Assistant Director
Simon Kaner
Simon Kaner (MA, PhD Cantab, 2004) is Assistant Director of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures. He is an archaeologist specialising in the prehistory of Japan. Before joining the Sainsbury Institute he was Senior Archaeologist at Cambridgeshire County Council and retains his interest in the management of cultural heritage. A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London since 2005, he has taught and published on many aspects of East Asian and European archaeology and has undertaken archaeological research in Japan, the UK and elsewhere. His recent publications include The Power of Dogu: ceramic figures from ancient Japan (2009), which accompanies a major exhibition at the British Museum. Other works include Jomon Reflections: Forager Life and Culture in the Prehistoric Japanese Archipelago by Kobayashi Tatsuo (2005) which he adapted and edited with Nakamura Oki. He is also currently completing an edited volume Envisioning Medieval Towns in Japan and Europe, to be published in 2010.
Current Research
His research interests include: Japanese prehistory and the history of archaeology in Japan; Japanese cultural heritage and the international role of Japanese heritage management. He is principal investigator of the Dogu project, supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, bringing prehistoric ceramic figures from Japan and Europe to the UK, in conjunction with the British Museum, the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo National Museum, and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. He also directs the Shinano River Project, investigating the development of the historic landscapes of the Shinano and Chikuma River drainage in central Japan, funded by the British Academy.
Contact
Address: 64, The Close, Norwich NR1 4DH , United Kingdom
Email: s.kaner@sainsbury-institute.org
Telephone: +44 (0)1603-624349
Fax: +44 (0)1603-625011
Edited books
Envisioning the Archaeology of Medieval towns in Japan and Europe. Edited with
Brian Ayers and Richard Pearson. Oxbow, Oxford Books (forthcoming, 2010)
The Power of Dogu: Ceramics Figures from Ancient Japan. London, British Museum
Press (2009).
Tatsuo Kobayashi's Jomon Reflections. Translated, adapted and edited with
Nakamura Oki. Oxford, Oxbow Books (2005)
Edited Journals
'Archaeological Approaches to Japanese Religion'. Japanese Journal of Religious
Studies, 19.2-3, 1992.
'Dangerous Liaisons: Archaeology in the East and West'. Archaeological Review
from Cambridge 8.1, 1989.
Articles (selection)
'Religion and ritual in the early Japanese archipelago' in Tim Insoll (ed.) The Oxford
Archaeology of Religion. Oxford, Oxford University Press (forthcoming).
'Place and identity in Jomon Japan' in Aubrey Cannon (ed.) Structured Worlds: The
Archaeology of Hunter-Gatherer Thought and Action. London, Equinox Publishing
Ltd (forthcoming).
'Antiquarianism and early archaeology in Japan'. In Antiquaries and Archaists:
Cultural Memory in Visual and Material Culture across Cultures, edited by Robert
Wallis and Megan Aldrich. London, Spire Books (forthcoming, 2009)
'Long-term innovation: the appearance and spread of pottery in the Japanese
archipelago in The Use of Pottery among Old World Hunter Gatherers, edited by
Peter Jordan and Marek Zvelebil. London, UCL Press (forthcoming, 2009).
'William Gowland (1842-1922), pioneer of Japanese archaeology'. In Cortazzi, Hugh
(ed.) Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits VI. London, The Japan Society, 2007,
271-280.
'Cult in context in Jomon Japan'. In Barraclough, David and Malone, Caroline (eds.)
Cult in Context: reconsidering ritual archaeology. Oxford, Oxbow Books, 2007, 234-
241.
'Revisiting the concept of the 'Neolithic' in the Western Japanese Jomon' (with
Ishikawa Takeshi). Documenta Praehistorica XXXIII, 2007, 1-7.
'L'appropriation de l'identite prehistorique de l'archipel japonais'. Japon Pluriel 6,
2006, 331-340.
'Unlocking Jomon memories through investigating occupational histories'. Bulletin of
the International Jomon Culture Conference 1, 2004, 46-49.
'Jomon Japan and Korea 5000-500 B.C.' and 'Yayoi Japan and Korea, 500 B.C. -
A.D. 600'. In Onians, J. (ed.) The Atlas of World Art. London, Calmann and King,
2004, 48-49, 88-89.
'The oldest pottery in the world'. Current World Archaeology 1, 2003, 44-49.
'Collecting East Asia in nineteenth century Britain', (with Nicole Coolidge
Rousmaniere). In East Asian Identities, edited by Stephanie Lawson. London,
Curzon, 2003
'Contexts for Jomon pottery'. Orientations 33.2, 2002, 35-40.
'Problems in the Japanese Early and Middle Palaeolithic'. Before Farming 2.4, 2002,
1-23.
'The Mesolithic of the Cambridgeshire Fen edge'. In Young, R. (ed.) Recent Work in
the British Mesolithic. Leicester, University Press, 2000, 191-198.
'Beyond ethnicity and emergence in Japanese archaeology'. In Multicultural Japan,
edited by D. Denoon, M. Hudson, G. McCormack and T. Morris-Suzuki. Cambridge,
University Press, 1996, 46-59.
1990: 'The Western-language Jomon: a review'. In Bibliographic Reviews of Far
Eastern Archaeology 1990 edited by G.L. Barnes. Oxford, Oxbow Books, 31-62.
1989: (with T.E.G. Reynolds): 'Japan and Korea at 18,000BP'. In The World at
18,000BP Volume 1, edited by O. Soffer and C. Gamble. London, Unwin Hyman,
296-311.