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Guests from Japan Visiting Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya

The National M.A.Sholokhov Museum was visited by Japanese guests – Mrs. Kyoko Tanaka and her friend Mrs. Yoko Otsuka. They are going to stay on a visit during September 12–14, 2018.

Kyoko Tanaka decided to come to Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya in memory of her harpist teacher Miss Yoshie Abe, who worked in the Embassy of Japan in Moscow during 1932–1937, and on behalf of the chief editor of the Tokyo journal ”Kaizo”, Mr. Yamamoto, interviewed M.A.Sholokhov. In September 1935, Yoshie Abe was invited by the writer to visit Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya.

Miss Yoshie Abe was the first harpist teacher for Kyoko Tanaka in the Tokyo musical school. In her article “The Life of Miss Yoshie Abe Who Studied Harp Abroad during the Second World War” published in the newspaper “Nikkei” on April 22, 2010, Kyoko Tanaka writes: “I wanted to find out more about Miss Abe’ life history. I visited several libraries and museums, wrote letters to persons who knew her and listened to her stories. Through the courtesy of numerous people, many of her mementoes were given to me. This is how I gradually started to recognize her real identity, one that had been unknown to me during all those years”.

The family of M.A.Sholokhov and Yoshie Abe were bound for many years of friendship. They several times met in Moscow and corresponded. Yoshie Abe was the first to congratulate the writer on awarding him the Nobel Prize. When the Sholokhovs visited Japan in 1966, she accompanied them in that trip.

In Vyoshenskaya, Kyoko Tanaka and Yoko Otsuka met with the members of the XX “Sholokhov Readings”, visited the House-Museum at the Estate of M.A.Sholokhov, the historical literary exhibition “M.A.Sholokhov. Time and Life”, where they made their autographs in the Book of Honorable Visitors.

Yelena Ilyichova
Galina Smirnova