|   |   | 

William Plant, winner of the inaugural Hagio Prize created by Reuters Foundation and the Atsushi and Fumiko Hagio Fund, sent the following report on his study trip to Japan early in 2001:

Arriving on February 17th, he spent the first two weeks at the Hokkaido University of Education Sapporo, studying Japanese texts on Bushido (the Samurai code of honour) with Professor Sakaguchi, the university's Professor of Japanese History. He was also able to meet Professor Nagao, an expert on the works of Inazo Nitobe, author of the most famous English language exposition of Bushido thought.

During this study period he spent a week with a local family and another at the Sapporo International Youth Hostel.

The next three weeks were spent travelling around the country by rail, visiting castles, museums and old samurai residences, followed by a week in Tokyo where he visited the Edo-Tokyo museum to study the life of urban samurai in the Edo period. "But the highlight of my whole trip was kindly organised by Mrs Hagio through her nephew Mr Takeuchi, the mayor of Kamakura," William notes. "He arranged for me to be able to visit a swordsmith and watch him crafting samurai swords, a really amazing opportunity."

In a letter to the Selection Board, he said:
"The saying 'the trip of a lifetime' does not adequately convey how special my visit to Japan really was. I found all aspects of the trip immensely rewarding. My Japanese language skills improved through daily usage. My own research was greatly aided by the study sessions in Hokkaido, through which I learned a great deal of new information and also different interpretations of material with which I was already familiar.

"My understanding of life and culture in Japan was broadened by actually experiencing it firsthand, and making friends with my homestay family and other Japanese people I met en route made the trip even more valuable to me personally."