Events category: Talk

28 April 2022

EVENT CANCELLED: Pictorialist Photography: Soichi Sunami and his Issei Contemporaries

David F. Martin will discuss the work and international achievements of Issei photographers active in Seattle, Washington, in the early 20th century. He will focus primarily on Soichi Sunami (1885-1971) whose artistic career began in Seattle and continued after he relocated to New York where he became the chief photographer for the Museum of Modern Art. Sunami’s main interest was dance photography and his subjects included Martha Graham, Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn and other iconic dancers of the period.

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28 October 2021

Two literary Brits in Japan

In this talk, our Director General Jason James shared the story of two writers who stayed in Japan in the 1920s. Edmund Blunden arrived in Japan in 1924 to take up a post as Professor of Literature at Tokyo University. The novelist William Plomer arrived in 1926, and the two became friends, of a sort. Upon returning to the UK, both spread the word about Japan and their influence still remains in today’s cultural scene.

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13 October 2021

Artist Talk: Distance and Sensation by Kota Takeuchi

In this talk chaired by Dr Lena Fritsch, Kota Takeuchi shared his latest project unearthing the history of the first transcontinental weapon called “balloon bombs.” Developed by the Japanese military in World War II, they were carried on high altitude air currents across the Pacific Ocean and landed across North America. News of these bombs and their effects were censored during the war so it is a largely unknown story. Takeuchi has explored national archives, visiting places the bombs landed across the United States, and talking to witnesses, to create a new video work situating the bombs in relation to the mythical Japanese blind figure Tenome.

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16 January 2020

The Meaning of Tattoos for Ainu Women

The Ainu (“human” or “people”) are an indigenous people in Japan native to the regions of Hokkaidō, Northern Tōhoku, and Karafuto, among others. As part of their ancestral tradition, Ainu women had the custom of getting tattoos on their bodies, including their lips. For the Ainu, the tattoo was perceived as a symbol of beauty, a talisman and an indispensable tool to prepare their body for death. However, the traditional tattoo was legally prohibited by the Japanese government in 1899. In this talk, Mayunkiki, an Ainu artist, talked about the sense of beauty among the Ainu based on her artwork and research, and how the traditional concept of beauty has changed after the imposition of a “Japanese lifestyle”.

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17 January 2020

Ainu Art in Contemporary Life

The Ainu are an indigenous people in Japan native to the regions of Hokkaidō, Northern Tōhoku, and Karafuto, among others, that have developed their own original identity, culture, and language over the past centuries. Despite their ancestral roots, the Ainu people have historically suffered from various forms of discrimination and disputes with the rest of Japan, being officially recognised as indigenous to the country only as recently as 2008. Their unique language and traditional culture are at serious risk of being lost and only a few Ainu artists remain. In this talk, Mr Kohei Fujito, an emerging Ainu artist from a young generation based in Akan, Hokkaido, gave a talk along with a small demonstration of his artworks. He spoke about the history & future of Ainu art based on his recent artworks.

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12 September 2019

Noh 120919

Noh X Contemporary Music

In this seminar, Ryoko Aoki talked about Noh and her collaborations with contemporary classical musicians. Ryoko studied Shite-kata (lead role performance) with the Kanze school of Noh, and she is currently working with contemporary composers to create and perform new works that use “Utai” (recitation) – the vocal music of Noh. 

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9 May 2019

Japanese crafts and the challenge of translation

Japanese crafts are highly regarded and valued. However, translating specific craft-related terms is challenging and many of these terms are poorly translated and lack standardization. In this talk, two specialists explored the fascinating world of Japanese crafts. They looked at what makes Japanese crafts so special, discussed how they are viewed in an international context and debate translation issues. The audience then had the chance to judge actual translations, based on a case study, and determined if they were accurate explanations or required improvement.

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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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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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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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