Introduction to Thai – Japanese Culture on Architecture and Environment

The historical relationship between Thailand and Japan. From historical evidence, Thailand
and Japan has maintained friendly diplomatic ties with one another for more than 600 years, which first developed from trading in the late 14th century, when trading boats from Thailand arrived at Okinawa Island, Ryukyu, and Nagasaki port for the first time in 1612. Later on, there have been an increase in trading between Thailand and Japan, that led to as many as 1,500 Japanese immigrants to settle in Ayutthaya, accounting for our recognition of the “Japanese Village”. Most of these Japanese inhabitants were merchants, some of them adopted Catholicism, and others were samurais. The latter group played an important role in assisting the Thai military officials, with Mr. Yamada Nagamasa earning the rank of
“Okya Senaphimuk”, given by Somdet Phra Chao Songtham.  
On 26th of September, 1887, the two countries began their diplomatic relations with the signing of
the Declaration of Amity and Commerce in 1887. This took place in the 20th year of the Meiji Period
(1817-1912) and the 19th year of King Chulalongkorn’s reign (1868-1910) in Siam. From that day until today, it has been 120 years.  The relationship in culture, architecture and the environment. In addition to the diplomatic relations and trading alliance, both countries also held ties in Buddhism, which forms the basis of the Thai culture and is well depicted in the works of arts and architecture. This represents the civilization belonging to the two countries that exhibits close and mutual bond. A truly unique representation includes the Nittaiji Temple, where in the year 1900, King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) had graciously offered some of Lord Buddha's relics, presented to Siam from India, to the Japanese to reinforce the good relations between Japan and Siam. The Japanese Buddhist community had then constructed the Nissenji Temple (which means Japan-Siam Temple) at Nagoya in 1904 to enshrine this portion of the Lord Buddha's relics. In addition King Rama V had also offered a thousand-year-old Buddha statue to enshrine at the temple, which features the Thai style of arts. Later on, when the name “Siam” was changed to Thailand, this temple was renamed accordingly in the year 1941, to be known as “Nittaiji Temple” meaning the Japanese-Thai temple. Nittaiji Temple has celebrated its 100 years anniversary back in 2004, and presently ages 104 years.
King Rama VI and King Rama VII, and also HRH Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn has planted pine trees at the Kotokuin temple in Kamakura. In total there are three pine trees planted by the Royal family of Thailand.
In the era of King Rama V, Thailand had sustained a rapid development so to keep up with the changes in the western parts of the world. For this reason there was the need to recruit foreign specialists to serve as advisors in various fields. This included the subject of education, where the Japanese government has assigned Ms. Tetsu Yasui the duty of assisting in the reformation of Thai education. She also became the co-founder of Rajini School in Thailand in 1904. Others include specialists in the fields of silk worm farming, medical, engineering, arts and handicrafts, and so on.
From then onward, the relationship between both countries has flourished until the present-day globalization era, fostering the cultural, architectural and educational knowledge exchange on a continual and sustainable basis. The well-known architectural masterpieces of Japan ever since the modern era until present-day is all accounted for in the curriculum of Thai school for architecture. This is also true for famous Japanese architects, including Kenzo Tange, Tadao Ando, Toyo Ito, and so on. All architectural works are well known in Thailand, including the Japanese garden.
At present day, the technological advancement in communications of the 21st century has influenced the academic world of learning to change from textbook learning to more electronic learning. Compared to the past where one has to travel across continents and the globe to attend a meeting and participate in academic conferences, the approach has now changed to feature learning via network, where classroom sessions are conducted with the aid of distant learning programs on the Global Media Network Classrooms.
Today in Bangkok, Thailand, we shall learn about the Thai-Japanese Culture on Architecture and Environment, in collaboration with Tokai University, Tokyo, and Muroran Institute of Technology, Muroran, Hokkaido. In this course we will attend a class and visualize the images of professors conducting lectures at two universities in Japan simultaneously.  Furthermore, we can study about the architecture and the environment in Japan from the lectures of distinguished Japanese professors, while we are based in Bangkok classrooms, together with the support of an internet-based system from the Office of Information Technology Administration for Educational Development, under the Office of Commission on Higher Education or UniNet. This approach will elevate the standard for Thai education to keep up with the era of globalization, for this reason I hereby cordially express my gratitude.
Suphawadee Ratanamart

Referrences:
1. 120th Anniversary of Japan-Thailand Diplomatic Relation 2007, Homepage http://www.thaiembassy.jp/120jt/index.php?lang=th

2. “Siam's bond with Japan” – The Nations News
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/11/05/headlines/headlines_30054914.php

Illustrations