Thursday 17 September, 2026
6:00pm BST - 7:00pm BST
Online lecture via Zoom.
50 min pre-recorded lecture.
Free and open to all, booking essential. Register here.
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If you have limited access to the internet but would still like to view the lecture, please email sisjac@sainsbury-institute.org or call us on +44 (0) 1603 597507 to book to attend our livestream from 64 The Close.
Speaker
William H. Coaldrake MVO (Department of Architecture, The University of Tokyo )
About the Talk
The Taitokuin Mausoleum was built at the Tokugawa family temple of Zōjōji in 1632 to 1634 to house the mortal remains and reborn spirit of the second shogun Tokugawa Hidetada (1579-1632). Tragically it was almost entirely destroyed by incendiary bombing in 1945. If it had survived to today it would undoubtedly have become a World Heritage site because of its architectural and artistic significance. A replica model was however made by Japan’s leading architects, carpenters, artists and artisans at Tōkyō Bijutsu Gakkō (now Tokyo University of the Arts) for display in 1910 at the Japan-British Exhibition at White City, Shepherd’s Bush. It was then presented to King George V, thereby becoming part of the Royal Collection.
The model was to be displayed for nearly fifty years in the Orangery at Kew Royal Botanical Gardens before being dismantled and placed in storage in 1958 where it disappeared from sight until the early 1990s. Both the mausoleum and the model faded from memory, forgotten by the public and eclipsed in scholarship by the Nikkō Tōshōgū. In fact the Nikkō shrine, founded after Ieyasu’s death in 1616, was rebuilt two years after the Taitokuin Mausoleum by the same people as had constructed the Taitokuin Mausoleum. It was similar architecturally and artistically, as Coaldrake’s 1983 doctoral dissertation for Professor John Rosenfield at Harvard had made clear.
What Coaldrake did not know when he finished his doctorate was that the 1910 model, one-tenth in size but every bit as spectacular as its larger progenitor, had survived in storage. With its rediscovery in the 1990s and subsequent restoration and long-term loan to Zōjōji, where the original mausoleum had once stood, the historical memory of the Taitokuin Mausoleum and its smaller surrogate has been reborn.
Related NHK Programme on 16 September 2026
The day before this lecture NHK in Japan will broadcast a 45 minute documentary about the Taitokuin Mausoleum and the Royal Collection Model. It will include interviews with William Coaldrake and a CG reconstruction of the original buildings that he supervised.
Broadcast Details: Rekishi Tantei (“History Detective”) Series. Tokyo’s “Forgotten World Heritage Site”: A Tokugawa Family Mausoleum (in Japanese only). First broadcast: NHK-G. 16 September 2026 (Wednesday) at 22.00-22.45 (Japan Standard Time). Rebroadcast: NHK-G. 21 September (Monday) 23:50-24.35 (Japan Standard Time) [broadcast times may be subject to last minute changes due to unforeseen circumstances].
It will also be broadcast simultaneously on NHK World Premium on 16 September. Please note: This is the Japanese language subscription world service, not to be confused with the English language NHK World
NHK G総合テレビ
『歴史探偵』. 東京”幻の世界遺産” 徳川家霊廟 （初放送9月16日（水) 22.00-22.45（日本時間）同時にNHK ワールドプレミアム 再放送9月21日（月) 23.50-24.35（日本時間）
About the Speaker
William H. Coaldrake (Bill) was born in Japan of Australian missionary parents. He received his doctorate from Harvard University followed by three years there as Lecturer on Fine Arts. From 1992 until 2007 he was Foundation Professor of Japanese at the University of Melbourne and Edwin O Reischauer Visiting Professor of Japanese Studies at Harvard in 2005-06. Coaldrake returned to Japan in 2011. He has been based at the University of Tokyo ever since, first as Visiting Professor in Cultural Resources Studies until 2014, and then as Project Professor in the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies until 2018. He has also held an on-going position as Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Architecture. In 2014 he founded Coaldrake Consulting registered in Japan and specialising in heritage building research and restoration.
Coaldrake is the author of The Way of the Carpenter: Tools and Japanese Architecture (Weatherhill, 1990, republished in Spanish translation in 2021). This paralleled his scholarly work, drawn from first-hand experience at architectural restoration sites in Kyoto as the first non-Japanese member of the Kyōto Dentō Kenchiku Gijutsu Kyōkai or Kyoto Association for Traditional Architectural Technology). His second major book Architecture and Authority in Japan (The Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies Series, 1996, Spanish translation forthcoming in 2026), was based on a course of lectures delivered at the then Oriental Institute of Oxford.
Coaldrake was instrumental in the “re-birth” of the Taitokuin Mausoleum model over a period of 20 years. As Representative and Project Coordinator for the Taitokuin Mausoleum Model Project for the Royal Collection Trust he supervised the model’s restoration and organised its long-term loan and public exhibition in Tokyo. For these services Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II appointed him as Member of the Royal Victorian Order in 2015.
Images:
Top left: Taitokuin Mausoleum Model on display at the Japan-British Exhibition, Shepherd’s Bush, in 1910. (Illustrated London News, 4th December 1910)
Top right: Taitokuin Mausoleum Model after restoration in March, 2015. Zōjōji, Tokyo. (© Royal Collection Enterprises Ltd 2026 | Royal Collection Trust; Photographer: William H. Coaldrake)
Bottom: Filming for the NHK programme on the Taitokuin Mausoleum and Model (Rekishi Tantei (“History Detective”), first broadcast simultaneously on NHK-G and NHK World Premium on 16 September 2026
The Third Thursday Lecture series is funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and Yakult UK.