British Museum
The British Museum was founded in 1753 to promote universal understanding through the arts, natural history and science in a public museum. Housed in one of Britain's architectural landmarks, the collection spans two million years of human history. The Sainsbury Institute has a formal collaborative agreement with the Japanese Section, Department of Asia, at the British Museum to co-operate to further research, publications and public presentations relating to Japanese arts and cultures in the UK.
- British Museum Great Hall.
- Kazari banners in the Great Hall.
The Institute's Director, Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, has been closely involved with many British Museum projects, including curating two major exhibitions (Kazari: Decoration and Display in Japan 17th-19th Centuries in 2003 and Crafting Beauty: Celebrating 50 Years of the Japan Traditional Arts Crafts Exhibition in 2007) and editing the associated catalogues.
The Director was seconded to the British Museum for six months in 2006 to work on the new permanent exhibition in the Mitsubishi Corporation Japanese Galleries, a project in which the Assistant Director, Simon Kaner, was also involved.
The Institute is currently collaborating with the British Museum on an exhibition of dogu (The Power of Dogu), important prehistoric ceramic figures from the Japanese archipelago in 2009. The exhibition is curated by Timothy Clark, Head of the Japanese Section at the British Museum, with Simon Kaner as guest curator. There is an accompanying catalogue, edited by Simon, and an international symposium.
The Institute's Librarian, Akira Hirano, acts as Honorary Librarian to the Japanese Section of the British Museum.
Club Taishikan
- Hiromi Uchida leading a study day at the British Museum.
- Onishi Isao giving a demonstration at the British Museum.
Hiromi Uchida has been seconded to the Japanese Section of the British Museum since April 2004. As the Mitsubishi Corporation Projects Manager she manages the Japanese Section's public programmes and provides support to Timothy Clark in the development, management and co-ordination of special exhibitions and other projects.
Hiromi arrived at the British Museum at a difficult time, when the Japanese Galleries were temporarily closed, and she has played a leading role in their regeneration. The major public exhibitions and displays launched during this period have been: Cutting Edge: Japanese Swords in the British Museum; Kabuki Heroes on the Osaka Stage, 1780-1830; Samurai to Manga; Japan from Prehistory to the Present (the major refurbishment and re-launch of permanent displays in the Mitsubishi Corporation Japanese Galleries in October 2006); Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan; Ikebana: Living Flowers of Japan; and Reflecting on Modern Japan: Photobooks from the Postwar Period.
In addition, Hiromi has been at the centre of organizing landmark workshops and symposia, such as Displaying Korea and Japan; Craft in 20th-Century Japan and the UK, and Craft Heritage in Modern Japan. She has helped to organize and host visits by a ninth generation maker of automata, Mr Tamaya; all of the illustrious speakers for the annual Sainsbury Institute Toshiba Lectures in Japanese Arts held at the British Museum; leading Kabuki actor Nakamura Ganjiro III, and four visits by Living National Treasure craft artists.
Each month she supervises the demonstrations of 'The Way of Tea' by the Urasenke Foundation in the Japanese Galleries. She regularly leads workshops for UK schoolchildren using the Museum's collections, as part of the Embassy of Japan's 'Club Taishikan' programme.
Hiromi's work at the British Museum was initially supported by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and the Sainsbury Institute. Between August 2005 and September 2008 her work was sponsored by members of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the UK - and the British Museum join us in thanking them for their generosity. We are delighted to report that this generosity has now born further fruit, and the British Museum will continue in future to support Hiromi's role in the Japanese Section as Mitsubishi Corporation Projects Manager.