May 2023

Following the Easter break and Golden Week, I hope our readers are feeling a little more rested. Last month, we were delighted to host our 250th Third Thursday Lecture with current visiting scholar at the Sainsbury Institute and recently appointed President of the Japan Art History Forum (JAHF), Dr Ayelet Zohar. Her fascinating talk explored the work of Mao Ishikawa, whose frank and intimate capturing of scenes of life in Okinawa in the 1970s led to her first publication Hot Days in Camp Hansen. Ishikawa’s more recent work has shifted from documentary to staged photography in her latest project The Great Photographic Scroll of the Ryūkyū, which depicts scenes from […]

It was a pleasure to attend Prof. Ayelet Zohar’s Third Thursday talk, “The Agony of Okinawa: Mao Ishikawa’s ‘The Great Photographic Scroll of the Ryūkyū,’” held on April 20th. The work is a series of 1 meter x 30 meter photographic prints, ten thus far, which Ishikawa has produced annually since 2013. Each contains a number of photographic images in which friends and acquaintances of Ishikawa, and other volunteers, enact scenes from Okinawan history, folklife, or current events. I had the privilege of seeing one of these ten scrolls, and meeting Ishikawa in person, when it was on display at the Naha City Citizens’ Gallery (Naha Shimin Gallery) in 2014. […]

In late March, Ishibashi Foundation Digital Futures fellows Kuniko Matsui, Matthew Hitchmough, Stefano Turina, Wei Sun and Ishibashi Foundation Digital Project Officer, Yuhan Ji went on a research trip in Paris led by Sainsbury Institute Acting Director and Lecturer in Japanese Arts, Cultures, and Heritage, Dr Eugenia Bogdanova-Kummer. This is one component of the Ishibashi Foundation Digital Futures project, where the aforementioned fellows explore Japanese arts in the post-war period in European museums, galleries and archives in a series of archival research trips, as well as through conversations with scholars and curators. The crossroad of east-west cultural exchange that was Paris in the 20th century, now offers a rich reservoir […]