RESONATING ACROSS TIME-ZONES In front of a favourite restaurant named ' Torahige ' in Hiyoshi , Kanagawa
Before Yasumasa ( Yasu ) Suzuki arrived in Hopper ’ s from Japan in Sept 2021 for a one year study abroad program at Winchester , he started to familiarise himself with English culture by listening to Oasis and watching Premier League football . He had started to learn English only at the age of 10 . It is all the more remarkable that having arrived in VI th Book 2 from Keio High School , ‘ the best school in Japan ’, he improved his English to such an extent that he made the College final six , out of 250 native English speakers , in the Kenneth Clark Prize , a competition requiring particularly well-honed presentation skills . His chosen subject was the oldest standing tea house in Kyoto , Japan , his aim to explain the Japanese tea ceremony as a spiritual experience : an ‘ amazing accomplishment ’, wrote his Housemaster .
Yasu is a sixth-generation pupil at Keio . How significant is this for him ? ‘ It helps me to be proud of my school … but this continuity does not shape me ; more important is my own experience , and the
excitement of my scholarship from Keio to Winchester ’.
Energetic , organised and motivated he made time to found a Japan Society , to undertake community work , to co-edit the Winchester Journal of Economics , to write admirable essays on Quantitative Easing , and to study topics ranging from behavioural economics , econometrics and circular and new capitalism , to climate inequality issues .
A particular achievement , much praised by his dons and his peers , was Yasu ’ s Extended Qualification Project ( EPQ ) which focused on his detailed analysis of ‘ Manners Makyth Man ’. He was motivated by the similarities of the school ’ s traditions and values to those of Keio , whose motto is ‘ to be a constant source of honourable character and a paragon of intellect and morals ’. He was rigorous and persistent in his research , gaining inspiration from Dr Mark Griffith from Oxford , Dr Hands and others in the Wykehamical community .
He begins by noting William of Wykeham ’ s radicalism in selecting English for our motto , and not the ‘ high-status ’ 29