ON 14 NOVEMBER 2009, I made a short speech at a memorial meeting for the late Dr Carmen Blacker held in Clare Hall, Cambridge. The programme of the meeting had been arranged affectionately by her husband Dr Michael Loewe, emeritus fellow of the college. As Carmen was a scholar related in her idiosyncratic way to Sansui Gakunn and the journal Sansai I wish to share my thoughts about Carmen with Sansai's readers. Here follows — with minor changes for publication — the text of the speech I gave on that occasion:

The news of Carmen's passing from this world reached me by e-mail from Oxford one day later, on 14 July 2009. I received the news from Dr James McMullen, emeritus fellow of Pembroke College. He happens to be in Japan at present, fulfilling a long-standing commitment to give a lecture at Keio, one of the universities where Carmen once studied. I heard that the lecture would be dedicated to Carmen's memory. James was one of Carmen's very early students at Cambridge, as some of you may know. He was a fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford, when I was a graduate student there and became my designated ‘moral adviser’ during my time in Oxford. In his sad e-mail, James wrote: ‘Carmen was a powerful presence in the professional lives of many...as well as a gracious fnend.’ These bnef words opened the floodgates of my memories of Carmen.

For me conversations with Carmen not only stimulated my imagination but often proved to be sources of inspiration. Our discussions tended to be non-stop and breathless pausing only for Carmen to write down a note. Her notebooks were always covered with beautiful mmgei [Japanese folk-art] cloth, striped with diverse shades of indigo.

It was early 1986 when Carmen became one of the residents of Kyoto University Shugakum International House, where about a year before I had begun my married life with Yoko. Carmen was invited by Kyoto University to hold a new visiting professorship of Japanese Studies. In the early summer of that year Carmen, Yoko and I went to Shikoku Island to visit places associated with legends of the Heike clan warriors, who took refuge there after their tragic defeat in the Inland Sea battles of the late twelfth century. Carmen seemed to have prepared herself mentally to be a pilgrim to the island.