Barbara Curtis Adachi  '40       Biography    1924 - 2004

1940

In Moscow

            Born in Harbin, China in 1924 of American parents, Barbara Curtis returned to the United States at age six, attending Greenwich Academy for two years before moving to Tokyo in 1932 where her father headed Citibank operations in Japan and Manchuria. After attending the American School in Japan in Tokyo (leaving ASIJ in June '39), she graduated from Chatham Hall in Virginia (1941) and Smith College (1945), receiving her BA in Economics and Russian Studies.  In 1986, her alma mater awarded her the Smith Medal for her contribution to the understanding outside Japan of various aspects of Japanese culture.

            Barbara Curtis returned to Japan in May of 1946 to work as a civilian with the Allied Occupation Forces (GHQ, SCAP).  She married an American attorney of Japanese descent 1949 (although she has now been separated from her husband for several years).  Mr. Adachi, who until recently had his own international law firm in Tokyo, served for several years as President of the ASIJ  PTA.  Barbara lived in Tokyo until 1986 when she came to San Francisco but returned often to Japan.  Daughter Cathy attended ASIJ before going to Garrison Forest School and upon graduation, attended Smith for 2 years before transferring to the California Institute of the Arts.  A physical therapist, she and her family recently moved to Chicago after over 20 years in the Bay area.  Son Daniel attended ASIJ also before going to Choate School, Hampshire College and Harvard Graduate School.  He lives in El Granada, CA and works in the computer/software industry. 

 Mrs. Adachi was a columnist for The Mainichi Daily News of  Japan (1971-1981), writing a weekly food column (Something Different), regular reviews of museum and traditional craft exhibits, reviews of bunraku and kabuki performances as well as the Hands of Japan series of some 90 half-page feature articles, with her own photographs, on traditional Japanese craftsmen and performing artists.  These were based on extensive interviews in Japanese conducted in the craftsmen's workshops or backstage.  The next two years she devoted to editing and writing International Tokyo Tables, an international cookbook, to raise funds for an international organization in Tokyo.  From 1983-1993, her weekly column, Adventures in Food ("food and reminiscences of a peripatetic life") appeared in the Asahi Evening News of Japan.  

             Barbara Adachi’s first book appeared in 1973: Living Treasures of Japan, with a foreword by her friend, Bernard Leach, the British potter.  It presented an intimate view of the lives and work of 13 craftsmen and one craftswoman designated "Living National Treasures" by the Japanese government for their unique skills.  Published in English and Japanese in New York and Tokyo, a separate edition appeared in the UK (Wildwood Press).

The Voices and Hands of Bunraku (Bunraku no Hitobito), with a foreword by Professor Donald Keene (also Kodansha International) was published in Japanese and English editions in the USA and Japan.  The book is a close-up view of  the people of bunraku, both performers and backstage professionals, and their artistry and the traditions of Japan’s three-century old puppet theater.  Its color photographs included several by the author.  In 1985, Weatherhill (Tokyo and New York) published Backstage at Bunraku, a revised, expanded and updated edition of the earlier volume, again with a foreword by Dr. Keene but with all new photographs, this time in black-and-white, many by the author.

She toured extensively in the United States with the National Bunraku Troupe of Japan on three occasions, giving lectures, television interviews and demonstrations.  Her articles appeared in the Asian Wall Street Journal, FIBERARTS, American Crafts and many other publications and she served as consultant for several award-winning movies on Japanese crafts and bunraku.  She held a two-week residency at the Yale School of Drama in 1987, lecturing on bunraku. 

Mrs. Adachi lectured widely at museums, clubs, scholarly societies, embassies, etc. in the United States, Japan, India and Europe on traditional crafts, bunraku, kabuki, various aspects of Japanese history, literature and culture, Japanese food, the Tale of Genji, crafts of the Japanese kitchen, as well as her many travels. She appeared on television and radio in Japan and in the US, on programs such as Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt, Charlie Rose, the Today Show, PBS, and CNN internationally.

A member of many organizations, including professional food organizations, she headed the Smith Club in Tokyo, served on the Board of Directors of The International House of Japan and was one of the three founding members of the Society of Writers, Editors and Translators of Japan which now numbers some 400 members.. 

Barbara Adachi was taken to her first bunraku performance by Mrs. Etsubo Sugimoto, author of Daughter of the Samurai, in 1935; Mrs. Sugimoto presided over the introduction of the American girl to other facets of Japanese culture over some five years.  Attendance at over four post-war decades of bunraku and kabuki dress rehearsals  and performances, a hundred and some interviews of performers and craftsmen, and over two decades of professional photography of both traditional Japanese theater and crafts led to the creation of not only a wide circle of friends in the fields of theater and crafts but also an extensive private archive of images and information.  The photographs, in both color and black-and-white, concentrate on dress rehearsals (butaigeiko) and workshop techniques. 

Mrs. Adachi's collection, which includes some 15,000 images (color slides and black-and-white photos), programs, as well as her extensive collection of books on Japan was given to the C.V. Starr Library of East Asian Languages at Columbia University in New York City where they were processed for the Internet for use by students and researchers.  Her collection of crafts, mostly folk toys and textiles, resides now at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego.  Two screens depicting Kyoto of the early 18^th century are at the Morikami Museum in Delray Beach, Florida, and some of her large pieces of pottery by Tatsuzo Shimaoka, a "living national treasure" were given to the Cantor Museum at Stanford University.  She also belonged to several food societies,  including the Association for the Study of Food.

              Mrs. Adachi passed away on February 9th, 2004.