Construction of a functional food store and fermentation space - Grizedale Arts, April 2023, supported by a Daiwa Foundation Small Grant. Grizedale Arts and Hayatsu Architects went on to win the Architects' Journal Small Projects Award for this project: The Farmer’s Arms Cold Food Store.

Recently funded

In order to see the type and variety of projects that the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation fund, please take a look at the successful projects from previous rounds:

Press Releases

September 2025 Press Release

March 2025 Press Release / September 2024 Press Release / March 2024 Press Release / September 2023 Press Release / March 2023 Press Release / September 2022 Press Release / March 2022 Press Release / September 2021 Press Release / March 2021 Press Release / September 2020 Press Release / March 2020 Press Release / September 2019 Press Release / March 2019 Press Release

Each PDF below lists the Small Grants and Awards approved per funding round.

SEPTEMBER 2025 ROUND, PDF

March 2025 Round, PDF

SEPTEMBER 2024 ROUND, PDF

March 2024 Round, PDF

September 2023 Round, PDF

MARCH 2023 ROUND, PDF

SEPTEMBER 2022 ROUND, PDF

MARCH 2022 ROUND, PDF

September 2021 Round, PDF / March 2021 Round, PDF / September 2020 Round, PDF / March 2020 Round, PDF  / September 2019 Round, PDF / March 2019 Round, PDF /September 2018 Round, PDF / March 2018 Round, PDF / September 2017 Round, PDF / March 2017 Round, PDF / September 2016 Round, PDF / March 2016 Round,PDF  / September 2015 Round, PDF / March 2015 Round, PDF / September 2014 Round, PDF / March 2014 Round, PDF / September 2013 Round, PDF / March 2013 Round, PDF / September 2012 Round, PDF / March 2012 Round, PDF / September 2011 Round PDF / March 2011 Round , PDF  / March 2010 Round, PDF / September 2010 Round, PDF

360Giving

We are also working with 360Giving to publish information about our grants in line with the 360Giving data standard. These lists can be found on our website here.

Open grant data – 360Giving – Daiwa foundation small grants and awards – Daiwa Foundation (dajf.org.uk)

A selection of current & forthcoming events and activities supported by the Foundation

  • A Small Grant was awarded to The Whitworth Art Gallery, to support academics travelling to give talks as part of a public lecture series, in collaboration with the Japanese Studies department at The University of Manchester, associated with Beneath the Great Wave: Hokusai and Hiroshige, the first exhibition at the Whitworth in over 100 years dedicated to its collection of historic Japanese woodblock prints, 14 March to 15  November 2026.
  • An Award will support Dr Ravindra Jayaratne, reader in coastal engineering at the University of East London’s School of Architecture, Computing and Engineering ew research project in Japan that will advance understanding of how coastlines respond to storm waves and sediment movement. The 18-month project, which began in January 2026 will bring together researchers from the UK and Japan to investigate sediment transport in the swash zone – the highly dynamic area where waves meet the shoreline: UEL academic secures prestigious Daiwa award | University of East London
  • A Small Grant will support travel to Japan in May 2026 by academics undertaking exhibition-related research, ahead of a touring UK exhibition of Nintendo’s early history to coincide with the 40th anniversary of its character Mario. In part, the exhibition, Nintendo Before Mario, will be co-curated with game exhibition experts at Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies. The exhibition, due to be displayed at Confetti College, Nottingham Trent and Bath Spa University, will showcase designer Gunpei Yokoi’s early work.
  • A Daiwa Foundation Small Grant will support the travel to Japan of five cast and team members from Raw Material Arts Limited to tour the award-winning play Love Beyond, a production that addresses the themes of dementia and loss of memory whilst encouraging its audiences to empathise with loss of understanding and communication.
  • A Small Grant will support travel to the UK by Tokyo-based Kabuki artist Taichi Fujima who will teach a three-week workshop in London in July 2026, to develop a Kabuki-inspired production, Spring Snow, which will be performed at Wigmore Hall on 11 October 2026, marking the first theatrical creation ever presented in the venue’s 125-year history.
  • A Small Grant will support travel to Japan in spring 2026  by artist Steve Bishop to undertake on-site research at Towada Art Center and Towada City for the creation of new artworks in preparation for the solo exhibition ‘3 Films About Building’s (tentative title), for whose installation, opening and media engagements he will return in mid-November 2026.
  • A Small Grant will support travel by academics giving talks as part of a public lecture series, in collaboration with the Japanese Studies department at The University of Manchester, associated with Beneath the Great Wave, the first exhibition at the Whitworth in over 100 years dedicated to its collection of historic Japanese woodblock prints, March 2026.

