim of the festival “Day of Culture of Japan” was to strengthen cultural cooperation, develop ties and deepen mutual understanding between Kazakhstan and Japan. Also to introduce residents and guests of Almaty with traditions and customs, with modern innovative and intellectual achievements of the Land of the Rising Sun.  

At the festival, visitors could get acquainted not only with cultural traditions and modern forms of art, writing, music, dancing, cuisine, but also with the products of Japanese companies.

The program of the event included: the performance of the Ooedodayko drummer group, the Japanese dance of Yosakoy Soran, the animated computer games Cosplay, and the Japanese drafts; dressing Yukata (traditional Japanese clothing); workshops on various types of art and handicrafts: manga art style (classical techniques and techniques of drawing Japanese comics), art Sumium (drawing with ink and paints on rice paper), origami and furoshiki (an ancient technique of wrapping gifts from fabric), and beaters (Japanese craft of making paper stencils for dyeing textiles), ikebana art (traditional Japanese art of arranging), etc. Festival visitors also got acquainted with Japanese Samurai dolls, learned to write hieroglyphs during master classes llygrafii, properly pour tea at the ceremony of Japanese tea and prepare traditional Japanese dishes (takoyaki).

The Day of Japanese Culture in Almaty was opened by the Director of the Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan - Nursan Alimbay and the Ambassador of Japan in Kazakhstan Mr. Ichiro Kawabata, the rector of Narxoz University - Andrew Wakhtel.

Students and teachers of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Department of the Far East, also attended the event. Most of all we liked dressing Yukata, put on traditional Japanese clothes-kimono, and even took pictures