Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures
This month we mark the fifteenth anniversary of the Great East Japan Disaster, the triple catastrophe of the largest earthquake in a millennium, a huge tsunami and the near-melt down of three of the reactors at the Tokyo Electric Company (TEPCO)’s Fukushima nuclear plant. We welcome our Academic Associate Professor Junzo Uchiyama, now affiliated to […]
On 19 February, Professor Susan Whitfield presented the lecture Pilgrimage from Nara to Norwich: Commonalities Across Cultures and Religions offering fascinating insights into a new endeavour that emerged from the Sainsbury Institute’s Nara to Norwich project. Drawing connections between Nara and Norwich, the presentation was structured in four parts: (1) an introduction to human-made sacred […]
How Global is Jomon? Ten thousand years ago — a hunter’s camp beside a cold glacial lake in northern England.Seven thousand years ago — a volcano dominating the skyline of southern Japan.And the quiet traces of everyday meals — shells, bones, charcoal — left behind by people who never imagined their lives would one day […]
Battling Buddhist Images is an exhibition held at the Seikadō Bunko Art Museum in Tokyo from January 2 to March 22, 2026. The show examines why certain Buddhist images appear aggressive, showing figures brandishing weapons, clad in armour, and exuding martial energy. These images represent a category of deities who, though not fully enlightened, serve […]