Autumn greetings as Japan celebrates Culture Day (文化の日).
We are in the midst of a busy autumn, and look forward to our events in London this week, in particular our 25th anniversary conference at the Royal Academy of Arts on Saturday 9th November. I am grateful to all of our distinguished speakers, many of whom are travelling from far to be with us for this special day, and we are particularly honoured to welcome Her Imperial Highness Princess Akiko of Mikasa back to the UK to take part in our event.
I spent a delightful few days in Tokyo in October as a guest of the Japan Foundation to receive our Japan Foundation Award. I was greatly honoured to meet their Imperial Highnesses, Fumihito, Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko. It was a great pleasure to meet the other awardees, the distinguished members of the Selection Committee, and many friends and colleagues from the Japan Foundation and elsewhere. It was truly a wonderful way to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Sainsbury Institute and on behalf of everyone at the Institute I offer our sincere thanks to the Japan Foundation for this wonderful honour.
I was also invited to give a commemorative lecture, and chose as my topic “How Japanese arts and cultures make us happy”. I will give a related talk at the invitation of the Japan Foundation London Office at Japan House London on Thursday 16th January 2025, which will also form our New Year’s Third Thursday Lecture.
While in Tokyo I had the opportunity to visit two excellent exhibitions featuring Jōmon period dogū ceramic figures and Kofun period terracotta haniwa tomb figures. The first major haniwa exhibition in many years is at the Tokyo National Museum until 8th December and presents a timely overview of the diversity of this ceramic form, marking the 50th anniversary of the designation of the 6th century ‘Warrior in Keikō Armour’ as a National Treasure from the Watanuki Kannonyama kofun tomb in Gunma prefecture. This exceptional piece is displayed along with no less than five warrior figures thought to have originated from the same kiln – brought together for the first time since antiquity. Other favourites for me included the ship from Takarazuka kofun No. 1, Mie prefecture (even though a replica), the sumo wrestlers, and the eternally smiling figures from Akaborimura and Shimoda kofun, both in Gunma.
Haniwa and dogū: modern images of ancient clay figurines is at the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo until 22 December. This exhibition tells the story of how these two types of ceramic figure caught the imagination of some of the most influential Japanese artists of the 20th century, notably Okamoto Taro and Isamu Noguchi. Including representations of these discoveries from the Meiji period through to today, the exhibition persuasively connects the worlds of archaeology, fine art, philosophy, film and more. The catalogue has a seminal essay by lead curator Hanai Hisashi on ‘Discovery and oblivescence, Unearthed artifacts as regenerative devices’. It was wonderful to see the large paintings by Minomushi Sanjin from the 1870s and 80s, a figure we encountered as part of our Power of Dogū exhibition at the British Museum in 2009, and many striking images, including dogū by Saito Kiyoshi from the 1950s, figures in the nihonga style by Yasuda Yoshihiko and others, alongside unsettling images from the militaristic period, including ‘Refugees’ by Shimizu Toshi. Catalogues for both these exhibitions are in the Lisa Sainsbury Library.
In September I participated in two fascinating conferences, in Yale and Halle. First at Yale I revisited debates on Jōmon social complexity and the nature of the ‘rice revolution’ with the advent of the Yayoi period at the conference on The Archaeology of Early Japan: Debating Social Complexity. Then, at the end of September I was in Halle, Germany, for the 17th Archaeological Conference of Central Germany, on the theme of A Stone Age History of Clothing, revisiting the evidence for weaving and body decoration from the Jōmon period. Both conferences had many new insights and discoveries, and it was wonderful to see such interest in Japanese archaeology in both the States and Europe.
Last week we welcomed Professor David Maguire and the Executive Team from the University of East Anglia (UEA), who held their awayday at the Lisa Sainsbury Library. It was a great opportunity to brief the senior management of the University on developments both at the Institute and the Centre for Japanese Studies at UEA. We will be accompanying Professor Maguire to Japan in later November in his roles as Vice Chancellor and President of UEA, and Chair of the Board of the Sainsbury Institute. We look forward to seeing many of our friends in Japan at that time.
Last month I wrote of the sad news of the passing of our founding Trustee Dame Elizabeth Esteve-Coll. A memorial celebration of her life is being planned for the afternoon of Friday 10th January at Norwich Cathedral, next to our historic headquarters at 64 The Close which Dame Elizabeth was instrumental in securing for us. Further details will be contained in our January New Year’s e-bulletin.
Professor Simon Kaner
Executive Director