I am writing from Cochin (Kochi) in Kerala, India, likely the ancient major port of Muzuris, mentioned in 1st century CE sources including Pliny the Elder and the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, where we are wrapping up a fascinating fortnight of visits and meetings relating to our new research project on Japan and the Maritime Silk Roads. 443 years ago, four Japanese teenagers passed through Cochin en route to Europe as part of the Tenshō Embassy (1582-1590). In Europe, the young men met popes and kings, including Philip II of Spain who of launched the Spanish Armada in 1588, defeated in large part by our own version of the kamikaze divine wind: parts of wrecked Spanish galleons were reportedly subsequently used in buildings in Norwich. Our visit to India began in Delhi and we then headed south to Chennai (formerly Madras), along the Coromandel coast to the southern tip of the subcontinent, Cape Cormorin (now Kanniyakumari), and then north to Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram) and Cochin, ending by paying our respects at an unexpected statue of Charlemagne. Along the way we met a number of archaeologists and specialists with an interest in Japan. Look out for our posts on social media. We will be making a fuller report in due course. Many thanks to the Toshiba International Foundation for sponsoring our visit, which expands our horizons from our earlier Nara to Norwich initiative.
The trip was coordinated by Susan Whitfield, our Professor of Silk Road Studies, who has extensive experience of travelling in India as well as many other places. We are delighted that Susan will give our February Third Thursday Lecture in Norwich this month: Susan will doubtless inject a much-needed dose of warmth into this coldest of months.
This issue also features a report on Professor Oleg Benesch’s January Third Thursday Lecture which offered an excellent overview of the reassessment of the idea of samurai which forms the basis of the new exhibition at the British Museum. Sainsbury Institute colleagues joined an enthusiastic crowd for the opening last week. Do go to see this ground-breaking exhibition if you can.
It is application time with deadlines approaching for our Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellowship programme (February 28th) and we will be opening the call for the second round of our Ishibashi Foundation Network Leader Fellowship programme later in the Spring. We are also pleased to encourage applications for a new programme, aimed in particular at MA students, in Japanese art and curatorship offered by the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Zurich, that is also generously supported by the Ishibashi Foundation. We are delighted to be collaborating with Professor Ewa Machotka and her team in Zurich, and these two Ishibashi Foundation programmes complement each other and offer great opportunities for new generations of researchers. Further support for students from the Ishibashi Foundation is also offered through Japan Educational and Exchange Services which is currently open to applications. More information on this can be found here. Good luck to everyone involved in applying for grants and jobs.
Prior to coming out to India I spent a few days in Tokyo just after the New Year with Dr Eriko Tomizawa-Kay, our Sainsbury Institute Associate Professor of Japanese Art at the School of History and Art History at UEA and Director of the Centre for Japanese Studies at UEA. Applications are due to open in mid-February for the next Student Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies Conference, sponsored by the Toshiba International Foundation, and organised by Eriko. Further details relating to this will be released soon, so please do spread the word.
While in Japan I gave a talk at the Nara Prefectural Kashihara Archaeological Institute where Senior Curator Kazuaki Yoshimura had arranged a superb exhibition comparing the 7th century kofun burial mound of Fujinoki in Nara with the roughly contemporary royal burials at Sutton Hoo in East Anglia. I will give a fuller report on this in our March e-bulletin.
We had a wonderful if somewhat overwhelming response to our call for papers for the Transnational Japanisms: Art, craft, design conference in London on 15-16 May, and we are currently working on the final programme for the event.
Lastly, congratulations to Professor Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere on the successful conclusion of her Art of Manga exhibition at the De Young Museum in San Francisco which closed at the end of January. In these remaining cold days of winter, I send you the traditional Japanese February greeting which will hopefully help sustain you till the evenings lighten and breezes warm: 梅の便りも聞かれる頃、皆様の益々のご健勝をお祈りいたします(Hearing news of plum blossoms, I sincerely wish you continued good health and well-being.)
Professor Simon Kaner
Executive Director