Visiting academic Mai Tsumura has been attending meetings of Leicester Novus Rotary Club nearly every week since she arrived in September 2018, to study at Leicester University.
She has recently gone back to Japan to see friends and family and also to visit the Rotary Club of Nishinomiya Ebisu which is in District 2680 and which is about half way between the cities of Osaka and Kobe to the west.
District 2680 has sponsored Mai’s study of Victorian literature, focusing on John Ruskin (1819 – 1900). It was his writings on philanthropy that prompted Mai to seek help from Rotary and to associate herself to the Rotary Club of Leicester Novus.
In true Rotary fashion, when Mai returned to Nishinomiya-Ebisu Rotary, she took not only the greetings of President Maya Vansia and the Rotarians of Novus, but also a banner.
She also experience the ancient art of Shabutsu. This involves tracing the image of the Buddha. Many people find it a very relaxing and calming activity. Mai has promised to introduce Novus members to the practice when she returns to Leicester in early September, 2019.
Among the Rotarians looking forward to it is new Novus member Professor Atsuko Miyake. Twenty-five years ago Atsuko was sponsored by the same Japanese Rotary clubs as Mai. She returned to the UK in April 2019 to spend a year as a visiting professor at Leicester University where she is writing her PhD and researching English literature, including the works of George Eliot, the pen-name of Mary Ann Evans, (1819-1880).
Last edited 13:40, Friday, August 9, 2019
