CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Japan House, an educational and cultural center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will host its annual fall open house on Nov. 7.
The Adachi Museum of Art and Gardens will be among the stops on a tour of Japan in April, led by Japan House director Kimiko Gunji and garden designer James Bier.
Located at 2000 S. Lincoln Ave., Urbana, Japan House will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The featured presentation at this year’s fall open house will be a demonstration by Hajime Sugawara and Masahiro Imafuji titled “Kendo: The Way of the Sword,” at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Practitioners of Kendo, a highly stylized, traditional Japanese martial art, typically use bamboo swords.
Sugawara is sixth Dan (sixth-degree black belt) and Imafuji, fifth Dan, in the Central Indiana Kendo Club.
From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., tea ceremony demonstrations will be conducted by members of the Urbana-Champaign Association of Chado Urasenke Tankokai.
Visitors also may tour the Japan House gardens at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. The tours will be led by James Bier, who designed the gardens.
For those who would like an even more authentic experience, Bier and Japan House director Kimiko Gunji will host a tour to Japan April 5-16 that will include visits to several notable gardens in Kyoto, Okayama and Tokyo.
The deadline for signing up for the tour is Dec. 1. For more information about the tour, contact Japan House at 217-244-9934 or japanhouse@illinois.edu.
