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Japanese Guests Met with Svetlana Mikhailovna Sholokhova

On a fine September sunny day, Svetlana Mikhailovna Sholokhova, the daughter of the great Russian writer, received guests from Japan. The two young ladies – Kyoko Tanaka and Yoko Otsuka – had long dreamed of visiting distant Russia and meeting with the family of M.A.Sholokhov.

Kyoko Tanaka, the well-known Japanese performer, the last student of the famous Japanese harpist Yoshie Abe, who was a friend of M.A.Sholokhov and his family, studies in the life and work of her teacher. She is going to visit the places in the cities and countries, where Yoshie Abe stayed and worked, and to meet with the friends and familiar people of her teacher.

Yoshie Abe met with M.A.Sholokhov in 1935, when she worked at the Embassy of Japan in Moscow. On behalf of Mr. Yamamoto, chief editor of the Tokyo journal “Kaizo” she interviewed the writer and on his invitation visited Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya. There are many pictures of Yoshie Abe staying with the family of M.A.Sholokhov in their prewar house.

Svetlana Mikhailovna remembers, that later as well, the family met with Yoshie Abe in Moscow: “I remember, I was a schoolgirl then, Yoshie Abe and me had a great fun going to the recreation park and enjoying riding on the carousel and on the “Devil’s Wheel”. We joked and laughed a lot. Yoshie Abe was very gentle, kind, polite and intelligent, she spoke Russian fluently”.

In 1966, the Sholokhovs family travelled around Japan on the invitation of Yoshie Abe. Svetlana Mikhailovna notes the tactfulness of Japanese reporters, a well thought-out organization of their visit: each family member was accompanied by a representative of the profession corresponding to him. At that time Svetlana Mikhailovna worked as editor of the magazine for women “Krestyanka” (Peasant Woman) and got an opportunity to visit the editorial offices of two women’s magazines, where she gave interviews.

The visit of M.A.Sholokhov, the Nobel Prize winner, became a great event for the Japanese society. All the newspapers, journals and magazines published their reportages, interviews, photos of the writer and his family, literary commentaries on the works by M.A.Sholokhov and, of course, on the novel “And Quiet Flows the Don” which became a bestseller in Japan.

This meeting in Vyoshenskaya was touching and emotional. The guests presented Svetlana Mikhailovna with a Japanese styled bouquet of flowers and

souvenirs. When parting she said, she felt as if after so many years she again met with Yoshie Abe and was hugging her.

Galina Zhidkoblinova