Press releases

22 Apr 2019

Minsk to host Japanese Culture Week on 30 April – 6 May

MINSK, 22 April (BelTA) – The Japanese culture week titled as Japanese Spring in Belarus will take place in Minsk on 30 April – 6 May. The event has been organized in honor of the arrival of the resident ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Japan to Belarus, representatives of the Japanese embassy told BelTA.

The series of cultural events will begin with a lecture about the traditional Japanese clothes – kimono. The Japanese reporter and a kimono specialist Hiroe Yoshioka will be in the House of Friendship to talk about the history of kimono, kimono varieties, and wearing rules.

An outdoor tea ceremony (nodate) is scheduled to take place in the Sendai public garden in Minsk on 1 May. The public garden was named after Minsk’s sister city Sendai. Yuko Katsura, an expert, a professor of the tea ceremony school Urasenke, will arrive from Japan specifically for the tea ceremony. Guests will be able to get familiar with Japanese tea traditions and sample genuine Japanese tea matcha as well as Japanese sweets. Those willing to participate in the ceremony will have to get registered on the embassy’s website.

The first shogi tournament for the cup of the ambassador of Japan will take place in the House of Friendship on 5-6 May. Anyone, who knows the rules and has submitted a participation application by 1 May, will be able to participate in it.

Japan’s interests in Belarus are now represented by Charge d'Affaires of Japan to Belarus Hiroki Tokunaga while the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary residing in Moscow also has a concurrent accreditation as the ambassador of Japan to Belarus.