Snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils and sunshine! Spring is undoubtedly in the air: or in Japanese 春の陽気 (haru no yōki). The Sainsbury Institute hosted the Centre for Japanese Studies’ Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies Students’ Conference last week, and our twelve participants enjoyed Norwich at its best: clear blue skies, crisp starlight nights with the aligned planets all on view.
We welcomed several visitors from Japan during February, beginning with Inoue Yōichi, Director of the Nara National Museum and Taniguchi Kōsei, one of the specialist curators of Buddhist art there. They joined us for a special early morning view of the Silk Roads exhibition at the British Museum which, with treasures on display from Nara to Sweden and East Anglia, confirmed the premise of our own Nara to Norwich project: a comparative perspective generates compelling new stories for treasures from either end of Eurasia. I am looking forward to seeing the 130th anniversary exhibition of the Nara National Museum later in the spring on the theme of Oh! National Treasures.
In the middle of the month we were honoured by a visit from Nakayama Toi, Executive Director of the Center for International Exchange at Meio University in Okinawa and his colleagues, a trip arranged by our Sasakawa Associate Professor of Japanese Politics and International Relations at UEA, Ra Mason, who has also just published a new book on Okinawa. Watch out for more on contemporary Okinawan arts this autumn in Norwich.
Towards the end of the month Kikkawa Hideki, Head of the Modern and Contemporary Art Section at Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties (or Tobunken as it is generally known) spent a few days in the UK, giving a talk for the Japan Research Centre at SOAS on pioneer of post-war Japanese conceptual art, Matsuzawa Yutaka and his European connections, and a keynote at the University of East Anglia for a workshop on library collections. Thanks to UEA Librarian Grant Young, Librarian of the Sainsbury Research Unit for the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, Pat Hewitt, and our own Hirano Akira, Librarian of the Lisa Sainsbury Library for presenting some of their collections.
In our city of sanctuary it seems appropriate that one of the world’s most famous refugees has taken up residence in the Cathedral Close. Paddington Bear, complete with his trademark blue duffel coat, red hat, and of course a marmalade sandwich has been raising smiles amongst other visitors to the Close since his installation. He has his own dedicated theme park in Japan, at Sagamihara near Tokyo, and features in Japanese anime, although he doesn’t seem to have broken into the world of manga, as yet.
This month’s Third Thursday Lecture will be given by our Lecturer in Japanese Digital Arts and Humanities, Dr Ryoko Matsuba on the topic of Meiji Printmaking: Decline, Revival, and Survival Strategies. Ryoko leaves us this month to take up a newly established position at Ritsumeikan University. You can read a report about Ryoko in this month’s ebulletin and we are immensely grateful for everything she has done for the Institute over the years. The lecture will be held both in-person and online, and we do hope some of our local audience will be able to join us for a glass of sake after the talk to wish Ryoko all the very best for her next exciting chapter.
Professor Simon Kaner
Executive Director