Some past activities supported by the Foundation

  • A Small Grant was awarded to The British Museum to support the transport of loans from Japan that will be on display in their upcoming exhibition, Samurai, the first major exhibition to interrogate the idea of the ‘samurai’ as both historical figure and cultural construct, 3 February to 4 May 2026.
  • Scottish Opera received an Award to support the world premiere of Dai Fujikura and Harry Ross’s The Great Wave: an extravagant story about artist Katsushika Hokusai and his famous woodblock print The Great Wave off Kanagawa. This opera directed by Satoshi Miyagi explores Hokusai’s creative triumphs and struggles, and his bond with his daughter Ōi.Japanese composer Dai Fujikura and Scottish librettist Harry Ross create a mesmerising musical drama that showcases the series of events that ignites The Great Wave off Kanagawa phenomena, influencing pop art culture today. It was performed at Theatre Royal Glasgow on 12 and 14 February, and at Festival Theatre Edinburgh on 19  and 21 February 2026: https://www.scottishopera.org.uk/shows/the-great-wave/
  • A Small Grant supported the In Focus: Kaori Oda season at the ICA, London from 20 to 23 November 2025.
  • A Small Grant supported travel to the UK by a quintet from Japan led by Kosuke Mine who performrf at the EFG London Jazz Festival 2025 (14-23 November) as part of a Japanese double bill at the Barbican featuring Akiko Yano and her trio, 23 November 2025.
  • A Small Grant supported a three-week research visit to Japan in July 2025 by Dr Christopher Hood to observe and write about the anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the end of World War II and of the world’s
    deadliest single plane crash, JL123.
  • A Small Grant supported travel to Japan to enable stagings of The Mistake with performances by Riko Nakazono and Michael Mears in an exciting new bilingual version of the play with surtitles. The play explores the events surrounding the catastrophic ‘mistake’ that launched our nuclear age.
  • The Transplantable Roots of Catharine Huws Nagashima: Encounters with the Welsh in Japan by Dr Susan Burton was published on 1 March 2025. We are delighted to have supported this project with a Small Grant!
  • A Small Grant supported travel to the UK by artist Miyu Hosoi to finalise and install a new audio installation – her first public work in the UK – for a Barbican exhibition produced in partnership with the Museum of Narratives (Tokyo). Feel the Sound ran from Thursday 22 May until Sunday 31 August 2025, across the Barbican Centre.
  • An Award supported Playbox Theatre’s trip to Japan in July 2025: Playbox Theatre Returns To Japan For Major Residency With Model Language Studio In Tokyo – Playbox Theatre
  • A Small Grant supported the transport of artwork from Japan to the UK by Machiko Agano, who will bring her textile work, a large dress that stands silently as witness to all the unheard voices of women throughout the ages, which will be the centrepiece of Hear My Voice, an exhibition that will provide a platform for artists who have consciously used the history of women’s hidden narratives in cloth to create contemporary artworks at West Horsley Place, which has recently been opened to the public for the first time, 1 September to 31 October 2025.
  • A Small Grant supported travel to London by two artists from Japan combining varied elements of  photographic and film image, live and recorded music, digital sound processing, and spoken word, taking part in two shows for the  ‘ESEA Encounters’ festival  in the Southbank’s Purcell Room on 20 July: Ayatori & Lotus Code and No One’s an Island.
  • A Small Grant  helped facilitate a panel discussion on the theme of the Japanese diaspora in the UK, University of Oxford on Thursday, June 19.
  • A Small Grant supported travel to Tokyo in March 2025 by Professor Steve Widdicombe and Amy Kenworthy from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) to present at the World Ocean Summit (WOS) 2025 and attend strategic meetings on Ocean Acidification. More here.
  • A Small Grant supported Dot Young’s visit to Japan to research the cultural heritage, artisan skill and environmental sustainability of Washi paper production, with a view to further developing Washi as a sustainable sculptural material.
    Here     you can read a fascinating interview about Dot’s research while in Japan on The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama website.
  • A Small Grant supported travel to Japan in 2024 by conservator Kaori Motaung and curator Matthew Storey (Historic Royal Palaces) to research Japanese court dress (‘taireifuku’) in preparation for an exhibition at Kensington Palace.Dress Codes runs from 13 March to 30 November 2025.
  • A free one-day event in London investigating the culture of the shakuhachi, consisting of a screening of Katsuya Nonaka’s film ‘Future Is Primitive’, talks, and performances; participants included players Katsuya Nonaka, Shabaka Hutchings, Kiku Day, Clive Bell, and organiser Francis Moore, 24 November 2024. A recording of the panel discussion can be viewed here.
  • A Small Grant supported a four-month artist-residency across two locations in Japan during which Sam Wilde delivered workshops, lectures and two exhibitions, August to December 2024.
  • A Daiwa Foundation Small Grant supported reciprocal UK-Japan travel by Dr Karina Jakubowicz and Professor Aki Katayama, Dokkyo University, on a project looking at the impact of the Virginia Woolf on the Japanese feminist movement. Karina visited Japan in spring 2023 and consulted scholars, students, translators and others who work on Woolf and her writing. Professor Katayama joined the Virginia Woolf summer school at Cambridge, where she was able to reflect on Woolf’s work in the UK. They co-produced four podcast episodes on Virginia Woolf in Japan: thevirginiawoolfpodcast.buzzsprout.com
  • A Daiwa Foundation Small Grant supported travel to the UK in 2024 by two Japan-based academics to take part in a workshop related to ‘Creative Collaborations: Salons & Networks in Kyoto & Osaka 1780-1880’ a UK-Japan project, exploring the role of the arts in society:  Creative collaborations in Kyoto, Osaka and Beyond, 1770-1900 | SOAS
  • A ten-day visit in November 2022 to Tokyo and the Echigo-Tsumari and Setouchi Triennials by three curators of the forthcoming Morecambe Bay Triennial allowed them to meet triennial organisers including Fram Kitagawa to discuss logistics, and the challenges of the landscapes for commissions, to explore Japanese artists’ works and seek out partnerships, November 2022.  The Morecambe Bay Triennial took place on 31 August and 1 September 2024: https://www.decopublique.co.uk/morecambe-bay-triennial
  • Yoshida: Three Generations of  Japanese Printmaking was on at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London from 19 June until 3 November 2024.
  • In our March 2024 grants round we awarded funding to support travel to the UK by Japanese mask maker Hideta Kitazawa. He participated in a series of events connected to Nohgaku (Non and Kyogen). He delivered mask-making demonstrations and engaged in talks at, amongst other locations, the British Library, Japan House London, Durham University’s Oriental Museum, Royal Asiatic Society, SOAS Japan Research Centre and the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. More information here.
