Noma-Reischauer Prizes awarded in Japanese studies

The Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and Kodansha Ltd. Publishers hosted the 16th annual Edwin O. Reischauer/Kodansha Ltd. Commemorative Symposium and the 15th annual awarding of the Noma-Reischauer Prizes in Japanese Studies on Oct. 15. The event, held in Belmont, Mass., at the former home of Edwin O. Reischauer, marked the centennial of Reischauer’s birth.

The Noma-Reischauer prizes are given annually by Kodansha Ltd. for the best essays written by Harvard students on Japan-related topics. This year, Marie Kodama ’10, social studies, won the undergraduate prize for her essay “Within and Beyond Traditions: Contextualizing Japan’s School-based Peace Education in Classical Japanese and Western Trends.” Wei Yu Wayne Tan, Ph.D. candidate in Harvard’s Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, won the graduate prize for his essay “Blind Monks for Hire: Making Music and Money in Medieval and Early Modern Japan.”

The deadline for submitting essays for the 2011 Noma-Reischauer Prize is June 20, 2011.  For more information, call the Reischauer Institute at 617.495.3220 or visit the institute’s website.