To illustrate our cover story, Jon Spayde’s look at Japan studies at Carleton over the decades, Fukuoka-based artist Sanae Sugimoto used traditional black and orange inks to link geographies and times. Her lyrical visions connect the Carleton of today to Japan of the 1890s, when the College’s first international student, Tsune Watanabe, enrolled.
We see Mt. Fuji, a site seen by many students during travel in Japan, and Jōryo-en, Carleton’s Japanese garden, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The cover figure’s candle, representing the light of knowledge central to the Carleton seal, nods to the ways intellectual exchange with Japan casts a light not just on this East Asian country’s people, history, and traditions, but also the broader world beyond.