For the love of the Amish: Japanese can’t get enough of the Plain-sect culture
Aug 19, 2009
From Jon Rutter's article in LancasterOnline.com:
When local Amish expert Donald Kraybill gave talks in Japan this past May, he noticed an amazing thing.
His audiences appeared to be made up of row upon row of surgeons.
The people behind the white masks weren't really doctors, it turned out — they were simply trying to protect themselves during a swine flu scare.
Their fears didn't keep them out of the lecture halls, however. The Japanese have long been fascinated with the Old Order Amish.
The love affair continues to bloom; in fact, it might not be an overstatement to call this Japan's Summer of the Amish.
Kraybill was invited to speak at the art museum and at two schools, the University of Tokyo and Gifu University, by Chiho Oyabu and Toshiharu Sugihara, professors who collaborated on translating two of his books.
Scott, a research assistant at The Young Center For Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, helped the museum assemble clothing and other Amish items for the exhibition over the past year.
He lectured in the same venues as Kraybill and also visited the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, to speak about Amish perseverance in the face of modernity.
It's a cogent topic in Japan. So is restorative justice and the Amish treatment of criminals, such as Charles Roberts IV, the man who shot and killed five young Amish schoolgirls at Nickel Mines in 2006.
The Japanese have reintroduced an American-style jury system for trying more serious criminal cases, Kraybill said.
"There's concern that the lay jurors will become more punitive."
Amish