Scottish Country Dancing in Japan

The Tokyo class of 1975: Bill Clement’s first trip to Japan

Scottish Dancing in Japan

One cold winter morning, Atsuko Clement and Fiona Grant chatted over Zoom about the popularity of Scottish country dancing in Japan. In this article, we share a little of our conversation.

Folk Dancing becomes popular in Japan

An American education officer in the US army, Winfield P. Niblo, who was stationed in Nagasaki after World War Two, was the Chief Education Officer of the Nagasaki Military Government from September 1946 to October 1948. Niblo was a high school teacher before the war and had been both a football coach and a teacher and caller of square dancing. Calling upon his personal enthusiasm for square dancing, he decided that American folk dance could encourage co-education and democracy in Japan. It was quite by chance, however, that Niblo’s square-dancing skills were put to practical use in Japan. He wrote:

‘One evening, shortly after I arrived in Nagasaki, I was invited to a dinner party at the home of Kaneko Sensei, the Chief Physical Education Officer of the Education Section of Kencho. Also in attendance was a group of physical education teachers from the city schools. Following dinner, the teachers performed a number of beautiful Japanese dances. When they were finished, I asked if they would like to learn some American folk dances. They said they would like this very much, so I arranged them in two lines with couples facing one another and taught them the oldest American dance, The Virginia Reel. They enjoyed it very much and asked to learn more dances. So I taught them several simple square dances. They learned the dances unbelievably fast. Thus, the American Square Dance was introduced to Japan. In a small sense, a little bit of history was made on that autumn evening of 1946 in Nagasaki.’

Square dancing caught on rapidly with the residents of Nagasaki, spreading initially through the instruction of PE teachers, who themselves underwent folk dance training. The teachers in turn taught groups of adults and children. From Nagasaki City it spread to the outer islands and other prefectures in Kyushu. Fujimoto Tojiro, Chief of the Nagasaki Prefectural Education Division, made funds available to send teaching teams of four couples each to neighbouring prefectures to demonstrate and teach folk dancing. Niblo’s secretary, Oishi Toshiko, years later recalled the introduction of square dancing in Nagasaki.

‘At first most people had some reluctance as Japanese men and women were unaccustomed to dancing together. The whole idea was alien to us. However, after one or two sessions we became enthusiastic square dancers. The music was exciting, and dancing became fun. There was little other recreation available at the time. The number of dancers increased rapidly. Square dancing broke the barrier between the military and civilians, the Americans and the Japanese.

Traditional Japanese folk dancing has everyone facing in the same direction, and individuals dance with no contact with others, so this new form of dancing hand in hand was very attractive to youngsters. By the summer of 1947 it was estimated that there were between 30,000 to 50,000 active dancers in Nagasaki Prefecture alone. It was, therefore, time to spread it to the rest of Japan with the assistance of the Ministry of Education. Niblo explained how this was done:

‘[The Ministry of Education], in cooperation with the National University of Physical Education under the direction of President Kurimoto, a national athletic hero, and the National Recreation Association under Yanagita Sensei arranged to conduct a National Folk Dance Training Course at the National Gymnasium in Tokyo. Each of the forty-seven prefectures was invited to send a team of four couples to receive one week of training in the Square Dance and a number of other Western style folk dances. The master plan provided for the forty-seven teams to return to their home prefectures following training, and proceed to teach and promote the dances through the schools and through community recreation programs, youth programs, etc.’

While this approach may have helped popularize folk dancing throughout Japan, the dancing boom in the country occurred because of the involvement of two very important people at the Folk-Dance Training Course: Prince Mikasa, the emperor’s younger brother, and his wife Princess Yuriko. The Prince had apparently participated in a square dance earlier in Sapporo and felt it was a worthwhile activity. Prince Mikasa confided in Niblo that the reason why he insisted that Yuriko accompany him to square dances was so that he would be setting a good example for Japanese husbands to include their wives in social functions. Niblo personally witnessed several ‘Welcome Square Dance Parties’ for the Prince as he and the Princess travelled around Japan. ‘

At the close of each one, the participants would form a large circle around the gymnasium or playground and Prince Mikasa and Princess Yuriko would go completely around the circle to greet and shake hands with everyone present. It was a great honour to have such a personal contact with a member of the Emperor’s Family.’

With the help of the Prince and Princess, the success of square dancing across Japan was assured. So many folk-dance groups were established all over Japan that the National Folk Dance Federation of Japan was formed in 1956. Some of these groups learned Scottish and English country dances, as well as Polish, Hungarian, Russian and other European dances, and folk dancing was taught in all schools. Atsuko remembers that every Friday at the lunch break, her whole school danced together.

