May 2020 Message from the Executive Director

The end of April and early May is Golden Week in Japan, a succession of national holidays and usually a time when people travel to see family and friends. How different it is this year as Japan, along with the rest of the world, struggles with the Covid-19 pandemic and a national lockdown all too […]

An Interview with Tim Clark

Tim Clark is Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Asia at the British Museum. Before retiring from the Museum at the end of December 2019 he had served for many years as Head of the Japanese Section with responsibility for over 30,000 objects relating to Japan. He was awarded a Robert and Lisa Sainsbury […]

Report on our new book, The Kimono in Print

Published in March 2020, The Kimono in Print: 300 Years of Japanese Design represents an effort of international collaboration between the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (SISJAC) and the Worcester Art Museum in the US. It began with the symposium Fashioning Colours: New Perspectives in Japanese Prints held at SISJAC […]

Treasures of the Library: The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting

I hope you all keep well and stay safe in these challenging times. In such strange and unusual circumstances, many of you may be bored with staying at home for more than a month. However, this situation is not unique. More than 300 years ago, in the early Qing dynasty (1644-1912) in China, there was […]