Last Updated on Wednesday, 01 September 2010 21:53

A brief history of the Austrian Japan-Society for Science and Art (AAJ)

A predecessor of the AAJ, the "Japanologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft", was founded in November 1959 by Professor Alexander Slawik. This Study Group organized lectures by European and Japanese scholars in order to provide a forum for the exchange of information between Austria and Japan.

In May 1983 an association of former Monbusho scholarship holders was established. Its primary aims were to evaluate the experiences of Austrian students in Japan and to pass on the results to future students as well as to intensify the scholarly exchange between the two countries. Two years later, in March 1985, the AAJ (Akademischer Arbeitskreis Japan) was founded with Prof. Sepp Linhart as president and Prof. emeritus Alexander Slawik, the founder of the Department for Japanese Studies, as honorary president. The declared aims of this new association were to promote Japanese Studies in Austria, to intensify the exchange of scholars as well as artists between Japan and Austria, to disseminate information about Japan in Austria, to establish a network of similarly interested organizations, and, last but not least, to take care of Austrian students in Japan and Japanese students in Austria.

The AAJ regularly organizes lectures and discussions, film presentations, visits to Japan-related exhibitions as well as informal meetings to encourage an exchange of ideas among all persons interested in Japan.

The publication of its newsletter Minikomi is perhaps our association's most important activity. It all started as a continuation of the small newsletter originally issued by the Viennese Department of Japanese Studies in 1979. The first issues contained mostly information about current research projects of the AAJ's members, announcements of Japan-related events and conferences, and book reviews. Additionally, in its first years the AAJ published a series of papers called "AAJ-Schriften".

In the beginning, the AAJ grew only slowly. In 1989 a new president was elected: Dr. Fleur Wöss, who also became editor of our newsletter. Minikomi changed its appearance and started to publish original articles, such as a report about the great Hanshin earthquake and a feature about Ieda Shôko's books, which aroused great interest outside the small but growing circle of AAJ members.

In 1993 Prof. Linhart was once more elected president, with Sabine Sommer (together with Wolfram Manzenreiter) as editor of Minikomi. When Prof. Linhart left to enjoy his sabbatical in Japan Werner Frank took over as president. But it was not until 1996 when Sabine Frühstück was elected as president and Wolfram Manzenreiter became sole editor of Minikomi that the association became active once more. Increasingly, original articles by scholars from all over the world appeared in our newsletter turned journal, internationally renowned scholars such as Takie Sugiyama-Lebra, Eyal Ben-Ari, Margaret Lock and Hamaguchi Eshun were invited to give lectures in Vienna (which were later published in Minikomi), and the percentage of members outside of Austria increased rapidly.

Since 1997 the AAJ regularly organized visits to Japan-related exhibitions, especially to the Museum of Applied Arts where Dr. Johannes Wieninger, curator of East Asian art, is doing his best to make the museum's considerable collections (long hidden in its vaults) accessible to the public.

When Dr. Sabine Frühstück moved to the University of California in Juni 1999 Roland Domenig was elected president, with Prof. Linhart as honorary president. Since then, the AAJ also regularly shows Japanese films, often films that have never been shown outside Japan. As the number of AAJ members in Japan has steadily increased over the past years, the first AAJ meeting in Tokyo was held in September 2001. At the same time Roland Domenig took over as editor of Minikomi. Since then most issues are dedicated to a specific topic.

Currently, the AAJ has about 120 members in 8 nations.