Egyptomania in Japan!

Hussein Bassir

Director of the Antiquities Museum, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt

I have visited Japan twice in the last two years. The first time was in 2017 when I accompanied our Egyptological exhibition, the “Golden Pharaohs and Pyramids: The Treasures from the Egyptian Museum”, about the pyramid builders age in the cities of Toyama and Shizuoka, in addition to spending wonderful time in Tokyo. I stayed there for one month and learned a lot about Japan, her people and culture. Furthermore, I was lucky to meet my best friend, the most famous Egyptologist and father of Egyptology in Japan, Professor Sakuji Yoshimura. The second time was in 2018 to be the keynote speaker at an international conference on museums in the Twenty-first century where I talked about the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Antiquities Museum in Alexandria and the secrets behind the selection and composition of its archaeological collections. The invitation to this very important conference was by my colleague and best friend, Dr. Nozomu Kawai, Professor of Egyptology at Kanazawa University. I enjoyed the city Kanazawa so much and I met with many Japanese Egyptologists among them was the most famous Japanese Egyptologist Professor Jiro Kondo.

The planet of Japan is a very advanced country and Japanese people like ancient Egypt so much. Although Japan started interest in Egypt since a long time, Egyptology in Japan is not well known to the entire world. Japanese scholars such as Kiichi Kawamura, Sakuji Yoshimura, Jiro Kondo, and Nozomu Kawai, are very famous all over the world due to their very outstanding Egyptological projects involving archaeological excavations, conservation, Egyptological studies, and cooperation with major archaeological projects undertaken in Egypt today like the construction of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza and the conservation of the Second Boat of King Khufu to the south of the great pyramid of Giza.

Egyptology in Japan is relatively recent and started when the first Japanese ambassadorial mission to Europe visited Egypt for the first time in 1862. Then the second Japanese ambassadorial mission to Europe visited Giza plateau in 1863 and took the most famous photograph of samurai warriors in front of the Great sphinx at Giza. Then Egyptomania started to invade Japan through drawings, paintings, photographs and descriptions in books translated from the West. In 1888, the Medical School of the Tokyo Imperial University received a unique Egyptian mummy and coffins from the Yokohama consulate of the French Embassy in Japan. From December 1909 to January 1910, professor and historian Katsumi Kuroita visited Egypt and wrote several articles on the archaeology of Egypt. Kosaku Hamada studied with the father of modern Egyptology, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, to be the first Japanese scholar to study properly Egyptology. Some finds of Petrie’s excavation in Egypt were donated to Kyoto Imperial University, known now as the Hamada Collection. Seitaro Okajima (1895-1948) is considered the founder of Japanese Egyptology who introduced to Japan the discipline of Egyptology as usually practiced in the West. He published seven books and more than thirty articles on various aspects of Egyptology such as history, language, culture, and papyrology.

In 1954, H.I.H. Prince Takahito Mikasa, brother of the Emperor Hirohito, founded the Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan which contributed significantly to Japanese Egyptology.

Ichiro Kato (1921-2009) was one of the great pillars of Egyptology in Japan after the Second World War. In 1952, he traveled to study Egyptology at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, in the United States of America. He was promoted to be a full professor of Egyptology at Kansai University. Hachishi Suzuki (1926-2010) studied Egyptology at Cairo University and participated in the UNESCO salvage campaign in Nubia.

In 1965 the treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition toured Tokyo, Kyoto, and Fukuoka. This exhibition fostered interest in Egyptology among Japanese people and was visited by nearly three millions visitors. Other Egyptian exhibitions increased Egyptomania in Japan. Many things such as TV documentary movies and numerous books on ancient Egypt created the fever for all things ancient Egyptian and made ancient Egypt popular everywhere in Japan. The writer and former journalist on the Asahi Shinbun, Denroku Sakai, played an important role in the publication of popular books on ancient Egypt.

In 1966, Kiichi Kawamura and Sakuji Yoshimura of Waseda University conducted the first Japanese archaeological project in Egypt. Sakuji Yoshimura and Jiro Kondo established Egyptian archaeology in Japan and continue their amazing fieldwork in Egypt each year. One of the most important projects of the Waseda team is the Second Boat of King Khufu at Giza which I have requested to be displayed at the Grand Egyptian Museum after its complete restoration and assembling when I was the General Supervisor of the Grand Egyptian Museum Project (2011-2013).

In 2007, Professor of Egyptology at Waseda University, Jiro Kondo, started working at non-royal tombs in the Theban Necropolis, focusing of the reign of King Amenhotep III. Dr. Nozomu Kawai, Professor of Egyptology at Kanazawa University, began working in Abusir and achieved marvelous discoveries about the site and New Kingdom Egypt.

In 2000, Sakuji Yoshimura established the Institute of Egyptology at Waseda University. However, there is no university program in Japan focusing entirely on Egyptology. He also organized many Egyptological exhibitions promoting the image and magic of ancient Egypt and Egyptian antiquities among Japanese audiences through Japanese vigorous fieldwork projects which often being filmed by the media and books.

Egyptian antiquities in Japan are relatively minor, however, the Miho Museum has an outstanding Egyptian collection. In 2003, the Ancient Egyptian Museum Shibuya Tokyo was established, with nearly 1000 Egyptian artifacts. In 2010, Tokai University received a present of Egyptian antiquities owned by Hachishi Suzuki, nearly 6000 artifacts, the largest collection in Japan.

Japanese Egyptologists make earnest efforts to introduce Egyptology from a specifically Japanese point of view, different from the western approaches to modern day Egyptology. Warm greetings to Japan and to the Japanese school of Egyptology and its outstanding figures of our modern world, Sakuji Yoshimura, Jiro Kondo and Nozomu Kawai, because they love Egypt and her people and civilization. Thanks are due to them all because of their sincere efforts to save Egypt’s antiquities and promote the magic of ancient Egypt everywhere especially among the well-educated Japanese people in the planet of Japan.