Office of International Relations
September 27, 2004
Dr. James M. Dennis
President
McKendre
701 College Road
Lebanon, Illinois 62254-1299
U.S.A.
Dear President Dennis:
At the lunch in New York on July 24 to present the Tanaka Memorial Foundation grants for 2004, Dr. Kenji Tanaka spoke briefly of the significance of this year in terms of United States-Japan relations. It is the 150th anniversary of the Treaty of Kanagawa, signifying the first formal agreement between the two countries and the starting point of the close and very special relationship that brings us together today. In 1854, following the arrival in Japan of Commodore Matthew C. Perry and his ‘black ships’, a treaty was signed and four years later, a trading pact enacted. This was the first such recognized contact between Japan and another country for over two hundred years, the end of the policy of National Seclusion and the first occasion that Japanese culture was officially opened to western influence. It also hastened the Meiji Restoration, the end of the feudal Edo period and Tokugawa Shogunate, thereafter empowering the young Emperor Meiji to keep the doors open and modernize the nation.
Last week, a commemorative stamp series was issued by the Japan Postal Service, marking 150 years of United States-Japan cooperation and exchange. We thought that you would like to have this small memento of the occasion, especially as the friendship between nations so closely reflects the personal commitment of the Tanaka family and underlies the support given by the Tanaka Memorial Foundation. Images from the visual arts have been selected for the two commemorative stamps and these convey the impact of cross-cultural exchange at the social as well as artistic levels. The stamp on the left is a painting by Frederick Harris, depicting that quintessential image of Japan, "Mt. Fuji". Mr. Harris is a long-term resident of Tokyo, active in the local arts scene and renowned for his beautiful landscapes of Japan, combining traditional Japanese with western painting and printing techniques. He is also President of the Tokyo American Club and, by chance, a friend to Dr. and Mrs. Tanaka. The right-hand stamp is taken from a painting by the influential Japanese artist, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, who studied and lived in the United States from 1906 and contributed to the modernist art movement in Japan. Although distinctly ‘oriental’, this portrait shows the impact of modern, American culture and fashion on the Japanese consciousness. Kuniyoshi’s work was presented shortly after World War II at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s first retrospective of a living artist and this painting, "Café", is from the Whitney collection.
We trust that you are enjoying the start of the new season and wish you every success and happiness with the final, busy months of 2004 close at hand. On behalf of Dr. and Mrs. Tanaka, their family and your many friends and colleagues at Tanaka Ikueikai and TMF, I remain,
Yours sincerely,
Stephen Fleming
Director of International Relations