The obituary below appeared in the Girton College Annual Review of 2009, and is reproduced with permission.

“KONDO. On 13 November 2008, Ine Rachel, known as Ineko (Sato) MLitt (1937). A graduate of Tohoku Imperial University, Sendai, she came to Girton as a research student in English and gained an MLitt in 1939. Back home in Japan she became an Assistant Professor at Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School until 1943, and Professor at Tsuda Women’s College between 1948 and 1980. She had married Masao Kondo, an academic at Gakushuin University (Physics) in February 1944 and their daughter was born in 1950. She received her doctorate in English Literature from the Tokyo University of Literature and Science by submitting a thesis on Jane Austen: A Study of the Development of her Art in 1952.”

Mrs. Kondo was well known to many members during her long and active life. At our meetings she could be found, usually with a gentle smile, talking with members of any age and any academic level. What we were hardly aware of was her influence on the Japanese women she taught.

One of them, Prof Akiko Higuchi, (St Edmund’s, Cantab, 1988), has sent us her reminiscences, which are excerpted below. [Selections and omissions are entirely the responsibility of DS.]

Prof. Ineko Kondo and Mrs Akiko Higuchi, May 22, 1999

Prof. Ineko Kondo and Mrs Akiko Higuchi at the gate of the British Embassy, May 1990

Ryozo Tanaka-san















We have the sad duty of reporting the death of a valued member and a dear friend of many of us, Prof. Ryozo Tanaka, professor emeritus of Keio University. He passed away on July 29th, 2010, a month short of his 76th birthday, after only a brief spell in hospital. The funeral was a private family one, but a memorial event (shinobu-kai) was held at the Tokyo Club on September 13th for members of the Cambridge and Oxford Society to pay tribute to Prof. Tanaka and express their condolences to Mrs. Shigeko Tanaka and their granddaughter Hisako. A table was filled with Ryozo’s books, or books with which he had helped or in which he was mentioned, and in addition to a fairly recent portrait, there was a 1958 honeymoon photograph of a very young couple on the steps of Osaka Castle.

Ryozo Tanaka graduated in English literature from the graduate school of Keio University in 1963. His first visit to Britain was in 1968, when he led a group of university students. He subsequently studied English literature and philology at Cambridge University (1973-75). This was the first of many visits to Cambridge, where he was attached to Darwin College; taking a new direction, in 1987 and 1996 he studied architecture and art history, including country houses, under Dr. David Watkin. During these various visits his interest in English country houses had been stimulated, and he visited 300 of them in all. As professor of English at Keio University he used Evelyn Waugh’s novels as textbooks, and after his retirement in 2000 he continued to teach at three other universities. As a result of his studies of country houses he added the history of British and European art to his main subject. He was also chairman of the board of his old school, Azabu, and held this position for eight years until his retirement at the age of 70. During his tenure an exchange scheme of boys between Azabu and Winchester was established.