The Penn Japanese Language Program invited students from Penn, the Community College of Philadelphia, and Lower Merion High School to tour the Shofuso Japanese Cultural Center on Friday.
Shofuso, a 17th century-style Japanese house, was designed by architect Junzo Yoshimura and built in Japan in 1953. It was featured at New York’s Museum of Modern Art before moving to its current location in Fairmount Park, where it is owned by the City of Philadelphia and maintained by the Friends of the Japanese House and Garden nonprofit.
Penn professors Megumu Tamura and Tomoko Takami led the March 28 program and tour, which is now in its third year of operation.
“With the Japanese language program, we try to help students enjoy learning the language in the Philadelphia community, not just in the classrooms and not just learning vocabulary and grammar,” Professor Takami told The Daily Pennsylvanian. “It’s a nice way to invite the students from all levels of language to meet each other and have a good time.”
After arriving at Shofuso, the Penn affiliates met with students from the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP), led by CCP Religious Studies professor David Prejsnar, along with a student from Lower Merion High School. The students were led on a private tour of Shofuso, where they learned about the history of the site and life in 17th century Japan.
College sophomore Sidney Wong emphasized the “incredible” existence of the garden in an interview with the DP.
“I just found it really interesting that there’s something so traditional," she said.
College sophomore Ellie Reilly — who is currently taking JPAN 0600 — also noted the significance of seeing her classroom material “in-person.”
“It’s also just appreciating other people’s cultures, other people’s backgrounds, and learning more about it,” she added.
The Shofuso tour is another step in a series of cooperative efforts between Penn and other local academic institutions.
“Philadelphia is such a rich city in terms of its higher education institutions from Penn to Temple to the Community College of Philadelphia,” Prejsnar said. “We often don’t work enough together, so the more we could, would make everybody richer. It helps all our students, not just one institution… we’re really hoping that we can continue to work together.”
Tamura and Takami also seek to redefine Penn’s role as an institution that can assist others, including Lower Merion High School, which recently discontinued its Japanese language program.
“One of the high school students [at Lower Merion] reached out to the community, and I was one of them that they reached out to,” Takami said. “There are only three high schools in the Philadelphia community where Japanese is taught.”
Ethan Quan, a senior at Lower Merion, told the DP that he used the event to reclaim a sense of being back in the classroom.
“The opportunity to come here means a lot, especially given how Lower Merion High School Japanese programs have been reduced to online ones,” Quan said. “You’re able to experience something that isn’t just language, you’re experiencing culture in an area that may be so close to home, where it may seem otherworldly.”
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