  • The exhibition, Photo City: How Images Shape the Urban World was on until 27 October 2024 at V&A Dundee. The centrepiece was a new work by the Japanese photographer Sohei Nishino who we funded to travel over to Dundee.
  • Following performances in Brazil, Japan and Peru, award-winning Japanese director and playwright Yudai Kamisato, who was born in Peru, undertook a two-week residency in Lancaster working on the theme of ‘movement’, ‘migrants’ and ‘tourists’ with a local performer and designer culminating in a two-day installation at The Storey in Lancaster on 28 and 29 June 2024. https://contemporarytheatreexchange.com/archive/dpf.html 
  • An Award supported travel from Japan by two curators and two craftspeople from the Hokusai Museum in Obuse to facilitate a three-week exhibition of digital projections and replicas of work by Katsushika Hokusai in Norfolk, which will form part of the year-long ‘Japan in Norwich’ series to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (SISJAC), July 2024: Hokusai: A Vision Above – Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (sainsbury-institute.org)
  • The inaugural UK Ekiden took place on 24 June: The inaugural UK Ekiden – long-distance relay running event 2024
  • The Noh Reimagined festival returned in June 2024 celebrating two masterpieces of traditional Japanese theatre, Sumidagawa and Kinuta. Curated and produced by Akiko Yanagisawa (Mu Arts) in partnership with Kings Place, the biannual festival unwraps the art of Noh, the iconic theatre tradition that originated in fourteenth-century Japan, and offers a creative platform for genre-defying, cross-cultural collaborations, connecting tradition with contemporary life and culture: Mu:Arts (muarts.org.uk)
  • Hiroshi Sugimoto: Time Machine the largest retrospective to date of Hiroshi Sugimoto, was exhibited at the Hayward Gallery from 11 October 2023 to⁠ 7 January 2024.
  • Corinne Mynatt travelled  to Japan in Autumn 2023 in connection with the publication of ‘Tools for Food: Design, History, Culture’ – to produce content for an exhibition in London, and documentation of the stories of these objects for a pilot TV series of ‘Tools for Food’. You can watch some of the films produced by Corinne during her trip to Japan here: Tools for Food: Hidden workshops and food cultures – YouTube
  • Support for travel to Japan by Steffan Griffiths, who is completing an investigative feature-length documentary film focussing on revealing new insights into Japanese society through skateboarding, and the sport’s inclusion in the Tokyo Olympics. Here’s a taster: https://vimeo.com/470134423 
  • Daido Moriyama: A Retrospective is open to the public at The Photographers’ Gallery, 6 October 2023 to 11 February 2024.
  • A grant supported the UK Tour of On an Endless Road a concert featuring Francesca Le Lohé’s new piece for biwa about activist Itō Noe (1895 – 1923), and violin and piano music by Taisho-era Japanese Women Composers, March 2024. A review of the concert in London can be found here.
  • Charlotte Linton travelled to Amami Oshima in winter 2023 for research,  and to return historically important slides of nature and society photographed in the 1950s by an American anthropologist to its originating community, resulting in exhibitions in Japan and the UK and in articles.  Here is a link to a poster advertising a lecture about Charlotte’s project.
  • In April 2023 Grizedale Arts ran a 7-day long construction project led by experts from the UK – including Hayatsu Architects – and Japan. Participants got hands-on-experience of Japanese building and construction techniques combined with those pertaining to the Lake District. Over the course of the project, participants collaborated on the construction of a functional food store and fermentation space for use by the kitchen team at The Farmer’s Arms. The cold store went on to win the Architects’ Journal’s Small Projects Award.
  • Tarinainanika travelled to the UK to tour its physical theatre show about Japanese painter Rey Camoy, 10 to 29 October 2023. Details can be found here.
  • Barbican Theatre, Plymouth with Project Partners: Future Undokai and the Japanese Undokai Foundation are creating a three-day Future Undokai event centred on large-scale interactive physical games which combine elements of interactive technology. Events will take place on Saturday, 18 November and from Friday 24 to Sunday 26 November 2023.
  • The Garden of Words was staged at London’s Park Theatre from 10 August until 9 September 2023.
    This global premiere was directed by Daiwa Scholarships alumna Alexandra Rutter, director of Whole Hog Theatre.
  • A Daiwa Foundation Small Grant was awarded in the September 2022 round to support  a trip to Japan in 2023 by Dr Marc Mimler and Dr Enrico Bonadio from City Law School.  Their research trip aim was  to evaluate and compare the impact of IP rights in Europe and Japan on the video game fan culture in relation to derivative works, memorabilia and e-sports. A workshop was held at Meiji University from 29 May to 2 June 2023.  More details of the project can be found on City University of London’s website here.
  • In 2022 the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation awarded a Small Grant to the British Museum to support travel to Tokyo by Dr Capucine Korenberg, a senior scientist based at the Scientific Research Department at The British Museum. She interviewed and filmed woodblock printmakers, David Bull and Motoharu Asaka, as they embarked on the ambitious and challenging project of creating 12 prints of the 103 newly re-discovered Hokusai drawings acquired by the Museum, leading to a film for the Museum’s YouTube channel, March 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZDKIHcJEFw 
  • Support for travel to the UK by Shamisen virtuoso Hidejiro Honjoh who undertook a week-long residency culminating in a Shamisen masterclass at St Ignatius College, a state secondary school for 1,045 eleven to eighteen-year-olds in Enfield, and the performance of UK-based Dai Fujikura’s Shamisen Concerto, part of the Fireworks concert, at London’s Southbank Centre, 25 May 2023.
  • Support for a concert tour of Japan by Scottish musicians Rachel Hair (harp) and Ron Jappy (guitar) who collaborated with Japanese bodhran player Toshiya Motooka and teach Scottish music workshops to local Japanese musicians, 27 May until 4 June 2023: https://www.rachelhair.com/blog/news/japan-tour-2023/
  • Support for travel to Japan by two UK-based artists, Hong Young In and Maria Farrar, who participated in a group exhibition at Art Tower Mito titled When? Where? By Whom? For Whom? Why? How? – Thinking about Caring and Motherhood through Contemporary Art which examined the social value of care and motherhood through the works of 15 artists, 18 February to 7 May 2023.
  • Support for Queen’s Translation Exchange: Aoko Matsuda and Polly Barton in Oxford, June 2023: a two-week residency at Oxford University for writer-translator Aoko Matsuda, with award-winning writer and Japanese-English translator Polly Barton worked closely together to run a series of public events and develop two audio-visual resources,  1 to 10 June 2023.
  • Support for travel to the UK by Ainu artist Oki on a debut UK tour with Rumiko from the Ainu-vocal harmony group Marewrew, Manaw Kano and crew to hold concerts at venues in Glasgow, London, Brighton and Oxford and to participate in a BBC radio session and talks, 11 to 19 November 2022.

