Inaugural lecture
The First Emperor of modern Japan (lecture commemorating the estalishiment of the Sainsbury Institute)
Donald Keene
Norwich Cathedral
Lectures
Birth & Rebirths in Japanese Art (3 day lecture series)
Norwich and London
Conference
Beverages in early Modern Japan & its International Context
3 day conference, SOAS, University of London
Conference
Kamigata Actor Prints conference
SOAS, University of London
Opening of 64 The Close, Norwich as The Sainsbury Institute headquarters
Lectures
Inaugural Third Thursday Lecture
Donald Keene
Norwich Cathedral
Publication
Births and Rebirths in Japanese Art: Essays Celebrating the Inauguration of The Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures
Edited by Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere
Hotei Publishing (Leiden)
Japanese Literature in Japanese art (JLAC) Series
Inauguration of the Japanese Literature in Japanese Art (JLAC) Series to support reach and publications and to nurture cooperation between UK-based scholars and their counterparts abroad
Conference
Reflecting truth: Japanese Photography in the Nineteenth Century
Norwich School of Art & Design (NUA)
Exhibition
Kazari: Decoration & display in Japan 15th-19th century
Curated by Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere and Professor Tsuji Nobuo
Japan Society Gallery, New York and the British Museum, London.
Toshiba Lectures in Japanese Art
Watanabe Kazan: Painter & Martyr
Speaker: Donald Keene, Shincho Professor Emeritus, Columbia University
Toshiba Lectures in Japanese Art
Chōgen and the Renaissance in Japanese Buddhist Sculpture
Speaker: John M. Rosenfied, Professor Emeritus, Harvard University
Publication
Jomon Reflections: Forager Life and Culture in the Prehistoric Japanese Archipelago
Edited by Kobayashi Tatsuo, edited by Simon Kaner with Oki Nakamura
Published by: Oxbow Books, 2004
Workshop
Radiocarbon dating in Japan
Sainsbury Institute
Toshiba Lectures in Japanese Art
Towards a Better Tea Bowl: Art, Industry and Ambition in Seventeenth Century Japan
Speaker: Louise Allison Court (Curator, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institute)
Workshop
19-25 June 2006
Postgraduate Workshop in Japanese Art History
Norfolk and SOAS, University of London
Workshop
Seeing and Not Seeing Workshop
17-20 May 2007
SOAS, British Museum, British Library and SCVA
Exhibition
19-21 October 2007
Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan: Celebrating 50 years of the Japan Arts Crafts Association
The British Museum
Toshiba Lectures in Japanese Art
Okinawa: Ryūkyū Kingdom of the Coral Isles
Speaker: Richard Pearson (Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia, and Senior Research Advisor, Sainsbury Institute)
Publication
Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan
Edited by Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere
Published by: The British Museum Press, 2007
Workshop
8-9 July 2008
Words for Design Workshop
An international workshop, organised by Professor Fujita Haruhiko (Osaka University) and supported by Professor Nicole Rousmaniere, to discuss the genealogy of ‘design’
Sainsbury Institute and SCVA
Toshiba Lectures in Japanese Art
Hokusai’s Great Wave: the Making of a Global Icon
Speaker: Christine M.E. Guth (Victoria & Albert Museum and the Royal College of Art)
Publication
Hokusai’s Great Wave: Biography of a Global Icon
Christine Guth
Published by: University of Hawai’i Press, 2015
Exhibition
Sharaku and Other Hidden Japanese Masterworks from the Land of NAUSICAA
04 July – 06 September 2009
Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum
Exhibition
10 September – 22 November 2009
The Power of Dogu: Ceramic Figures from Ancient Japan
The British Museum
Publication
The Power of Dogu: Ceramic Figures from Ancient Japan
Edited by Simon Kaner
Published by: The British Museum Press, 2009
EAJRS annual Conference in Norwich
16-19th September 2009
The 20th annual meeting of European Association for Japanese Resource Specialists (EAJRS) in Norwich to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the Sainsbury Institute.
Workshop
The Impact of Image Culture:
Using Digital Archives for Research in Japanese Art
4th September 2009, sponsored by the JSPS International Training Program, and Global Onsite Training Program for Young Researchers on the Protection of Cultural Heritage and Artworks, in co-operation with the Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto; Department of Art and Archaeology, SOAS, University of London; Prime Minister’s Initiative Programme, UK; and Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Culture.
