austraLasia 1678

Fr Hendrickx (Japan) receives 'Order of the Sacred Treasures' Award

TOKYO: 3rd November 2006 -- The Japanese Government today announced its list of awards to individuals it wishes to honour on the occasion of the annual Culture Day celebrations.  Fr Franz Hendrickx,  now 74 years of age, is amongst those honoured with the Order of the Sacred Treasures' for his special contribution to Japanese culture.  Fr Hendrickx has dedicated his life to the Salesian Polytechnic in Tokyo.  He was the one who conceived the idea of this polytechnic institute and one of its foremost promoters.  He spent nearly 40 years at the Polytechnic, 26 of which he was its Principal.  The term 'assistance' does not have a simple Japanese equivalent, but Fr Hendrickx gave it its equivalent in the flesh, and although no longer in active teaching at the Polytechnic he maintains close contacts with thousands of its past pupils who continue to seek him out.
    The Japanese Culture Day was instituted in 1912 on the death of the Emperor at the end of the Meiji period (1853-1912).  It was this imperial reign which brought Japan out of seclusion and opened it up to the so-called Meiji Restoration, political, social and industrial.  The annual celebration has been adopted by Japanese universities and schools as their school festival occasion.
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