E. L. KATASONOVA

Doctor of Historical Sciences

Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Keywords: conference of young Japanese scholars "New Look", Russian-Japanese cultural relations

Traditionally, in October 2015, Moscow hosted for the seventh time the conference of young Japanese scholars "New Look", organized by the Japan Foundation Department of Japanese Culture of the M. I. Rudomino All-Russian State Library of Foreign Literature, the Association of Japanese Scholars and the School of Oriental Studies of the Higher School of Economics. As in previous years, it was attended by students, postgraduates,as well as young researchers who chose the study of Japan and the Japanese language as their specialty-future luminaries of Russian Japanese studies. It is gratifying that there were also representatives of other professions who joined this country because of their creative interests.

This conference has been attracting young scientists from different parts of Russia for the past seven years. Suffice it to say that the list of participants includes students and graduates of the largest universities in Russia: Moscow State University named after M. Vlomonosov, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Russian State University for the Humanities, St. Petersburg State University, as well as the largest regional educational and research centers of the country - Sakhalin State University, Tomsk State University, Ural Federal University, Buryat National University, etc.

The breadth of scientific interests of novice researchers is also noteworthy, because the discussion of scientific problems took place simultaneously in 8 sections in several main specialties at once. These are linguistics: translation and teaching of the Japanese language, literature, history and religion, art, society and culture, international cultural relations, international relations, and economics. In each of the sections, the topics of speeches were very diverse. Suffice it to say that at the section "International Cultural Relations", which I was lucky enough to attend, the speakers presented in their reports not only new topics, but also new approaches to its study, as well as their original vision of many phenomena of Russian-Japanese cultural interaction.

It is important to note that some of them spoke about these phenomena primarily based on their own professional experience. Not being Japanese scientists in their main specialty, but showing great interest in this country and participating in cultural exchanges between our countries, they were able to perceive both Japan itself and its culture and national traditions in a new way. And in this respect, the performance of the theater director V. A. Ni-zhelsky was very original and informative, who analyzed the experience of practical development of elements of traditional theater by Russian actors No. No less vivid were fragments from the study of D. N. Vasilisko from Donetsk State Technical University "Mutual influence of Russian and Japanese cultures on the example of costume design". This topic seems to have been in the air for a long time, because in recent years Japanese fashion has rapidly captured the world cultural space, fueling the national traditions of other countries, including Russia. In our country, Japanese fashion trends have become a source of inspiration for many leading and aspiring designers.

At the same time, due attention in the work of the section was paid in part to the already well-forgotten pages of the history of Soviet-Japanese cultural relations. As an example, we can mention the speech of A. S. Alekseeva from the Higher School of Economics, in which the main points of Soviet-Japanese cooperation in the field of cinematofafa in the post-war period were touched upon. Attention was also paid to Japanese architecture, and perhaps its most prominent representative Kenzo Taige, who had a huge impact on the world architecture of the XX century.

But the topic of the report of V. Y. Kuznetsova from St. Petersburg "What was read about Japan in the XIX century in Great Britain" seemed to many quite unexpected and original. This presentation, as the name implies, was mainly prepared on the basis of English sources, which does not at all reduce its cognitive significance. And, of course, it is not surprising that the conference participants could not ignore the very ass-

popular examples of modern mass culture, such as manga comics, animated anime films, etc., were discussed in several sections at once, as well as in other countries. At our section, everyone listened with great attention to the report of E. S. Sycheva "Symbolism of flowers in modern mass culture of Japan", and at the section "Art", the audience discussed with great interest the report of Yu. A. Magera from the Russian State University for the Humanities "Adaptation of Edogawa Rampo's short story" Caterpillar "("Imomushi") in the eponymous Masha Maruo Suehiro.

In just two days of the conference, more than 50 young researchers presented their new perspective not only on many well-known pages of Japanese history, economy, society and culture, but also outlined many new topical topics and directions for future research in Japanese history. Unfortunately, all these speeches are difficult to present to our readers, so we publish only a part of them.

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