Oki performed at Glad Cafe in Glasgow on 11 November, at the White Hotel in Salford on 12 November, at  Café Oto  in  London on 14 November and at Japan House London on 15 November 2022.

  • Support for travel to Japan in early 2020 by a team from B:Music to film a documentary about Nobuyuki Tsujii, a  remarkable award-winning pianist, who has been blind from birth. The film was shown in Birmingham on 7 November 2022 prior to Tsujii’s concert. https://bmusic.co.uk/events/nobuyuki-tsujii 
  • Support for the Japan strand (featuring Mieko Kawakami, Yayoi Kusama, Fuminori Nakamura and Chie Kutsuwada) at this year’s Cheltenham Literary Festival, 7 to 16 October 2022.
  • Support for a photography exhibition by Ishiuchi Miyako at Stills Edinburgh, 29 July to 8  October 2022.
  • Support for travel to the UK by the Japanese artist Saeborg to premiere a performance at Submerge Festival (Manchester) and Fierce Festival (Birmingham) in March and October 2022; the first time these festivals have included representation from Japan.
  • Support for the Noriaki TSUCHIMOTO strand at the 2022 Open City Documentary Festival in London, 7 to 13 September 2022,’TSUCHIMOTO Noriaki: Film is a work of living beings’
    https://opencitylondon.com/events/tsuchimoto-noriaki-film-is-a-work-of-living-beings/ 
  • Support for research travel by colleagues from the Royal Collection Trust in preparation for the exhibition,  Japan: Courts and Culture (8 April 2022 to 12 March 2023) reviewed in The Guardian below:  https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/apr/07/art-of-diplomacy-300-years-japanese-art-royal-collection-queens-gallery
  • Support for a symposium (2023) in connection with the Royal Collection Trust’s exhibition, Japan: Courts and Culture, 8 April 2022 to 12 March 2023.
  • Support for the UK-Japan Winter School – including a workshop at Imperial College and a public lecture at the Embassy of Japan, 12 to 16 September 2022.
  • Support for travel by UK-based Shakespeare researchers from Birmingham University’s Shakespeare Institute to take part in a major interdisciplinary conference on Shakespeare and translation at Waseda University, September 2022.
  • Support of artwork and travel by one of the participating Japanese artists giving masterclasses at the 2022 International Festival of Glass, which has as its theme Contemporary Glass and Culture from the East, allowing visitors to sample regional food, design, and music, August 2022. A press release can be found here.
  • Support for travel to Japan by Second Hand Dance to perform We Touch, We Play, We Dance at the Ricca Ricca Festival in Okinawa for young audiences, and to tour to Fukuoka, Kyoto and Kawasaki, 21 July to 8 August 2022. You can see their performance dates and a taster of We Touch, We Play, We Dance via: https://secondhanddance.co.uk/upcoming-performance-dates/  
  • Support for travel to Devon by Japanese ceramicists from Mashiko to take part in A Taste of Japan, an exhibition of contemporary Japanese tableware, a celebration of contemporary ceramicists while also reflecting on the 100 years of cultural exchange between the South West of the UK and Mashiko, 30 July to 17 September 2022.
  • Support for  exhibition costs and travel to Belfast by collage artist Kensuke Koike to develop an exhibition of new photographic work to be displayed at the Botanic Gardens and Ulster Museum and to engage in talks at the Belfast Photo Festival, 3 to 30 June 2022.
  • Support for the transport of artwork by the Japanese manga artist Taiyō Matsumoto to feature in the exhibition Superheroes, Orphans and Origins: 125 years in Comics which will run at the Foundling Museum in London, 1 April to 28 August 2022.
  • Support for Scotland/Japan residencies with Cove Park, Arts Initiative Tokyo and Creative Residencies in Arita: support for travel by three Scottish and three Japanese artists undertaking residencies in each other’s countries, facilitating cultural exchange and the development of new work, 2019 to 2020.
  • Support for The Coronet Theatre’s Electric Japan season,  11 May 2022 to 18 June 2022.
  • Support for exhibition costs and travel to Belfast by collage artist Kensuke Koike to develop an exhibition of new photographic work to be displayed at the Botanic Gardens and Ulster Museum and to engage in talks, Belfast Photo Festival, 2 to 30 June 2022.
  • Support for the catalogue accompanying the Royal Academy of Arts’ exhibition Kyōsai: The Israel Goldman Collection which aims to provide a reassessment of his art in light of recent scholarship and widen appreciation of his oeuvre, 19 March 2022 until 19 June 2022. There is a review of the exhibition in The Guardian written by Jonathan Jones here.
  • Support for Tansa 探査 Japanese Threads of Influence at the Crafts Study Centre, Farnham, 4 January to 26 March 2022.
  • Support for the catalogue accompanying the British Museum’s exhibition Hokusai: The Great Picture Book of Everything, 30 September 2021 to 30 January 2022.
  • Support for the Kodo One Earth Tour 2022: Tsuzumi UK Tour, February 2022.
  • Support for the Ashmolean’s exhibition Tokyo: Art and Photography which explores Japan’s capital city through the varied art it has generated from the 1600s to the present, 29 July 2021 to 3 January 2022. A review by Jonathan Jones for The Guardian can be found here.
  • Support for an interdisciplinary arts research project linking Scotland and the Tohoku region of Japan, Confluence: Spirit of the North led by Gillian McFarland working with artists Su Grierson, Inge Panneels and Kyra Clegg on scoping cultural exchange with Japanese artist Yoshiko Maruyama, Tatsushi Takizawa, Tokio Maruyama and Mariko Asai, autumn and winter 2021.
