Past Events

5 March 2019

Private View: 'untitled yet' by Shuhei Yamada

The Private View was an opportunity to have a first look at Shuhei Yamada’s exhibition “untitled yet”. In his early works, Yamada focuses on eliminating from images the key objects that enable the viewer to easily understand them. Yamada suggests that viewers should read various meanings into his art. After the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, he became interested in exploring the absurdities of the society that surrounds us. In recent years, his work has included not only photography and videos, but also 3D art and installations.

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28 February 2019

Bodyscapes - New films by Japanese artists

Bodyscapes is a collection of new films by Japanese artists whose use of the body is central to their work – either as a landscape, a political metaphor or method of expression – the body acts as a vehicle and subject to communicate ideas. In this event, five films were shown for the first time in the UK. The screening was followed by a Q&A session with the Director and Curator of video club.

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22 February 2019

Re-imagining Akutagawa

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa was one of Japan’s great writers – author of the stories ‘Rashōmon’ and ‘In a Bamboo Grove’, most famously – who lived through Japan’s turbulent Taishō period, including the devastating 1923 Earthquake, only to take his own life at the age of thirty-five in 1927. In this talk, David Peace read from his novel ‘Patient X’ and discussed the life and work of Akutagawa with Damian Flanagan.

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20 February 2019

The Unmaking of An American

“The Unmaking of an American” is Roger Pulvers’ cross-cultural memoir spanning decades of history on four continents. He explores the nature of memory through connections created from people and places, both past and present. In this book launch, Roger introduced his memoir and talked about the changes he has observed over the past half-century in Japan, Britain, the United States and Russia.

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29 January 2019

Private View and Artist Talk: Susumu Matsuura in conversation with Dr Lee Campbell

This event provided the opportunity to have a first look at the work of Susumu Matsuura and hear him discuss the ideas and inspiration behind his work with Dr Lee Campbell. Susumu’s work has “humans” as its main theme, and most of his work expresses human emotions. He is interested in exploring the two-sided nature of human beings, who harbour both positive feelings and greed. Works on display at the Foundation include: symmetrical portraits inspired by the Rorschach test; works inspired by the feelings of depression that the artist himself has experienced; and the series Caress a Cat.

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28 January 2019

Portland Japanese Garden: An American Interpretation of a Japanese Artform

In this talk, Steve Bloom, Chief Executive Officer of the Portland Japanese Garden, explored the past, present, and future of the Portland Japanese Garden. He looked at how it is leading a global dialog about the Japanese Garden as a platform for spreading the ideals of peace and mutual understanding between peoples. The talk was chaired by the radio broadcaster Nick Luscombe.

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24 January 2019

On Kurosawa: a Tribute to the Master Director

In this book launch, Peter Tasker introduced his latest book ‘On Kurosawa: A Tribute to the Master Director’. Peter explored the body of work and legacy of the film director Akira Kurosawa and look at why Kurosawa’s films are so popular around the world.

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17 January 2019

Industry-academia partnerships: collaborations between UK universities and Japanese enterprises

This talk looked at collaborations between industry and academia, discussing how these partnerships contribute to industrial innovation and the challenges in creating these partnerships. Professor Mikael Adolphson, University of Cambridge, and Kiyomi Hashimoto, CEO of Dojima Sake Brewery, used the example of collaboration between the University of Cambridge and Japanese enterprise to explain how UK universities and Japanese enterprises can effectively work together to promote innovation.

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1 January 2019

A Year of Transitions

Both Japan and the UK face major transitions in 2019. In the UK, the key issue is Brexit which, although the final outcome is yet to be determined, is already having an impact on UK-Japan relations. Japan’s big transition is perhaps more symbolic, as the country marks the close of the Heisei era and the accession of a new Emperor. Our 2019 Annual Seminar Series will focus on “transitions” in Japan, the UK and their surrounding environment. We shall be discussing what changes are likely to materialise in these countries over the next few years, and how these changes are expected to impact society.

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4 December 2018

2.5D Theatre: staging Anime, Manga and Video Games in Europe

In Japan, anime, manga and video games generate their own live shows and the 2.5D theatre brand is ever growing. In the West, Japanese franchises have yet to make real inroads on the stage. But looking at the history of Western fandom and the growing interest in East-Asian entertainment, there are signs that the balance is beginning to shift. In this talk Helen McCarthy and Alexandra Rutter looked at the potential of staging anime in European theatres.

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29 November 2018

Approaching a new nuclear threat age - what can we learn from Hiroshima?

President Donald Trump recently announced his intention to withdraw the US from its nuclear arms treaty with Russia and his desire to develop the US nuclear arsenal. The news shocked civil society in both Europe and Japan. This seminar looked at the challenges facing nuclear treaties in the current international context and discussed the lessons that can be learnt from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Michimasa Hirata, a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, spoke about his experiences during and after the nuclear explosion.

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26 November 2018

Japan’s New Security Partnerships

In this book launch Professor Wilhelm Vosse and Professor Paul Midford introduced the edited volume, Japan’s New Security Partnerships. Japan has begun to actively develop its security ties with a number of countries in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe. The book analyses the motives and objectives from both the Japanese and the partner-countries’ perspectives and asks what this might mean for the security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region, and what lessons can be learned for security cooperation more broadly.

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