Issue 16 Summer 2016

Dear Friends and Supporters, Welcome to the Summer 2016 edition of our e-magazine. We hope you enjoy this edition. Mami MizutoriExecutive Director

Treasures of the Library

As many of our readers may already be familiar with the Cortazzi Map Collection through a series of our e-magazine articles, I would like to take the opportunity in this article to introduce the Cortazzi Ukiyoe Collection. The Collection comprises of 43 titles of polychrome woodblock prints on long-term loan from Sir Hugh and Lady […]

The Sainsbury Institute Abroad

A busy week in Japan… As part of our closer working with the University of East Anglia (UEA), Simon Kaner, who is Director of the University’s Centre for Japanese Studies as well as Head of the Centre for Archaeology and Heritage, spent a week in Japan at the end of May and early June with […]

Museums in Japan

Obsidian Museum Obsidian, a naturally occurring volcanic glass, has been a much coveted rock by mankind. In prehistoric times, hunters and gatherers on the Japanese archipelago knapped them into spears and arrow heads to improve their hunts. The black glossy stone still holds its allure, more recently best in the virtual world of Minecraft. Prized […]

Artist Profile

Made in Japan: Kakiemon and 400 years of porcelain In 1616, Ri Sanpei discovered porcelain stone in a quarry in Arita, a town on the southern island of Kyushu near Nagasaki. This sparked the porcelain production in Japan, and accelerated when Ming dynasty China closed off foreign trade with the West and allowed Japan to […]

Our Fellow

Kimura Tadakazu CBE Kimura Tadakazu CBE, a veteran journalist who for over forty years covered Japanese politics and international affairs, recently completed his six-month stay at the Institute as a Senior Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow. Mr Kimura is former President and CEO of the leading Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun. Mizutori Mami, the Executive Director, […]

Behind the Scenes

Eradicating a well-established international brand in one stroke: how Brexit is perceived in Japan Just a month after the referendum on 23 June, it is fair to say that we are already quite exhausted with the topic of Brexit. Following a traditionally disciplined British composure of ‘staying calm and carrying on’ we are now told […]