Toshiba Lectures in Japanese Art
Rethinking Art after the Age of “Enlightenment”
Speaker: David Elliott (Artistic Director, 17th Biennale of Sydney)
Sainsbury Institute Japanese Garden
Japanese karesansui garden
SISJAC raised public funding for a Japanese karesansui garden arrangement and commissioned the Japanese Garden Society to build it in the consecrated ground of the Norwich Cathedral.
Carmen Blacker Lectures
Carmen Blacker and Japan
Speaker: Donald Keene, Professor Emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus, Colombia University
Toshiba Lectures in Japanese Art
Heian Japan in the East Asian World: Cross Currents in Art and Culture
Speaker: Mimi Hall Yiengprukswan (Professor, Yale University)
Centre for Japanese Studies (CJS)
In May 2011, the University of East Anglia established a new Centre for Japanese Studies (CJS) with the the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures. Located within the Interdisciplinary Institute for the Humanities at UEA, the Centre for Japanese Studies fosters Japan-related teaching and research at the University.
Carmen Blacker Lectures
‘Initiatic Landscape’ and Shugendo’s Mountain-Entry
Speaker: Anne Bouchy, Director of Studies of the Ecole francaise d’Extreme-Orient, Paris and Universite de Toulouse-Le Mirail
Symposium
Rescuing Archaeology and Culture: The Impact on Cultural Heritage of the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake
Embassy of Japan, London
Sifting through the debris looking for archaeological treasures at the remains of the Ishinomaki Culture Centre in Miyagi
Exhibition
Flame and Water Pots: Prehistoric Ceramic Art from Japan
4 October 2011 – 20 January 2012
The British Museum, London
Toshiba Lectures in Japanese Art
Words from Images/Images Cast out of Words: Chinese-style Literature and the Visual Arts of 19th Century Japan
Robert Campbell (Professor, University of Tokyo)
Exhibition
JAPAN: Kingdom of Characters
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, UEA
Exhibition
Tohoku: Images of a Disaster
SOAS, University of London
Symposium
Japanese Archaeology: British Perspectives seminar
Daiwa, London
Symposium
Too Kawaii- the power of the super cute
SCVA, Norwich
Workshop
Disaster and Cultural Change
International Workshop in Japanese Media Studies
Carmen Blacker Lectures
Paragons of Culture: The Soft Power of the Japanese Emperors
Speaker: Ben-Ami Shillony, Professor Emeritus of East Asian Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Honorary President of the Israeli Association of Japanese Studies
Exhibition
Arts of Fire, Transformation of space: Masterworks of Contemporary Japanese Porcelain
Vallauris, France
Heritage Open Days in Norwich
Heritage Open Days in Norwich: Visit the Sainsbury Institute
Sainsbury Institute, Norwich
Workshop
University Museums in Japan; public lectures and workshop
25–27 October 2012
University of East Anglia and Norwich Cathedral Hostry
Toshiba Lectures in Japanese Art
Japanese Porcelain: A Four Hundred Year History
Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere (Professor, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures)
Exhibition
Doll Exhibition and Lecture
Exquisite handmade dolls by Ohno Hatsuko (1915-1982), collection of Mori Mika
13-16 November 2012
Assembly House, Norwich
Online Resource for Secondary Schools
In January 2013, with sponsorship from Hitachi Europe Ltd and Hitachi Solutions Europe Ltd, the Institute embarked on the development of a new English Language Online Resource on Japanese Archaeology and Heritage for use in secondary schools.
Conference
Mizube to Iseki no Kokugaku (Archaeology of Waterfronts and Remains)
A conference at the home of the Jomon flame pots, with comparative examples from the Nigata Plain and Shinano River, Switzerland and the Fens of East Anglia
26-27 January 2013
Nigata City, Japan
Workshop
The Archaeology of Ritual and Approaches to Religious Geography: Landscapes and Cityscapes of the Sacred in Japan and Europe
A two-day Workshop at the University of Tübingen
18-19 March 2013
Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Schloss Hohentübingen, Fürstenzimmer, Germany
The Lisa Sainsbury Library was inaugurated
The Lisa Sainsbury Library was inaugurated in May 2003 to promote the activities of the Sainsbury Institute and to contribute to the study of Japanese art history in the UK by making resources available to researchers at the Institute and other scholars in the UK and from overseas.
