Old Japanese in Action
3 July 2014
As the culmination of a 5-year £1 million research project directed by Professor Bjarke Frellesvig, the Research Centre for Japanese Language and Linguistics in the Faculty of Oriental Studies organized an event called Old Japanese in Action in collaboration with Creation Theatre and Oxford Spires Academy, which took place at Oxford Spires Academy on 13 June 2014.
This event was designed to introduce, in an engaging and interactive way, Year 8-10 pupils to some of the oldest Japanese literature, history and culture, from the 8th century AD, the Nara period; in linguistic terms the language of this period is known as Old Japanese, hence the name Old Japanese in Action. A number of texts, including epic poetry, folk tales in poetic form, imperial edicts, and rituals, were selected to introduce students to the range of literature available at that time. You can watch the video on YouTube.
Bjarke described the benefits of this event:
It was very impressive and rewarding to see the level and quality of engagement with the old Japanese texts among the students, as well as their inventiveness and enthusiasm for the dramatization. We certainly got a new and fresh perspective on this material we have worked on for a long time. It was very worthwhile for us and the students clearly enjoyed themselves and said afterwards that they had learnt a lot.