  • Support for the installation of Phyllida Barlow’s art work for display in Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging – 16 Women Artists from Around the World, a show of work by women artists who began their practice from the late 1950s to 1970s, Mori Art Museum, April 2021 to 16 January 2022. Features | Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging – 16 Women Artists from around the World | Mori Art Museum
  • Support for the Japan 2021 cultural festival taking place in Oxford, October to December 2021.
  • Support for visits to Coventry by Naoki Sugawara and Tomoya Takeda from OiBokkeShi to develop a new co-production with Entelechy Arts –  Theatre of Wandering focusing on dementia and wandering, to be performed in local streets and shops in Coventry in Autumn 2021. A film of Theatre of Wandering can be viewed here.
  • Support for the second edition of the Queer East Film Festival (Japan Focus) from 15 to 26 September 2021 in cinemas across London.
  • Support for travel to Japan by members of Fabula Collective to create a new UK-Japan dance piece Everything Would Be Nonsense as part of HUMAN., a choreographic triple bill inspired by UK literature, specifically Macbeth, Alice in Wonderland, and The Picture of Dorian Gray, premiering at The Pit, New National Theatre, Tokyo; and a strategic networking event with Q&A for Japanese industry colleagues, 28 to 29 August 2021.
  • Support for Meiro Koizumi, shortlisted (and winner along with the other 5 shortlisted artists) for the Artes Mundi biennial exhibition and prize to exhibit new work focussed on the representation of national histories, and memories of armed conflict, video installation and participatory work using VR headsets, National Museum Cardiff, 15 March to 5 September 2021. Meiro Koizumi’s video work can be seen here. You can listen to Meiro Koizumi in conversation about Angels of Testimony, showing at the National Museum Cardiff here: LISTEN: At the table with Meiro Koizumi – Artes Mundi
  • Support for Clare Farrow Studio in an immersive project by the Japanese architect Toshiki Hirano titled ‘Reinventing Texture’, incorporating design, music, and sound, which will feature in the London Design Biennale as the installation representing Japan under the theme of ‘Resonance’, at Somerset House, 1 to 27 June 2021. (A review can be read here.)
  • Neighbouring, a 4-day on-line workshop from 15 to18 June 2021 programmed as a part of Glasgow International 2021 brings together practitioners from Japan and Scotland to give voice to and partake in a shared desire for closeness and intimacy despite physical separation and barriers to engagement. With practices spanning photography, installation, performance and spoken word, artists Shizuka Yokomizo, Megan Lucille Boettcher, Mio Harada and Shoko Imai, Nile Koetting, Jessica Ramm, Hanna Tuulikki and Tomoko Konoike draw from lived experiences, claim agency within solitude, choreograph spaces, consider the summoning of community, and re-interpret mythological narratives.
    Full programme here: https://www.thedrouth.org/  
  • Support for Conductive Music in its dissemination amongst UK primary schools, via newsletters and social media, of lesson plans aimed at engaging a wide range of students in music, technology and video game design through Noh and Kabuki inspired storytelling, December 2020 to July 2021. During the February 2021 half-term (15 to 19 February) Conductive Music will be running a new storytelling, music, and coding event. More information: bit.ly/2X8JWQC
  • Support for travel to London by three Japanese artists: Fate, Imaone and Suiko – to participate in the London Mural Festival which will start in September 2020 with over 150 global artists heading to London to paint more than 40 large-scale walls across the capital alongside a plethora of smaller activities.
  • Support for travel to London by Japanese specialists from the Kyoto Costume Institute and Bunka Gakuen to work with the V&A in the lead-up to Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk a new exhibition focused on Japan’s most iconic garment.  and running  You can view tours of the exhibition led by curator Anna Jackson via YouTube here. The exhibition reopened on 27 August 2020 until 25 October 2020
  • Support for travel to Japan by Professor Michael Newman to research Japanese artists for the exhibition Drawing After Bellmer to be held at The Drawing Room in London. The exhibition will explore the influence of Hans Bellmer on modern and contemporary artists, including Japanese works by Fuyuko Matsui, Kumi Machida and Tabaimo, 9 September to 31 October 2021.
  • Support for travel to the UK by Japanese academics taking part in a conference on Twenty-First Century Perspectives on Kazuo Ishiguro: an international celebration at The Centre of Transnational and Transcultural Research at the University of  Wolverhampton, Saturday 1 February 2020.
  • Collaborative Lesson Research: Support for travel to Japan in November 2019 by five mathematics experts learning about Lesson Study and Curriculum design at school level in Japan and a return visit by 2 Japanese educators to attend workshops and hold a dissemination seminar at Nottingham University in spring 2020.
  • Support for travel to the UK by four Noh actors taking part in the play Between The Stones at the Purcell Centre, Southbank as well as in associated Getting to Noh education and outreach activities, January 2020. More information as well as a video of the play can be viewed here: https://www.betweenthestones.com
  • Support for travel to Japan in November 2019 by  ten Coventry pupil ambassadors (aged 8-10) to work with pupils at their partner school in Yokosuka on an art project which will result in a display at the pupil-led Japan Arts Festival in Coventry to celebrate Tokyo 2020: @HowesCoventry
  • Support for travel to Belfast by multidisciplinary artist Hiroaki Umeda and sound artist Asuna to hold performances and engage in free public discussions and debates about their work and practices as part of the Belfast International Arts Festival, October 2019.
