Conferment Ceremony for and Japanese Literature Lecture by Dr. Van Craig Gessel

     On Thursday, September 27th, a conferment ceremony for the 2018 Spring Conferment of Decorations on Foreign Nationals was held in Utah at Brigham Young University (BYU) where Acting Consul-General Kazumasa Kondo presented the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon to Dr. Van Craig Gessel, Professor of Asian and Near Eastern Languages at BYU.

     Dr. Gessel’s family, BYU President and Mrs. Worthen and other BYU professors attended the ceremony. Acting Consul-General Kondo gave the congratulatory remarks and presented the medal and certificate to Dr. Gessel, after which Dr. Gessel gave his reply address.

     Prior to the ceremony, Dr. Gessel gave a lecture about Japanese literature ("Silence as My Traveling Companion: My Journeys with Endō, Rodrigues, and Martin Scorsese”) in the Assembly Hall at the same venue. Approximately 90 BYU students and faculty attended the lecture.