Exhibition
Cortazzi collection exhibition: JAPAN: Historical Images from the Cortazzi Collection
24 June-18 July 2013
Japanese Embassy, London
Symposium
Japanese Modern Art History Symposium
New Boundaries in Modern Japanese Art History: Extending Geographical, Temporal and Generic Paradigms
19 June 2013
SOAS, University of London
Carmen Blacker Lectures
A Glimpse of the Modestly Literate Picnic Lovers of Old Japan
Speaker: Toshio Yokoyama, Professor Emeritus, Kyoto University and Executive Vice-President at Shiga University
Exhibition
Beauty in Detail: Japanese Art Dolls by Ohno Hatsuko
7 June – 30 October 2013
Corfu Museum of Asian Art, Corfu, Greece
Toshiba Lectures in Japanese Art
Tokugawa Japan: Ideologies in Conflict
Speaker: Richard Bowring, Emeritus Professor of Japanese Studies, University of Cambridge
Inaugural Ishibashi Foundation Lecture Series
Euro-Japanese Exchange in the World of Creative Expression
7 December 2013
Fukutake Hall, The University of Tokyo, Hongo Campus
Speakers: Paul Greenhalgh, Director, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, Research Director, Sainsbury Institute; Curator, The British Museum
The Second Ishibashi Foundation Lecture Series
Euro-Japanese Archaeological Exchanges
from the 19th Century to Today
25 October 2014
Tokyo National Museum, Heiseikan Auditorium
Speakers: Simon Kaner, Head, Centre for Archaeology and Heritage, Sainsbury Institute
Oliver Craig, BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York
Tokyo Futures Series
Japan’s True Love of Nature: Ecologies of Hope
Tokyo Futures, 1868-2020 | UK-Japan lecture series
24 Apr 2015
Norwich Cathedral Hostry, Norwich
Speaker: Professor Julia Adeney Thomas, University of Notre Dame
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University
Tokyo Futures Series
Between Imperial Capital and World City: The Tourist’s Tokyo a Century Ago
Tokyo Futures Series
14 Oct 2015
Speaker: Jordan Sand, Georgetown University
Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, SOAS, University of London
Toshiba Lectures in Japanese Art and Science
Beauty and the Robot: Future Innovative Colaboration Between Science and Design
Speakers:
Furuta Takayuki, General Manager of Future Robotics Technology Center at Chiba Institute of Technology
Yamanaka Shunji, Professor at the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo
Tokyo Futures Series
The Art of Transformation: Design and Industry in Tokyo, Now and Then
Tokyo Futures Series
12 Feb 2016
Speaker: Dr Sarah Teasley, Head of Programme, History of Design, Royal College of Art
Stevenson Lecture Theatre, The British Museum, London
The Third Ishibashi Foundation Lecture Series
Japanese Gardens: To whom do they belong?
12 March 2016
Kyoto University of Art and Design
Speakers: Toshio Watanabe, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures; University of the Arts London (TrAIN Research Centre)
Wybe Kuitert, Graduate School of Environmental Studies of the Seoul National University, Korea Kyoto University of Art and Design
Conference
Collecting Future Japan
Sputniko! – “Tranceflora – Amy’s Glowing Silk”
27 May 2016
Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre, V&A
Carmen Blacker Lecture Series
Confucius in Tokugawa Japan: unofficial ceremonies of worship
Speaker: Dr James McMullen, Fellow Emeritus at St Antony’s and Pembroke Colleges, Oxford
Publication
An Illustrated Companion to Japanese Archaeology
Edited by Werner Steinhaus and Simon Kaner, Archaeopress, 2016
Publication
Reconsidering Cultural Heritage in East Asia
Akira Matsuda and Luisa Mengoni (eds.)
Published by: Ubiquity Press
Tokyo Futures Series
Tokyo Futures, 1868-2020: City of Symbiosis?
