It was with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Dame Elizabeth Esteve-Coll on 16 September at the age of 85. She died peacefully at home in Norfolk. Dame Elizabeth was instrumental in the creation of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, and was a close friend of our founding benefactors Sir Robert and Lady Lisa Sainsbury. She was responsible for finding our headquarters in Norwich Cathedral Close and oversaw the development of the Lisa Sainsbury Library which continues to be the major asset of the Sainsbury Institute. As a former Vice Chancellor of the University of East Anglia, she was hugely supportive as we developed new Japan-related degree programmes and the Centre for Japanese Studies at UEA.
Dame Elizabeth ensured that we forged strong bonds with our Norfolk and Norwich community, and our Third Thursday Lecture Series, now in its 23rd year, was her creation. She was a tremendous supporter of all of our events, and visited Japan with us on a number of occasions. From the outset, she served as one of our founding Trustees and as a member of our Management Board. She first visited Japan in 1964, the year of the 1st Tokyo Olympics. In 2005, she was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays and Neck Ribbon by the Japanese government for her promotion of Japanese culture in the UK. Dame Elizabeth was an inspiration to us all and we will miss her greatly. We offer our sincere condolences to her family and friends.
We reproduce here an article from Orientations in which Dame Elizabeth interviewed Lady Lisa Sainsbury about her interest in Japanese art, along with three interviews with Dame Elizabeth herself from past issues of our e-bulletin, looking at the past, present and future of the Institute (Part 1, Part2, and Part 3).