Scottish Samurai Awards
I have been privileged to receive a number of Awards from the Order of the Scottish Samurai, but the most recent one is particularly pleasing and appropriate this Stage in my Life. The Medal is also hand made out of Silver, bearing the symbols of two cranes representing Japan, and the Unicorn representing Scotland, and bearing the inscription OSS (Order of the Scottish Samurai) Order of Merit. With it comes a new title:
Ambassador of Japanese Culture
Some years ago I helped create one of the basic medals for the OSS, bearing my Calligraphy for 蘇 （So) representing Scotland and 侍 Samurai (one who Serves).
In May 2025 I received the The Order of the Scottish Samurai has a Website https://samurai.scot/ that provides the background, and lists recipients on its Wall of Fame https://samurai.scot/wall-of-fame/
I have been involved in Introducing Martial Arts in the context of Liberal Arts for many years, and this was recognized early on by Ronnie Watt, Founder of the Order of the Scottish Samurai, who visited our Campus at the International College of Liberal Arts (iCLA), and I reciprocated with a visit to Aberdeen and Edinburg, Scotland in May of 2019, where I dedicated a handmade Suit of Samurai Armor to the Order.
There is plenty of information on the website https://samurai.scot/ that need not be duplicated here, but I would like to add a few comments regarding my new Award at Ambassador of Japanese Culture.
While the original Scottish Samurai who is celebrated in the Order of the Scottish Samurai is Thomas Glover, a native of Aberdeen who played a pivotal role in Japanese History. He befriended and protected Sakamoto Ryoma, which is why I painted the Samurai Signature of Sakamoto Ryoma at the Historic Aberdeen Town Hall.
However, in my exploration of significant Scotsmen who influenced the understanding of Japanese Culture I found there were others who made an impact, such as James Murdoch the Scottish Orientalist who compiled the first comprehensive History of Japan in English .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Murdoch_(Scottish_Orientalist)
There are others, who have paved the way to a Liberal Artists understanding of Japanese Samurai Culture. For me a particularly interesting individual is Ernest Fenollosa, an America Art Historian who became a Professor at Tokyo Imperial University, Tokyo University, and who did much to protect and preserve traditional Japanese Art, including the Founding of Tokyo Keidai, the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. One of his students was Kano Jigoro, the creator of Judo. These pioneers helped with the transition from the Samurai Era to the Modernization of Japan in the Meiji Period, leading the movement with Liberal Arts Education.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Fenollosa
He also had an influence on Okakura Kazuzo who wrote a pivotal work in 1906 called The Book of Tea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Tea
These men did much to protect and gain respect for traditional Japanese culture in a time in which modernization and westernization threatened to sweep it away.
Yet Japanese Culture has proved surprisingly resilient, and has extended its influence deep into world cultures through Manga, Anime, Video Games in popular culture, as well as Martial Arts and Budo Tourism, now firmly supported by the Japanese government and an important element in experiential inbound tourism today.
https://sporttourism-japan.com/en/budo.html
I have been directly involved in this, serving on their Sports Agency’s committee for Budo Tourism, and being involved as a co-creator and navigator of documentaries about Samurai History, as well as NHK programs covering various aspects of local Samurai History and Japanese Culture. This led one producer to suggest that I should be the contemporary version of Ernest Fenollosa. At the time I took it as a nice compliment but had not considered in what way that would be possible.
Until now. While the details are to follow, I am already working with a Zen Master and Tea Master to help create the practical application of concepts introduced in The Book of Tea. And I continue to be involved in supporting Inbound Tourism to promote experience of Samurai Code and Culture through my company WA no Mori.
https://wanomori.c-s-value.jp/
More on all of this to follow as it unfolds and I define and refine my role first recognized by the Order of the Scottish Samurai as
Ambassador of Japanese Culture
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