I returned from Japan last week following a week of glorious sunshine and radiant autumn colours in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nara. It was a great pleasure to introduce the current Chair of the Board of the Sainsbury Institute, Professor David Maguire, Vice Chancellor and President of the University of East Anglia, and a delegation from Norwich, to many of our friends and supporters in Japan. We are currently sorting through all the photos and namecards, and will be providing fuller reports in the New Year. Highlights, however, included a large reception in Tokyo, dinner at the British Embassy, and a wonderful day at Hasedera in Nara, re-connecting with some of the chanting priests who visited us in May, as well as meeting UEA alumni in Tokyo and Kyoto. We also found time to take in a little kabuki at Minami-za in Kyoto, followed by tea at Murin-an, and a number of museums and galleries.
These events represented the third and final phase of marking the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Sainsbury Institute in 1999. Shortly before we left for Japan, we were greatly honoured to be awarded two Foreign Minister’s Commendations by the newly-arrived Japanese Ambassador His Excellency Mr Suzuki Hiroshi at a reception at the Embassy of Japan. We are tremendously grateful to all of our colleagues at the Embassy for creating such an enjoyable occasion, and to so many of our friends who were able to join us. The following day we gathered at the Royal Asiatic Society for our 25th anniversary dinner, joined by our speakers at our 25th anniversary conference, Looking Forward in Japanese Arts and Cultures, who had travelled from Japan and Europe to take part in a fascinating day of presentations at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. I would in particular like to thank the Ishibashi Foundation for their generous sponsorship of the conference, and for the four short films with our founding advisors on Japanese art history, Professors Kawai Masatomo, Kobayashi Tadashi, Kono Motoaki and Tsuji Nobuo. I also thank Rebecca Salter, President of the Royal Academy of Arts and Professor Kawai, our long-standing Board member, for speaking so eloquently on behalf of the Institute.
The day after my return from Japan I was at the British Museum for their conference on the Silk Roads: contacts and exchanges across Afro-Eurasia, exploring themes pertinent to the superb exhibition (till 23 February). We were delighted to be involved in the formulation of the exhibition, in particular through the advice of our own Professor of Silk Road Studies, Susan Whitfield, who gave the keynote lecture on The Horse in China: Always a Stranger? I gave a presentation on our Nara to Norwich project, which can now be found in its complete form online here and in-person at the Embassy of Japan in London (till early February). In February we will hold a wrap-up workshop for Nara to Norwich, and consider future plans arising from what we have achieved to date. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Toshiba International Foundation for their generous support of this project since its inception in 2018.
Our December Third Thursday Lecture will be held online and will be given by one of the three curators of the British Museum exhibition, Dr Yu-ping Luk. This promises to be a wonderful pre-Christmas treat, and I hope that as many of you as possible will sign up to listen in. And if you have yet to see the exhibition itself, Dr Luk’s talk will doubtless provide additional incentive to do so.
I would like to congratulate two former Lisa and Robert Sainsbury Fellows for their recent publications: Shilla Lee for Crafting Rural Japan: Traditional Potters and Rural Creativity in Regional Revitalization and Alison J. Miller for Envisioning the Empress: The Lives and Images of Japanese Imperial Women, 1868-1952. And if you are looking for some further reading over the holiday period you might also enjoy this interview with Murakami Takeshi whose work is currently being exhibited at the Gagosian Gallery in London. Murakami works extensively with one our foundational figures, Professor Tsuji Nobuo, author of The History of Art in Japan, so expertly translated by our Research Director, Professor Nicole Coolidge Roumaniere.
So we have celebrated our first quarter century. We now look forward to a series of new projects and initiatives designed to further deepen understanding and appreciation of all aspects of Japanese Arts and Cultures.
I close by thanking all of my colleagues at the Sainsbury Institute whose dedication and hard work underpins all that we do, you for all of your support, and on behalf of everyone at the Institute wishing you a peaceful and merry Christmas, and a happy and successful New Year.
Professor Simon Kaner
Executive Director