Events category: Special event

The Creation and Future of Japanese Traditional Music

Yuka Takechi has forged a unique career as a composer at the highest level, creating new classical music for Japanese traditional music and its instruments. In this talk, Takechi introduced her works by using video and audio materials and considered the potential of Japanese traditional music, its creativity and its future. Takechi was joined by award-winning violinist Midori Komachi, who performed a selection of Takechi’s original pieces for violin.

Enjoying Japanese Tea

Both the British and the Japanese love of tea is a ritualised part of daily life. Green tea is synonymous with Japan; however has been steadily growing in popularity right across Europe. In this event, we would like to introduce you to the world of Japanese tea and offer you the chance to try many different types of tea and matcha sweets!

This event is supported by UCC.

A Marriage of Miso and Sake: Sake and Miso Canapé Tasting

Miso is an essential ingredient for miso soup, but it can also be used as a condiment for cooking meat, fish and vegetables. Sake, Japanese rice wine, has a mild taste with light acidity, bitterness or astringency, and is also low in calories.

For this special tasting, we will show you some recipes to go with sake using miso and other ingredients, so that you can try cooking with miso at home!

Zazen Meditation: Workshop and Practice

Zen teaches that gods, Buddhas and enlightenment all exist in our own minds. Thus, central to Japanese Zen Buddhism is the practice of meditation. Zensho-an is said to be the most popular temple for Zazen meditation, with waiting times for meditation sessions exceeding more than two months.

The Foundation is delighted to offer this unique opportunity to experience a Zazen workshop and to learn more of its history and practice.

The Foundation was delighted to offer this unique opportunity to experience a Zazen workshop with the head priest of Zensho-an Temple and to learn more of its history and practice.

Symposium: In the Wake of Japan’s Nuclear Tsunami: Reflections on the Nature of Disaster in the 21st Century

The School of East Asian Studies and Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, and the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation present a workshop and symposium on the nature of disaster, five years after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Masuda String Puppeteers: Shimane Prefecture’s Edo Period String Puppetry

Shimane Prefecture’s string puppeteering group Masuda String Puppets will give their first overseas performance at the V&A’s ‘Japan Festival for Families’ on 1 May 2016. Designated as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Shimane Prefecture, the Masuda String Puppeteers’ style is the only surviving Edo Period style string puppetry currently performed in Japan.

Before their premiere international show in London, they will demonstrate their intricate puppet handling here at the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. Join us to hear about the history of Masuda String Puppets and to see a glimpse of the puppets in action.

The Grandchildren of Hiroshima

To mark the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in 2015 the London Bubble Theatre Company set out to transform this tragedy from a static collection of dates and events into a live, breathing monument from the past – and a warning from the future.

Eighteen hibakusha (A-Bomb survivors) shared their stories so that they could be explored and expressed through the medium of theatre. From these testimonies, the production of The Grandchildren of Hiroshima was born. We warmly welcome you to a screening of this production.

The Public Opinion Myth: Why Japan retains the Death Penalty

Japan, unbeknownst to many, retains the death penalty, and still executes criminal offenders to this day. The Japanese government’s official justification for preserving the death penalty is that the majority of the public is overwhelming in favour of this method of criminal punishment. Dr Mai Sato will screen a short version of the documentary film, “The Wavering Public? The Death Penalty, Justice and Public Opinion”, which explores what the death penalty means to ordinary citizens living in a retentionist state – one in which much of the practice surrounding the death penalty remains secretive and discreet.

Princes of the Yen

Princes of the Yen reveals how Japanese society was transformed to suit the agenda and desire of powerful interest groups, and how citizens were kept entirely in the dark about this. Central banks are some of the most secretive and misunderstood institutions in the world. What powers do they wield? Whose interests do they serve? How do their actions affect our everyday lives?

British Music for Early Guitars and Harp-lute

The Daiwa Foundation welcomed Taro Takeuchi back to perform in a concert of the early guitar and harp-lute.