It was, I suppose, something of a whirlwind introduction to the work of the Sainsbury Institute. In April I received a message from Prof Simon Kaner, Executive Director, enquiring as to whether my institution, the Imperial War Museum (IWM), might be willing to host a small workshop with Katsuo Suzuki, Chief Curator of The National Museum of Modern Art in Tōkyō, who was visiting the UK in May to give the Sainsbury Institute’s Third Thursday Lecture.
After a cup of tea with Simon, and a pleasant walk and chat around IWM London, I agreed to help. And so, on 12 May, IWM was pleased to host Suzuki-san and a number of visiting academics. After a tour of IWM London’s current special exhibition ‘Beauty and Destruction: Wartime London in Art’ with the show’s curator, IWM head of Art Becky Newell, and a convivial lunch, we gathered in IWM’s Orpen Board Room. There, surrounded by works depicting the battlefields of the First World War by celebrated war artist Sir William Orpen, we gathered for a stimulating series of papers.
First up was Suzuki-san, who discussed his 2025 exhibition ‘Opening Documents, Weaving Memories’. The exhibition explored Japanese official war art of the Second World War, much of which was confiscated during the American post-war occupation and only returned to Japan as an indefinite loan in 1970. Listening to Suzuki-san speak, I was prompted to reflect how in both Britain and Japan, despite wide differences in their political, social and cultural makeup, governments sponsored war art in the service of wider political objectives.
We then heard from Professor Seiichi Kikuchi, who reported on archaeological excavation in the Palau Islands in Micronesia, and where, on the island of Peleliu in 1943 a brutal battle had been fought between Japanese and American forces. This was followed by Professor Yuriko Kikuchi, who described her work to set up a new museum of the battle of Peleliu. Finally, UEA’s own Professor Andreas Musloff gave a stimulating and provocative paper arguing that modern Germany, while exhaustively acknowledging the Nazi crimes of the Third Reich, does not necessarily treat its national memory of the Second World War itself with the same critical engagement.
The next day was Suzuki-san’s lecture at UEA. Taking several hours in the afternoon to explore the recently redeveloped Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, I had an enjoyable time pondering the displays of the Royal Norfolk Regiment Museum, and Norwich Castle’s own treasures of modern art, natural history, archaeology, landscape painting and a genuinely astonishing number of teapots. Finally, climbing the 100-odd steps to the Castle’s (now pram and wheelchair-accessible) battlements I was able to enjoy the view of Norwich market, city hall and cathedral, all resplendent in bright sunshine despite a sharp, cloud-bursting downpour of rain.
After that I boarded a bus packed with students for the ride to the UEA campus. With time in hand, I was able to spend a while in the Sainsbury Centre, perusing the wide range of cultures and eras represented in the Centre’s collection. I was charmed by 19th century Inuit carvings of Arctic sea animals, and awestruck by Japanese Jōmon pottery that was up to five and a half thousand years old.
After a short walk to the Thomas Paine Study Centre – my navigation aided by Simon hailing me from his car as he passed by – it was time for Suzuki-san’s lecture. He emphasised the institutional history of the Japanese National Museum of Modern Art, and the influence of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. As he spoke, I couldn’t help thinking of paintings in the IWM collection, especially from the war in Burma, such as Anthony Gross’s sweaty and claustrophobic ink and washes and watercolours of troops in the jungle which can be viewed here.
With Suzuki-san’s lecture done, we repaired to the Sainsbury Centre for a reception, where numerous stimulating conversations were had, before boarding a coach for transport to Norwich town hall, for a civic dinner with His Excellency Hiroshi Suzuki, Japanese Ambassador to the United Kingdom. After a fine meal, and equally fine speeches from His Excellency and from Prof Kaner, the party broke up.
For me, it had been two immensely stimulating days, whether in absorbing Suzuki-san’s insights about war art, from visiting Norwich Castle and the Sainsbury Centre, and in meeting so many interesting people. I can only hope that the future brings further opportunities for the Imperial War Museum, the Sainsbury Institute, and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tōkyō, to collaborate more closely in future.
Ian Kikuchi is Senior Curator (Historian) at the Imperial War Museum in London. Joining the museum in 2006, since 2023 his research has focussed on IWM’s Japanese-language collections, including numerous yosegaki hinomaru, or Japanese soldier’s personal flags.