Tokyo Futures Series
22 Oct 2016
Meiji Jingu Sanshuden, Tokyo
Speakers: Professor Jeremy Till and Professor Ken Tadashi Oshima
Other Participants:
Professor Izumi Kuroishi, Discussant; Professor Kohei Nawa, Discussant; Professor Toshio Watanabe, Chair; Dr Yoshio Imaizumi, MC
Toshiba Lectures in Japanese Art and Science
Botany and Scientific Illustration
Speakers: Masumi Yamanaka, Artist
Mark Nesbitt, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
The Fourth Ishibashi Foundation Lecture Series
Japanese Tea as Culture, Japanese Tea as Product Museum Hall, Kyushu National Museum
27 May 2017
Speakers:
Morgan Pitelka, Director, Carolina Asia Center and Professor of Asian Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Robert Hellyer, Associate Professor of History at Wake Forest University
Carmen Blacker Lecture Series
The Archaeology of Ritual Sites and the Origins of Japanese Shrines and Festivals
Speaker: Professor Mamarou Sasou, Director, Kokugakuin University Museum
Tokyo Futures Series
Tokyo Futures 3: Transnational Cities
29 – 30 September 2017
The Clore Auditorium, Tate Britain, London
Exhibition
Global Perspectives on British Archaeology Touring Exhibition: Norwich
Global Perspectives on British Archaeology presented research into East Anglia’s heritage in a broad international context, encouraging us to think about the region’s place in the wider world, in the past, present and future.
For further details, please visit the project website
8 October 2017
The Forum, Norwich
Symposium
Fashioning Colours: News Perspectives on Japanese Woodblock Prints
Examining the transmedial relationship between Japanese prints, illustrated books and textiles through their shared interests in colours, including the production of colorants, colour printing technology and design patterns in Japan from the 18th to 19th centuries.
12 July 2018
Sainsbury Institute, Norwich
Third Thursday Lecture Series
200th Third Thursday Lecture: UK-Japan Relations
His Excellency Koji Tsuruoka, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan in the UK
The Assembly House, Norwich
Exhibition
Digital Japan Mini-Festival
An exhibition showcasing current research on Japan including digitized materials, digital-born art and artefacts, and exhibits on digital media
21-22 September 2018
The Forum, Norwich
Film Screening and Public Workshop
Groups, Clubs, and Sākuru: Amateur Arts Practice in Japan
5 – 7 October 2018
Sainsbury Institute, Norwich
The Fifth Ishibashi Foundation Lecture Series
Blades, Bushi and Benkei: Weapons and Warfare in Premodern Japan
9 November 2018
Tokiwamatsu Hall, Kokugakuin University
In association with the Organization for the Advancement of Research and Development, Kokugakuin University
Sponsored by the Ishibashi Foundation
Speakers: Karl Friday, Saitama University & University of Georgia
Mikael Adolphson, University of Cambridge
Conference
The Arrival of Belief at the Extremities of the Silk Roads: Recent work on the archaeology of the interface between incoming and local religions in Eurasia 400 – 1000 AD
22 November 2018
Birkbeck Room, The Great Hospital, Bishopgate, Norwich
Image: Bronze head of Bodhisattva, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. UEA1193
Workshop
Neolithisation from the Seas of Japan across the North Eurasian Greenbelt
29 Nov 2018
Organised in association with the Eurasia3angle Research Group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Sainsbury Institute, Norwich
Publication
History of Art in Japan
Tsuji Nobuo (Translated by Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere)
Published by: University of Tokyo Press, 2018
Publication
Making Icons: Repetition and the Female Image in Japanese Cinema, 1945–1964
Dr Jennifer Coates
Published by: Hong Kong University Press
Workshop
Crossing Borders, Pushing Boundaries: Rethinking Transnational Memories of War in Asia and the Pacific
Co-organised by Dr Jennifer Coates, Sainsbury Institute
27 – 28 Mar 2019
NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam
Conference
Medieval Palace Cities in Japan, Europe and the Middle East Pastimes and Pleasures in the Eastern Hills of Kyoto
4 Mar – 7 Mar 2019
Organised by Professor Morgan Pitelka, University of North Carolina; Professor Simon Kaner, Sainsbury Institute; Dr Charlotte Horlyk, SOAS, University of London
Budapest, Visegrad and Estergom, Hungary
Exhibition
The Citi exhibition Manga マンガ
Curated by Professor Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, Sainsbury Institute & British Museum
In May 2019 the British Museum presented the largest exhibition of manga ever held outside of Japan
23 May – 26 Aug 2019
British Museum, London
Carmen Blacker Lecture Series
Dragon bones and sacred pillars: some archaeological observations on traditional Japanese religion
