A girl with long dark hair is bent over a long, skinny sheet of paper and holding a traditional Japanese calligraphy brush in one hand, writing Japanese characters on the sheet.

Annual Japan Festival to be held April 24

The Japanese Culture Association, with sponsorship from the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literature, will be holding its annual Japan Festival beginning 12:30 p.m. Friday, April 24 in 233 Rhatigan Student Center, Santa Fe Trail Room.

The event will begin at 12:30 p.m. with martial arts performances, and booths will open at 1 p.m. and run until 3:30 p.m. Visitors can learn about a variety of Japanese traditional arts including ikebana, calligraphy, ink painting and origami. Games and a bazaar will also be available, and visitors can purchase traditional Japanese foods as well.

5th annual haiku contest deadline: April 17

The 5th annual haiku contest will be closed to submissions at midnight on Friday, April 17. Winners will be announced at Wichita State’s Japan Festival at 3:30 p.m. April 24 in room 233 of the RSC. 

Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry that consists of three lines in a five-seven-five-syllable pattern. They are often about nature and often include a kigo, or season word, that gives a sense of the time when the poem takes place. Entries can be made in English or Japanese. 

Four people stand on a stage. The first three, Jack, person wearing black with pale green hair, Necia, a person with long hair in a multicolored pastel sweater, and Yumi Foster, who is wearing a white shirt with tan pants, hold up certificates with white, red, and blue ribbons. The fourth person is a man in a grey suit with a thin black tie wearing a name tag.

WSU students bring home accolades from Japanese contest

The Modern and Classical Languages and Literature department would like to congratulate WSU students who won awards at the 28th Heart of America Japan-America Society’s Japanese Contest, this year held in Lawrence, Kansas. This is a yearly contest that brings together Japanese-language students from around the Midwest for a variety of different events, including Japanese poetry, reading, grammar and speeches.

This year’s winners are Tina Quach, Necia Potter and Jack Batta in first, second and third places in Japanese tanka, respectively. Litzy Solano won first prize for her English-language tanka. Elliot Terrell won first place in N5-level Kanji and Jordan Hoang won first prize for his speech.

Annual haiku contest to be held at WSU in connection with the Japan Festival

As part of the Japan Festival, the annual haiku contest is being hosted in both English and Japanese. Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry that follows the 5-7-5 syllable sentence pattern. Haiku are traditionally written about nature and include a kigo, or seasonal word, a word or phrase that gives the reader a sense of time and place. The deadline for submissions is April 17.

There will be a prize worth $20 for the top winner in each category. No AI-generated submissions.

Submit an English haiku or submit a Japanese haiku.

Two girls, one with long curly black hair wearing a black sweatshirt, and the second with long brown hair wearing a purple shirt with orange sleeves, stand around a table covered in cards with Japanese writing on them. Two judges stand behind them in black shirts with white name tags observing. In the back corner, a small group of five performers in costume can be seen standing in a circle talking. They wear long black tunics with gold and purple at the bottom and a yellow circle on the back.

Students compete and win prizes in the annual Japanese Contest

The modern and classical languages and literatures department would like to congratulate the winners of the Heart of America Japan-America Society’s Japanese Contest, an annual contest held at Johnson County Community College. Every year, students from WSU participate in a variety of categories that include poetry, speeches, comics, grammar and reading, and culture. In total, over 90 students from Kansas and Missouri competed in the competition. 

This year’s winners include Gavin McCafferty, Thomas DiMattia and Izabella Grabell, who won first, second and third place respectively in the Japanese-language Tanka Poetry competition, and Litzy Solano, who placed first for her English-language tanka poem. For reading, there were reading contests for both kana and kanji (Japanese writing systems), and Elliot Terrell won first prize in the Hiragana contest,while Alyssa Moen won third place in the N4 level kanji competition. Alyssa Moen also took first place in the Japanese Culture Quiz.

MCLL would like to thank and congratulate everyone who participated and represented WSU in this year’s competition.