Scottish Country Dancing

Mr Alexander Barrie, a member of the Scottish Country Dance Society, who was stationed in Hiroshima with the British army, taught dancing to military officers. He was invited by Mr Yutaka Harada to teach Scottish country dancing to an enthusiastic group in Fukuoka on Kyushu Island in the west of Japan. Barrie gave Mr Harada a copy of Won’t You Join the Dance? In the east of Japan, Mr Hiroyuki Ikema was a gym teacher who taught folk dancing. While studying in America, he danced with New York Branch, and on his way home via Scotland in 1963, he visited Coates Crescent, and met Miss Milligan who encouraged him to form a branch in Japan. Mr Ikema brought Scottish country dance to the Tokyo area, where he taught classes as one of the YWCA activities. Mr Kiyohiko Miyakawa led a separate folk dance group, where he started teaching Scottish country dance. He then taught throughout the Tokyo area when Mr Ikema was unavailable.

Greeting Bill Clement with the dance Bonnie Anne at Fukuoka airport, 1975

In 1975, when the Queen visited Japan for the first time, Mr Ikema and Mr Harada thought it would be a good idea to organize a Scottish country dance workshop. They contacted Miss Milligan, and she asked Bill Clement to go and teach Scottish country dancing. He also went to assist Dr Masami Yamane, who had just formed the Tokyo Bagpiping Society. Bill had come prepared to teach simple dances, but on his arrival Mr Harada’s team danced Bonnie Anne at Fukuoka Airport to welcome him, and he had to scrap everything he had prepared and revise his class plans to include more advanced dances, and Highland dances too. Most of the dancers in the wider Tokyo area attended folk dance classes, but many of them were not very familiar with Scottish country dancing. All the folk-dance groups were invited to the Scottish country dance workshop, where over 100 dancers were taught easier dances. Mr Miyakawa’s group in Tokyo was more advanced, as they had been practising Scottish country dance before Bill arrived. The following year, Mary and David Brandon, who lived in Hawaii at the time, were invited by Mr Ikema and Mr Harada to teach Scottish country dance workshops in Tokyo. Both Bill Clement and Mary Brandon then suggested to Miss Milligan that Mr Ikema and Mr Harada should take the Society’s teaching exam. They were invited to Hawaii in 1977 along with Marchan Okada when Miss Milligan visited on her last examination tour. The two men did their teaching exams, being awarded the full certificate, although they had applied only to do the preliminary course, while Marchan Okada was awarded her preliminary certificate.

Miss Milligan and Mr Harada, Hawaii, 1977

Visiting St Andrews At some time in the 1950s or 60s, two Japanese men, Mr Nakayama and Mr Shimada, attended the summer school in St Andrews, and Bill Clement was asked by Miss Milligan to take them around. They spoke no English but sang ‘Coming Through the Rye’ while being driven around in Bill’s car!

Bill Clement and Mr Shimada in St Andrews

When Atsuko started work in 1975, she attended a dance class with Mr Yutaka Shimizu in Yokohama. She set off to the St Andrews summer school in 1979 all on her own, only able to speak a very little English. She arrived in Edinburgh, not knowing where St Andrews was, as her guidebook only gave Scotland half a page. Mr Harada had told her to take a taxi, but the hotel receptionist sent her to Waverley station where she apprehensively took the Dundee train, hoping she would know when to get off at Leuchars. Luckily, she met a woman with a broad Scots accent on the railway platform who took her by taxi to the summer school registration desk, and she spent a wonderful fortnight guided and helped by Yvonne Tredgett who, being a schoolteacher, spoke slow and careful English which Atsuko could understand. On the first evening, on the way to the dining hall, Hope Little said: “You are coming to my class, aren’t you?” Atsuko wondered who it was, and what class it was. Yvonne took her to Mrs Little’s intermediate ladies’ step class the next day and they learned The Scottish Lilt. By the end of the week, Hope insisted Atsuko join the Advanced step class for the second week, to learn Flora MacDonald’s Fancy. It was Atsuko’s first demonstration in the Younger Hall!