  • Creative Dementia Practitioner Ellie Robinson-Carter launched  “Pass the Baton!” – an international exchange  with  Takehito Tokuda, a member of  the  Dementia Friendship Club in Japan. Takehito Tokuda took part in an international conference in July 2019, at Falmouth University hosted by Robinson-Carter about the benefits of creative, intergenerational practice and Run Tomo,  a relay running race involving people living with dementia and their carers in Japan. Robinson-Carter travel to Japan for  two weeks in autumn 2019,  visiting the Run Tomo communities of Fuiji city, Fujinomiya city and Machida cityto experience the project as a runner herself. More here.
  • Support for travel to Hiroshima by Peter Matthews to exhibit From the Atlantic Ocean, England, a solo exhibition of paintings and drawings made along the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, England created in the spring and summer of 2019. As well as a solo exhibition of paintings and drawings. Matthews held drawing workshops, artist talks and a daily blog, 20 September to 7 October 2019. Here you can view a film of the coasts of Iwate and Oregon.
  • Support for De La Warr Pavilion and Outlands – who organised residencies in Tokyo and Salford by British visual artists IMPATV and Japanese musicians Qujaku resulting in creative exchange and a joint tour of 10 UK venues, May to December 2019. More information via this blog.
  • Support for travel to Kyushu by two Essex University academics to meet with Japan-based scholars to collaborate in analysing the politics of Japanese peace education, activism and citizenship and its domestic and regional ramifications, and to take part in The Politics of War-Related Heritage in Contemporary Asia, Kyushu University, 5 and 6 September 2019 
  • Support for travel to the UK by Noh theatre practitioners to perform a Japanese and British play – Atsumori and Emily – at Tara Arts Theatre in London, whilst also engaging in associated workshops in London and  Liverpool, September 2019. At Tara Arts: Wednesday 4 to Friday 6 September 2019, 7:30pm. Emily can be watched on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gWJiKlNYGE
  • Support for travel to the UK by Japanese architect Kazuhiro Yajima to bring his architectural work ‘Umbrella Tea House’ to form a centrepiece for Compton Verney’s 2019 exhibition, Tea Journey – from the Mountains to the Table, 6 July to 22 September 2019.
  • Support for travel to the UK by manga artist, anime producer Harumo Sanazaki to participate in the conference Picturing Shakespeare: Shakespeare and the Visual Imagination and to show her work at exhibitions on the illustration of Shakespeare plays and an exploration of Shakespeare in designed objects, September 2019.
  • Support for THE鍵KEY: Daiwa Scholarship alumna, Francesca Le Lohé’s site-specific, dramatic musical work, inspired by Junichiro Tanizaki’s novel The Key (1956) will feature in Powell Tuck Associates’ event on 27 June as part of the London Festival of Architecture, and make its UK debut as part of the Tête à Tête Opera Festival on 2 and 3  August. Details here.
  • Support for travel to the UK by Japanese architect Junya Ishigami to build the 2019 Serpentine Pavilion, his first built structure in the UK, 21 June to 6 October 2019. Press Release here.
  • Travel by the artist Tanekuni Koyanagi whose exhibition of lacquer works, A Secret Beauty: The Spirit of Japanese Maki-e , will be his first solo show outside Japan and will involve study days and talks, Brunei Gallery, SOAS University of London, 11 July to 21 September 2019.
  • The Ayrshire Fiddle Orchestra’s two-week concert tour of Japan by a group of 70 young musicians aged 12-20 from all parts of Ayrshire to perform in Yokohama, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Tokyo, where a musical workshop & ceilidh will also be held, July 2019.
  • 13 members of the Shakespeare Company Sendai will perform Ainu Othello while also showcasing Ainu dance, music and culture at Tara Theatre in London, 7 to 10 August 2019:  https://www.tara-arts.com/whats-on/ainu-othello
    You can read a review of Ainu Othello by Dr Sarah Olive     here.
  • Support for travel to Sheffield by Masayuki Uemura and colleagues from Ritsumeikan Center for Games Studies to co-curate an exhibition, ButtonBashers centring on ‘Famicom’ game pads and to contribute to a series of events in support of the exhibition at the National Videogame Museum, running from 1 July to 28 September 2019.
  • Support for visits by academics taking part in conferences aimed at seeking new theoretical approaches to Japanese cinema at Birkbeck in collaboration with SOAS, University of London in May, at Waseda, Sugiyama & Ochanomizu Universities in July and August 2019. (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/japanese-transnational-cinema-tickets-59050962017)
  • Contribution to a visit by three craftspeople from the Kanai Kougei workshop, Kagoshima, to take part in a short programme of educational lectures and workshops around the topic of dorozome (mud-dyeing), including  at the Horniman Museum in London on 15 June 2019: Horniman event
  • Support for travel to Sheffield by four filmmakers from Japan to present their films as part of The Japan Focus strand at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival and to take part in Q&A sessions and talks, leading to new and strengthened partnerships, June 2019.
  • Support for travel to the UK by  Japan-based academics taking part in the Nissan Institute’s two-day international conference to mark the 150th anniversary of the Meiji Restoration and to bring together new insights on its meaning for Japanese History, 10 and 11 May 2019: Nissan Seminar: Reopening the “Opening of Japan”:  https://www.nissan.ox.ac.uk/event/nissan-seminar-reopening-the-opening-of-japan
