The “Ohara Magosaburo and Soichiro Memorial Lecture,” held every year in late July, was held again this year on Friday, July 25, 2025.
Once a year, this lecture invites a diverse range of speakers from various fields and is held free of charge and open to the public.
This time, former Commissioner for Cultural Affairs Kondo Seiichi took the stage as the speaker, delivering a lecture titled “The Course of Human Civilization: Where Are We Now?”
Here is a report on the lecture and the points that made an impression on the writer.
The information presented was current when this article was published in September 2025. Please note that it may differ from current information.
About the Ohara Magosaburo and Soichiro Memorial Lecture
The “Ohara Magosaburo and Soichiro Memorial Lecture” traces its origins to the “Kurashiki Sunday Lectures,” started by Ohara Magosaburo in 1902.
After Magosaburo’s death, his eldest son, Ohara Soichiro, began the “Ohara Keido Memorial Lecture” in 1955. This lecture became the prototype for today’s “Ohara Magosaburo and Soichiro Memorial Lecture.”
“Keido” comes from the name used by Ohara Magosaburo, separate from his real name.
After Soichiro died in 1968, Yurin-kai took over the lecture activities.
Yurin-kai began as a voluntary organization, became a general incorporated foundation in 2010, and in 2015 became the present-day Yurin-kai Public Interest Incorporated Foundation.
Today, the “Ohara Magosaburo and Soichiro Memorial Lecture” is held around July 27 each year, in commemoration of Magosaburo’s birthday (July 28, 1880) and Soichiro’s death (July 27, 1968).
Counting from the Keido-kai lecture era, this year marks the 69th installment of this long-running lecture series.
![[Held Friday, July 25] 69th Ohara Magosaburo and Soichiro Memorial Lecture: A historic lecture open to the public, with no reservation required and free admission](https://media.kuratoco.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/01233716/7Y6A9432.jpg)
Introducing the speaker (Kondo Seiichi)
After graduating from the University of Tokyo, speaker Kondo Seiichi joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1972. He held positions including Ambassador to the UNESCO Permanent Delegation of Japan and Ambassador to Denmark, and served as Commissioner for Cultural Affairs from 2010 to 2013.
He later taught at the University of Tokyo, Doshisha University, and other institutions. He is currently president of the Professional Institute of International Fashion and representative director of the “Humanities Support Forum, General Incorporated Association.”
About the lecture
Under the sweeping theme “The Course of Human Civilization,” this lecture invited attendees to consider what it means to be human and how we can build a better world.
The subtitle, “Where Are We Now?” is a quotation from Paul Gauguin’s famous painting Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
More than 100 years ago, at the end of the 19th century, what answer would Professor Kondo offer to the question Gauguin posed through his painting?
Here are a few anecdotes from the lecture that caught the writer’s attention.
The humanities and liberal arts
The term “humanities,” also used in the name of the Humanities Support Forum, whose representative director is Professor Kondo, was one of the key terms in this lecture. A related concept is the “liberal arts.”
In a nutshell, liberal arts are “the fields of study people should acquire in order to live with a free spirit.” The idea originated in the “seven liberal arts” of medieval Europe.
The seven liberal arts refer to the following seven fields of study that developed in medieval Europe: grammar, rhetoric, logic (dialectic), arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.
The lecture emphasized the importance of studying a wide range of subjects to free ourselves from fixed ideas and develop the mindset to combine diverse knowledge and take on new challenges ourselves.
Professor Kondo spoke as follows about the need for the humanities and liberal arts, which he discussed repeatedly during the lecture.
“The technologies humanity has developed in pursuit of convenience and ease are taking away our humanity.”
The development of civilization has made modern life seem convenient and beautiful at first glance.
Yet in our daily lives, we often see people bound by things and rules, from smartphone addiction to cost performance, time performance, compliance, and harassment.
In other words, we could say that we are “trapped in an invisible intellectual and cultural cage, unable to escape.” The “intellectual and cultural cage” here refers to things such as conventional wisdom and fixed ideas.
The discussion then turned to how the humanities and liberal arts can help break these constraints and view things objectively.
An example of the humanities in action: the inscription of Iwami Ginzan as a World Heritage Site
In 2007, while Professor Kondo was serving as Ambassador to the UNESCO Permanent Delegation of Japan, Iwami Ginzan in Shimane Prefecture was inscribed as a World Heritage Site.
The inscription of Iwami Ginzan as a World Heritage Site was far from straightforward. ICOMOS (the International Council on Monuments and Sites), an advisory body to UNESCO, recommended that the inscription be deferred, citing “insufficient proof of its outstanding universal value.”
Two words that turned a challenge into an opportunity
Amid these difficulties, Professor Kondo said that two phrases he encountered through the humanities helped lead to Iwami Ginzan’s eventual inscription as a World Heritage Site.
One was the line “There is a tide in the affairs of men” from Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar.
The message behind this line is: “When you want to accomplish something big, there really is a right time. If you miss it, things will never go well. If you seize the right moment, things will work out.”
The other was a quote from Winston Churchill, British prime minister during World War II: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
This quote illustrates that optimists—people who look at things positively—can find opportunities in any difficulty, while pessimists tend to focus only on the difficulties.
From insights gained during a visit to Iwami Ginzan to World Heritage inscription
After the recommendation to defer inscription, Professor Kondo visited Iwami Ginzan to look for a way to turn things around.
His first impression was “just a mountain covered in greenery.”
But this impression later became the key to turning things around. Refining silver mined from the mountain required large quantities of fuel (firewood), placing a heavy burden on the environment.
However, in the 16th century, forests at Iwami Ginzan were properly managed, and mining was carried out with limited environmental impact. What we now call the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were already being put into practice 400 years ago.
When he shared this at the World Heritage Committee meeting in Paris, committee members responded, “Isn’t this wonderful?” and the site’s inscription was approved after all. This environmentally conscious approach also helped enhance its value as a World Heritage Site.
Behind the successful use of opportunity and timing was an experience shaped by the humanities.
From the Writer
This was the first time the writer had heard the term “humanities.”
It may bring to mind general knowledge, but the writer felt that the humanities are a form of learning that helps us view things from multiple perspectives by giving us viewpoints outside our own areas of expertise.
These are things generative AI cannot replace, so they may become increasingly important in the future.
The writer also feels that this lecture, held each year with a diverse range of speakers, helps support the humanities in the local community.
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69th Ohara Magosaburo and Ohara Soichiro Memorial Lecture: “The Course of Human Civilization—Where Are We Now?” Information
| Name | 69th Ohara Magosaburo and Ohara Soichiro Memorial Lecture: “The Course of Human Civilization—Where Are We Now?” |
|---|---|
| Date | Friday, July 25, 2025, 6:30 p.m.–8:00 p.m. |
| Location | 2-2-21 Honmachi, Kurashiki City (Kurashiki Community Center, Main Hall) |
| Admission (tax included) | Free |
| Website | Yurinkai Public Interest Incorporated Foundation |
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