Virginia Helen Stibbs Anami

Virginia Helen Stibbs Anami, “Ginny”, was born an American in 1944. She became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 1970, taking the legal name Anami Fumiyo, 阿南史代. Ginny has lived in the U.S., Japan, Pakistan, Australia and China with her diplomat husband, Ambassador Koreshige Anami, and two children:

Son, Yusuke (b.1972) and daughter, Mika (b.1975).

Ginny has taught history, art history, Buddhist history, geography and social studies as both her B.A. and M.A. were Asian Studies, majoring in East Asian history and geography. She wrote Encounters with Ancient Beijing, Its Legacy in Trees, Stone and Water (China Intercontinental Press, 2004) and Nishimachi: Crossroads of Culture  (1982) and contributes frequently to China National Geography, Asahi Evening News/International Herald Tribune Japan, The Voice of Dharma, Beijing This Week and Women of China. She has, also, been frequently interviewed by the Chinese press and media, including five articles about her in the People’s Daily.

Exploring Beijing over a twenty-year period, she researched and photographed the city’s historic landmarks, traditional villages, trees and sacred sites. Many photographs have been displayed in eight joint photography exhibitions held both in China and Japan. One exhibition brochure was entitled “On 1,000-Year-Old Paths: Finding Liao and Jin Dynasty Buddhist Relics in Today’s Beijing”. Her 2004 solo exhibition at the Beijing Botanical Gardens was called “The Magnificent Trees of Beijing” and at the One Table Restaurant she has a continuing exhibit of “Beijing’s Old and Famous Trees”.

To introduce history through media, Ginny Anami has also worked with Japan’s NHK Television on two documentaries: “Beijing of 1,000 Years, Capital of Water and Stone with Historian ‘Ginny-san’”, 2001, and “Monk Ennin; Following the Diary of a Sojourn to Tang China”, 2002. In 2005, she is working on a book, Witnesses to Time, The Maginificent Trees of Beijing and completing her research on the travels of Tang monk, Ennin.