  • Support for travel to Durham by four visiting scholars from Japan taking part in the interdisciplinary conference Modern Japan in the Comparative Imagination leading to enhanced links and towards developing a Centre for Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies, 9 & 10 May 2019.
  • Support for a UK-Japan symposium on autism research at Tokyo University in May 2019. The symposium was organised by Dr Atsushi Senju from the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development at Birkbeck University of London, and it involved presentations by academics and PhD students from Durham, Jichi Medical, Akechi, and Tokyo Universities as well as those by academics and students from Birkbeck University of London and University College London. A video summary of the symposium (fewer than 4 minutes) is available here.
  • Yinka Shonibare and team travelled to Fukuoka Art Museum to set up ‘Flower Power’, his first solo show in Japan, with associated talks, and to celebrate the museum’s grand opening after renovation; his bright wax-printed fabrics will complement the museum’s Asian textiles, March 2019.
  • Five artists from Stopgap Dance Company, which creates productions with disabled and non-disabled dancers to challenge negative perceptions of disability, travelled to Japan in March 2019 to deliver workshops and performances in preparation for the cultural programme surrounding the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. An article in The Japan Times about Stopgap’s production of The Enormous Room can be found via this link.
  • Support for a two-week research trip to Japan in spring 2019 by curators from the Royal Collection Trust to prepare for a major exhibition to be held in London and Edinburgh scheduled for 2020 and an accompanying publication exploring the Royal Collection’s rich holdings of Japanese art. The Embassy of Japan has listed information about this project on their website here.
  • An 8-day visit by 30 members of the Oxford University Orchestra on a cultural exchange and outreach tour to Japan in association with Tokyo’s Orchestra MOTIF, and also to engage in outreach work with El Sistema Japan in Fukushima, March 2019.
  • A Small Grant supported Japanese participation at the first International Arts & Homelessness Summit/Festival in Manchester, themed around Practice, Policy and the Public, working towards the next summit, due to take place in Tokyo during the Cultural Olympiad, November 2018.
  • Adopt a Potter used a grant to fund students and staff from Clay College Stoke to travel to Mashiko in September 2018, where they learned about Japanese ceramics techniques through workshops and meeting potters.  Click here for the blog.
  • In September 2018 Dr Bonnie Kemske was awarded a Small Grant to support travel to Japan  in spring 2019 to interview practitioners and teachers about kintsugi, engage in critical analyses of specific artworks at museums and open an East/West dialogue on the role and aesthetics of this artistic technique, resulting in two books and lecture tours. On 26 February 2021 she gave a talk about her book Kintsugi: The Poetic Mend  for the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. Information about the event here: Kintsugi – The Poetic Mend – Daiwa Foundation (dajf.org.uk
  • Cheltenham Literary Festival and its East Meets West Strand, 5 to 14 October 2018
  • Kizuna: Japan Wales Design at National Museum Cardiff, 16 June to 9 September 2018
  • Southampton and Tokyo Universities’ collaboration in Marine Robotics and Coral Mapping, August 2017 to April 2018.
  • Radical Craft, an exhibition focusing on craft made by artists outside of the mainstream,  toured for 18 months at eight UK venues from March 2016 onwards.
  • UK-Japan visits by researchers at Manchester and Hokkaido Universities studying the evolution of birdsong during conservation in captivity, to help population managers protect the Java sparrow, a popular cage bird that is now endangered in the wild, February to August 2018. http://science.stmaur.ac.jp/news/129-university-of-manchester-researchers-present-their-work-to-ib-biologists 
  • Animals & Us (featuring Shimabuku) at Turner Contemporary, Margate, 25 May to 30 June 2018.
  • The Shakuhachi Symposium at SOAS, University of London on 30 July and the World Shakuhachi Festival at Goldsmiths University of London, 1 to 4 August 2018.
  • Travel to the UK by photographer Fumio Nabata to exhibit his work documenting children with Down Syndrome across the world, at an exhibition entitled Positive Energy, at Gallery@Oxo, South Bank London, 16 to 21 May 2018.
  • In Praise of Shadows, the first joint exhibition hosted at a machiya in Kanazawa by Edinburgh artist, Alan Johnston, and Hakodate artist, Atsuo Fukuda, inspired by Tanizaki’s In Praise of Shadows, comprising artist talks and associated exhibitions throughout Japan, 12 May to 3 June 2018.
  • Photographer, Professor Karen Knorr’s exhibition, Once only, Only once is on at Daitoku-ji’s Obai-in temple as part of the Kyotographie exhibition until 11 May. The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation supported Karen’s research trip to Japan and exhibition, in  association with Yuki Miyake (White Conduit Projects).
  • London Ear Festival of Contemporary Music, which will feature Japanese musicians in 2018, 21 to 25 March 2018. 
  • Dr Anna Marmodoro, University of Oxford: an interdisciplinary 4-day workshop on the theme ‘Augustine’s De Ordine: philosophical, historical and theological perspectives’ bringing together classicists, philosophers & theologians, 26-29 March 2018.
