The Japanese Literature in Art Colloquy (JLAC) series was inaugurated in 2002 under the aegis of the London Office of the Sainsbury Institute as one of the Institute's central research and publication programmes. As with the Institute's other ongoing programmes, it is intended to serve as a catalyst or a facilitating organ for the exchange of ideas related to the study of Japanese cultural history. It specifically aims to nurture cooperation between scholars based in the UK and their counterparts abroad. Each of the projects normally involves one or more scholars with a close affiliation to the Institute, whether members of staff, Sainsbury and Handa Fellows (past and present), or Japanese specialists at SOAS and the British Museum. JLAC projects are designed to promote an interdisciplinary study of Japanese visual culture. The colloquy series supports research and publications that take new approaches to text-image relationships in Japanese art, focusing especially on the interaction of literary or performing arts with calligraphy, painting and prints. The colloquies, usually once or twice a year, are not restricted to any specific type of forum and are flexible in their organisation - ranging from full-fledged symposia to smaller workshops. The research results of the colloquies are published in various forms: proceedings volumes, collaborative publications on specialised topics, exhibition-related publications, or on-line image databases stored on the Institute's server. Many of the JLAC projects complement or support other individual research projects of participants.

This lavishly illustrated volume, edited by John T. Carpenter, collects 15 essays by a distinguished roster of specialists in Japanese art to present a wide range of current scholarship on the Edo artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) and his immediate artistic and literary circles. The book was published in cooperation with the Sainsbury Institute, The International Hokusai Research Institute (University of Venice), and the Art Research Center (Ritsumeikan University). Achieving worldwide renown for his dramatic landscape print series such as the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, Hokusai also excelled in book illustration, erotica, and privately commissioned woodcuts called surimono. Less well known, Hokusai was a highly accomplished and prolific painter who produced not only pictures of courtesans of the pleasure quarters, the normal stock-in-trade of an ukiyo-e artist, but a prodigious output on historical and legendary themes. This volume provides new insights into all these diverse aspects of the polyvalent artist's corpus. (A list of chapters by scholars affiliated with the Sainsbury Institute can be found on the publications page in the appendix.) Along with editing the volume and translating various sections, Dr Carpenter contributed an essay, 'Painting and Calligraphy of the Pleasure Quarters: Image and Text Interaction in Hokusai's Early Bijinga'. The volume was published in an edition of 1500 copies, and was launched in May 2005 at the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation with a talk by Dr Carpenter, chaired by Timothy Clark of the British Museum.

In late spring of 2006, the Art Research Center (ARC) at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, and the Sainsbury Institute co-published a volume on calligraphy by emperors and empresses regnant of premodern Japan as part of a research project on Japanese calligraphy and court culture. John T. Carpenter was the primary author and editor of the volume.
This publication was the result of weekly research seminars conducted at ARC during Dr Carpenter's extended visits to Kyoto in 2003 and 2004. Along with his introductory essay, 'Handwriting Empowered by History: The Aura of Calligraphy by Japanese Emperors', which surveys the entire history of premodern shinkan (imperial calligraphy), the volume includes a fully illustrated catalogue of some 30 examples of shinkan of the 13th to 19th centuries from the collection of the Fujii Eikan Bunko, which was recently bequeathed to Ritsumeikan University. The volume also includes contributions by Professor Kawashima Masao, Professor Genjo Masayoshi, Matsumoto Ikuyo, and Kaneko Takaaki (see publications section for details). Highlights of the collection include a section of the Hirosawa-gire by Emperor Fushimi of the Kamakura Period, poems on kaishi writing paper by Emperor Kogon and other members of the Northern Court inspired by themes from the Lotus Sutra (designated an Important Cultural Property), as well as several other examples of poems and letters by emperors and empresses regnant of the medieval and Edo periods. All texts, including compositions in chirashigaki (scattered writing) format have been fully deciphered, and many waka composed at palace gatherings have been translated into English. This project has been carried out with primary funding from the 21st Century COE (Center of Excellence) programme at the Art Research Center. A digital archive of the collection was also created by Takaaki Kaneko.

The Sainsbury Institute signed an agreement for research cooperation with the Art Research Center at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto in the spring of 2005. The Art Research Center is a Japanese Government Centre of Excellence (COE). The signing of the agreement marked the formalisation of a longer-term relationship between the Sainsbury Institute Head of London Office and members of the Art Research Center, in particular Professor Akama Ryo and Professor Kawashima Masao. In 2004 the Art Research Center prepared a high-resolution online digital database of the collection of early maps of Japan presented to the Lisa Sainsbury Library by Sir Hugh and Lady Cortazzi, accessible through the Sainsbury Institute website. In March 2006 the collaboration with Ritsumeikan University resulted in the publication of Imperial Calligraphy of Premodern Japan: Scribal Conventions for Poems and Letters from the Palace by John T. Carpenter with contributions by Professor Kawashima Masao, Professor Genjo Masayoshi, Matsumoto Ikuyo and Kaneko Takaaki.

Over the past four years John T. Carpenter, Professor Iwata Hideyuki of Atomi University, Tokyo, and other specialists have carried out the study of surimono (deluxe woodblock prints of the 18th and 19th centuries, usually featuring poetic inscriptions) in various European, Japanese and American collections. One of the primary goals of the research project has been to compile a catalogue raisonné of actor surimono by Edo print designer Utagawa Kunisada. Professor Iwata received funding from the Japanese Ministry of Arts and Sciences to cover his research and travel expenses. Professor Iwata and Dr Carpenter submitted their preliminary research report in April 2006, which along with basic data and transcription of over 300 actor surimono surveyed, included three research essays by Dr Carpenter, which will serve as core of the future publication. A project that grew out a 2003 visit to view actor prints in the Graphics Collection of the Museum of Design in Zurich (Museum für Gestaltung Zürich) is a plan to hold an exhibition of highlights at the Musuem Rietberg and publish a catalogue of the Marino Lusy collection of surimono (approximately 300 in total). The collection was recently transferred on a long-term basis to the Museum Rietberg in Zurich. Initial funding for the project has already been raised by an application to the Institute of Cultural Studies in Art, Media and Design in Zurich. Dr Carpenter will serve as the editor of the catalogue, which will include essays by Japanese, European and American specialists on aspects of Edo printmaking and popular literature.