Speaker: Professor Simon Kaner, Sainsbury Institute & University of East Anglia
Symposium
Manga Symposium 2019: What is Manga? Exploring Japanese manga and visual narrative
23 August 2019
The British Library, London
Exhibition
Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere at Panasonic SPORTS x MANGA Exhibition
Channel Panasonic
7th September 2019
Research Director Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere gave a talk with Manga artist TAGAME Gengoro at the SPORTS X MANGA exhibition held by Panasonic Corporation in Tokyo
Symposium
Open Science, Evolving Societies: New Horizons for EU-Japan Research
22 October 2019
The Vrije Universiteit Brussel U-Residence Conference Centre, Brussels, Belgium
Conference
Okinawan Art in its Regional Context
10 – 11 October 2019
This two-day conference addressed the socio-cultural complexities of Okinawan identity over the course of history, and explored the intersection between art, politics, and identity from an interdisciplinary perspective
University of East Anglia, Norwich
Talk
Monuments to Impermanence: New Inspirations From Ancient Japanese Stone Circles and Burial Mounds
31 March 2020
Asia Society
Online Talk
Japanese Printed Calligraphy and Postwar Avant-Garde
22 – 28 June 2020
Before and Beyond Typography E-CONFERENCE by Stanford University
Speaker: Eugenia Bogdanova-Kummer, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures
Online Festival
Online Jomon Matsuri: Summer Solstice
20 June 2020
We celebrated the Summer Solstice weekend with the launch of the Online Jomon Matsuri, a festival exploring various aspects of this remarkable period of Japanese prehistory and its global significance for understanding human history
Talk
Inside ‘Japan: Courts and Culture’
16 July 2020
Speakers: Rachel Peat, Royal Collection Trust
Professor Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, Sainsbury Institute
Japan: Courts and Culture
Edited by Rachel Peat
Published by Royal Collection Trust
Online Talk
From Shibayama to Stonehenge: William Gowland – pioneer of archaeology in Japan and England
8 October 2020
Society of Antiquaries of London
Speakers: Professor Simon Kaner, Sainsbury Institute
Dr Luke Edgington-Brown
Online Talk
Dig Dogs — The Archaeology of Dogs in Japan: Talk by Professor Simon Kaner, Sainsbury Institute 犬と考古学
29 October 2020
Japan House London
Symposium
Online Symposium: Kōgei 2020 – The Art of Crafting Beauty from Nature
17 October 2020
External Online Event (via YouTube)
Panelists included Professor Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere from the Sainsbury Institute, Uchida Tokugo from MOA Museum of Art and Living National Treasure Murose Kazumi.
Conference
Online Conference | Nakashima Harumi
12 November 2020, via Zoom
Organised by Sokyo Gallery, Kyoto, Japan
Speakers: Harumi Nakashima, Artist, Gifu, Japan
Bai Ming, Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, Research Director, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, Professor of Japanese Art and Culture, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
Claudia Casali, Direttrice, Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza, Faenza, Italy.
Image courtesy of Sokyo Gallery
Publication
The Archaeology of Medieval Towns: Case Studies from Japan and Europe
Edited by Simon Kaner, Brian Ayers, Richard Pearson and Oscar Wrenn
Published by: Archaeopress
Publication
Ceramics and Modernity in Japan
Edited by Meghen Jones, Louise Allison Cort
Published by: Routledge
Sainsbury Institute Occasional Papers
A new publication initiative that seeks to showcase research by scholars and friends of the Sainsbury Institute.
The first publication in this series is:
Collected Papers by Toshio Watanabe: Interpreting Japan
Exhibition
Circles of Stone: Stonehenge and Prehistoric Japan
30 September 2022 – 03 September 2023
Stonehenge Visitor Centre
English Heritage partnership project with the Sainsbury Institute
Sainsbury Institute Occasional Papers 2
The second instalment of our occasional papers series, this edition focuses on Okinawan art and is the product of a conference supported by the Sainsbury Institute in October 2019 and organised by Dr Eriko Tomizawa-Kay.
Okinawan Art in its Regional Context: Historical Overview and Contemporary Practice
Conference
Crosscurrents of Courtly Exchange
15-16 February 2023
2 day international conference held at Windsor Castle in conjunction with the exhibition Japan: Courts & Culture at the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace
Organised in collaboration with Royal Collection Trust
Conference
Stone Circles Across Eurasia
29 August 2023
A conference in conjunction with the exhibition Circles of Stone: Stone Circles and Prehistoric Japan in Salisbury, with speakers from the UK and Japan.
Organised in partnership with English Heritage.