  • A workshop was held at King’s College London on Japan’s Strategic Communications, involving Japan-based experts/academics, and focusing on government-led strategic communication, exploring the growing relevance of governmental communication in the international and domestic politics of Japan, 2 and 3 March 2018.
  • A rugby and cultural tour, including visits to local schools, by 25 high school students from Bath, to nurture deepening links between the partner cities, Bath and Beppu, and which are supported by the Mayor of Bath and Beppu City Council, February 2018. Here is an article about the tour, featured in the Bath Chronicle.
  • Noh Reimagined – The contemporary art of classical Japanese theatre at King’s Place on 13 and 14 May 2016: http://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/curated-weeks/noh-reimagined-the-contemporary-art-of-classical-japanese-theatre#.VthgnGfcvcs
  • A residency in Birmingham by Shun Ito, whose installation of kinetic sculptures, ‘Cells’ and associated talks and workshops were an integral part of the biennial International Dance Festival Birmingham (IDFB), 3-21 May 2016: http://visitbirmingham.com/what-to-do/festivals-events/art-photography-culture/international-dance-festival-birmingham-2016/
  • Koki Tanaka’s exhibitions in the UK. The exhibition at The Showroom in London opened on 28 April 2016 and ran until 18 June 2016; the exhibition at the Liverpool Biennial will run from 9 July – 16 October 2016.
  • Support for one Junior and one Senior Japanese competitor at this year’s Menuhin Competition in London, April 2016: http://menuhincompetition.org
  • Travel to the UK by Tsuyoshi Anzai, winner of the Royal British Society of Sculptors (RBS) Bursary Award, whose work was exhibited in London from 17 March to 20 May 2016. http://rbs.org.uk/exhibitions/rbs-bursary-awards-2015-group-exhibition
  • Travel by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM) colleagues to the Watershed in Bristol to hold a two-day workshop for dancers, choreographers and coders to develop new choreography techniques using technology developed in Japan, which can deal with live motion data and interactive visualisation of movement, February 2016: http://www.watershed.co.uk/pmstudio/events/fri-12022016-100pm
  • Japan Now, a day of talks on Japanese culture, literature and modernity at the British Library on Saturday, 27 February 2016.
  • The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation supported a visit to the UK by Misato Tomita to Guest Conduct with the English National Ballet Philharmonic for their autumn 2015 season, September to December 2015. You can see an interview with her via this link.
  • Ei Wada staged a first UK solo exhibition which formed the main focus of NEoN’s 2015 digital arts festival, exhibiting three new video installation works and participating in artist talks, 8-14 November 2015 in Dundee.
  • Izaku Taiko Odori (Prefectural Cultural Asset) from Kagoshima performed at Japan Matsuri in London (Saturday, 19 September), as well as in Oxford in order to raise awareness that 2015 is the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Satsuma Students in the UK.
  • Archaeologist, Yumiko Nakanishi-Seino is conducting research into British ships wrecked off Okinawa in the late 19th century. She gave a talk at the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation on 29 September 2015: British Shipwrecks: Underwater Archaeology in Okinawa.
  • Lafcadio Hearn: Exhibition and Symposium – at Teikyo University of Japan in Durham / Ushaw College in September 2015.
  • The World of Girls’ Comics, an exhibition which formed part of the The Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Kendal, Cumbria, 16-18 October 2015
  • Alternative Photography Scotland held the Actinic Festival, 26 June to 26 July 2015. This included an exhibition of work by Takashi Arai at Stills Gallery, Edinburgh from 12 to 31 July 2015.
  • Ikon Gallery in Birmingham held an exhibition of work by Takehisa Kosugi, 22 July to 27 September 2015. This was Kosugi’s first major solo exhibition in the UK. A pioneer of experimental music in Japan in the early 1960s, he is closely associated with the Fluxus movement and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Kosugi is one of the most influential artists of his generation.
  • FellSwoop Theatre performed Toshiki Okada’s Current Location in Brighton, Bristol and Edinburgh, May to June 2015.
  • Professor Jason Hall-Spencer visited Shimoda Marine Station in June 2015 to provide expert advice and collaborate on pioneering studies of ocean acidification and carbon dioxide seeps recently discovered off Shikine Island, using techniques developed at European volcanic vents.
  • A Study of Modern Japanese Sculpture, an exhibition of Taisho and early Showa (1912-41) works  ran at the Henry Moore Institute from 28 January to 19 April 2015 and then at Musashino Art University, 26 May to 16 August 2015.
  • A Small Grant was awarded to academics from Queen’s University Belfast collaborating with the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo, to unravel the ecology of an understudied, globally distributed predator, the ocean sunfish. For updates on the project and more information on the ocean sunfish, you can follow @SunfishResearch or catch the regular blog updates at sunfishresearch.wordpress.com.
  • Dr Alexander Weiss, Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, has recently written below about his collaborative research into chimpanzees. He was awarded a Daiwa Foundation Small Grant in 2007. HIs article can be read here.
  • King’s College London, NIHR King’s Patient Safety and Service Quality Research Centre UK-Japan Project, March 2011 onwards
  • HeadSpace’s Artistic Residencies in Japan
  • The British Association of Japanese Studies’ ‘Discover Japanese Studies’ website for those interested in pursuing Japanese Studies at university
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