Atsuko Mikami, Bill Clement, Yvonne Tredgett, St Andrews, 1979

On her return to Japan, she went to any and all SCD workshops she could, including the university Scottish country dance classes taught by Mr Harada. She decided to come again to St Andrews in 1981 to study SCD in depth. It was suggested that she take the preliminary test while there and was told she should read Won’t You Join the Dance? three times. She wrote a Japanese translation of the text in the book margins! Because of her lack of English, she applied to do two fortnights, expecting to sit the test at the end of four weeks. However soon after the beginning of the second week at summer school, Miss Gibson told her that she should take the exam on the Friday, the end of the first fortnight. She only had three days to prepare, and she had to choose between study and watching the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer on TV, so of course she watched the wedding. Atsuko passed her preliminary test, while Marchan Okada completed her full certificate that week. Atsuko remained in Edinburgh, attending all the classes she could: children’s, adult and demonstration classes each week, day schools and weekend schools too, for the next four and a half years. She kept detailed notes of every class and sent them to her friends in Japan who were interested in Scottish country dance. She was not allowed a work permit, so lived very frugally, with loans from her parents. Then in 1986, she married Bill Clement, and they made regular trips back to Japan over the following years. In 1984, the RSCDS was asked to send a team to the British Trade Fair to be held at a large department store, Takashimaya. The team of dancers from Edinburgh Branch was led by Bill Clement, and many dancers came to watch the display and chat to Bill and the team. On one occasion, Bill taught a class of around 1200 folk dancers Scottish country dancing, accompanying them by playing his bagpipes. Remarkably, he could shout instructions at the same time as playing the tunes! That same year, the Tokyo Branch was formed, and later another two branches, Tokai in 2000, and Saitama in 2001. There are now around 450 Japanese members of the RSCDS, and in addition to branch classes, many other dance groups have specialized in Scottish country dancing, while other folk-dance groups now include Scottish country dance in their repertoire. Japanese dancers began to travel to St Andrews to attend the summer school in the years after Bill’s visit. Junko Matsuhashi was one of the first and attended every two years. She gained her full certificate in 1982 and taught at Urawa SCD Group until her death and was one of the founding members of Tokyo and Saitama Branches. In 1993, Atsuko helped to organize a trip around Scotland for a tour group of Japanese dancers led by Mr Miyakawa. They visited several places associated with popular dance names such as Maggieknockater, Monymusk, Neidpath Castle and Drumelzier. They stopped off in St Andrews, and attended a special one-off class taught by one of the summer school teachers, danced in Younger Hall, and met John Drewry, Lesley Martin and other teachers there. In the following years, Atsuko arranged tours of Scotland for many enthusiastic Japanese dancers who then travelled to attend the St Andrews summer school, and several sat the teaching exams while there. On returning to Japan, they shared their experiences with their own dance groups, and started additional Scottish country dance clubs. As Mr Miyakawa did not speak English, worked full-time and could not take time off to travel to Scotland to do the teaching exam, Bill helped to establish the three-year cycle of holding exams in Japan starting in 1997, which helped produce many teachers. There are now over 100 teachers in Japan, 70 of which are members of Tokyo Branch, and most of whom teach regularly. Since then, many overseas teachers have been invited to Japan to teach workshops, and to tutor candidates for the teaching exams. The RSCDS Scroll of Honour was awarded to Mr Ikema in 2004, and Marchan Okada Naitoh in 2007.

Japanese Musicians Join the Band

Getting ready to play for Tokyo dancers

Japanese musicians also became interested in playing Scottish Music. Hiroko Kokai joined a local SCD group and began playing to accompany the dancers. She was the class pianist at the Tokyo Branch weekend School in 1993, and later travelled to St Andrews to join the musicians’ course. On other occasions, musicians were needed when visiting teachers came to teach classes or play for exam courses, and they too became interested in playing. When Atsuko organised an event to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Bill’s first visit to Japan, Keith Smith was invited to teach a musicians’ workshop. Now there are a good number of Japanese playing for Scottish country dances. This is what they say attracts them to Scottish music:

‘It is so exciting to see people dancing Scottish country dance with lively music, and the music will make them dance! I can feel if the dancers keep the rhythm with their feet especially if it is a strathspey. Scottish slow airs made a big impression on me when I heard them for the first time. It’s a joy to see everyone dancing with our music, and to dance myself.’

It is interesting to reflect on what attracts our Japanese dancing friends to Scottish country dance, when Scottish culture at first sight might seem so different from Japanese. The attraction of Scottish country dance and music seems universal: dancers enjoy the dance patterns and formations, the varied and melodic tunes, the teamwork involved, the satisfaction of dancing well with others, the opportunity to dress up, being part of a worldwide dance tradition, and most of all, the opportunity to socialise and make new friends while dancing.

Mr Ohmori’s fiddlers play for the Osaka dancers