The Hungarian Nippon Society

Abstract

The Hungarian Nippon Society was founded in 1924, with the aim of building and developing Hungarian–Japanese relations, popularising Japan and Japanese culture in Hungary, and encouraging research on Japan. The society organised public lectures on Japan and Japanese culture and art exhibitions and social events connected to Japanese culture, and through these activities the society was the most important organiser and promoter of Japanese culture and art in Hungary between the two world wars. This society was the first (and for a long time, until the foundation of the Hungarian Japanese Friendship Society in 1987, the only) association in Hungary to focus solely on Japan and Japanese culture. This study summarises the most important issues related to the Nippon Society, with the aim of placing its history and activity in the broader historic and ideological context of its time. Examining the history of the Hungarian Nippon Society can provide us a more nuanced picture about how and why Japan’s image changed during the first half of the 20th century in a Central European country that had different images and concepts about the East and thus a different approach than Western European societies had. Moreover, this case of a primarily cultural association in a politically difficult era can show how different cultural and intellectual thoughts and theories can be affected by identity issues and by contemporary politics, political thinking, and international situations.