Japanese Culture Association’s annual photo haiku contest submissions are now open

The Japanese Culture Association’s annual haiku contest is now open to submissions in both English and Japanese. Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry that consists of three lines following a 5-7-5 sentence pattern. Traditionally, haiku were most commonly written about nature, often containing a “kigo,” or seasonal word. For the Photo Haiku Contest, we ask that you also submit an image to accompany your poem. Drawings or photographs are both accepted. While AI can be used to create the image, the poem itself should be an original poem.

Prizes will be given to the first-place winner in each category. Entries will be accepted through March 31, and winners will be announced in person at the Japan Festival April 11 in the RSC. Prize winners will also be announced on the submission page on Padlet following the festival.

For questions, email Jennifer Musaji at jennifer.musaji@gmail.com.

Japanese courses will be offered during the summer and fall semesters

JAPN 323: Anime and Manga will be offered for the first time during the summer at the Old Town Campus. The class will be held at 9 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Flexibility is available for students who cannot attend in person.

In addition, new Japanese-language courses will be offered this fall. JAPN 104: Intro to Japanese (three credits) and JAPN 105: Elementary Japanese I (three credits) will replace JAPN 111. Students can choose between taking JAPN 104 as a 16-week course at the Old Town Campus, or taking both JAPN 104 and 105 in the same semester as 8-week courses on the main campus.

Finally, JAPN 324: Japanese Film will be offered in the fall as well. The course counts as a general education credit and will be taught on the Old Town Campus.

The Tatsumaki Yosakoi team posing in their costumes in front of a sign that reads "Expedition Asia."

Japanese Yosakoi Dance team coming to Wichita State Sept. 22.

The Tatsumaki Yosakoi Japanese traditional dance team will be coming to Wichita State from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22 for a performance and workshop in 143A Heskett Center. Tatsumaki Yosakoi will perform songs and also teach anyone interested. The event will be open to the general public and no dance experience is required. Spectators are also welcome.

Tatsumaki Yosakoi was established in 2005 and has been performing at festivals around the country and helping spread Japanese culture for 18 years. The Japanese Culture Association and the Asian Student Conference Dance Committee are sponsoring the event.

Annual Japan Festival to be held in RSC April 28

The Japanese Culture Association will hold its annual Japan Festival from 1 to 3 p.m. Friday, April 28 on the second floor of the Rhatigan Student Center. The festival will include arts and crafts projects such as calligraphy, origami, ikebana, and making a lucky charm; karaoke; and traditional Japanese pastries provided by local Japanese bakery Komugi.

The Society of Cosplayers will also join with tea, stickers and more, and the Japanese Culture Association will also have its annual raffle for attending. Results of the haiku contest and raffle winners will be announced at 3 p.m. in 233 RSC.

Presentations on the topics of study abroad at 12:45 p.m. and the JET program at 2 p.m. will be held in 262 RSC. A traditional martial arts demonstration will begin at 1 p.m. in the lounge area in the second floor of RSC. Work by students of the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures’ (MCLL) Japanese program will also be on display.

The festival this year is being put on by the MCLL department, the WSU Japanese program, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and the Student Government Organization.

A wintery landscape with a leafless tree in the center accompanied by a poem which reads, "Over the wintry Forest, winds howl in rage With no leaves to blow. by Natsume Souseki"

Japanese Culture Association accepting entries for photo haiku contest

As part of the Japanese Culture Association’s annual Japan Festival, it will be holding a photo haiku contest. A haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry that consists of three lines in a 5-7-5 syllable pattern and traditionally includes a seasonal word, known as kigo in Japanese. The contest is free to enter.

To enter, participants must write a haiku in either English or Japanese and choose, take or draw an image or photo to go along with the entry.

Entries should include the participant’s full name. The deadline to submit is Monday, April 10, and the winners will be announced at the Japan Festival on Friday, April 28. Any questions about the contest can be directed to Jennifer Musaji, lecturer in Japanese, at jennifer.musaji@wichita.edu.