CJS Autumn 2012 Newsletter

E-Newsletter Issue 1 Autumn 2012 ようこそ Welcome to the first issue of the UEA Centre for Japanese Studies e-newsletter. Please let us know about any Japan-related events or news you think would be of interest. The deadline for the next issue is January 15 2013. Email us at cjs@uea.ac.uk.

In this issue:  Centre for Japanese Studies  Headline news  Did you know?  What are CJS members up to at the moment?  What’s coming up? Dates for your diary.  Congratulations and publications  Recent events  Useful links Centre for Japanese Studies: The Centre for Japanese Studies at UEA was established in 2011 to lead and coordinate Japan teaching and research-related initiatives within the University, in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and elsewhere, and in Norwich and the region How to connect with Japan-related teaching, research and events through the Centre for Japanese Studies? It’s simple:  Keep an eye on our website (www.uea.ac.uk/cjs) for full details of Japan-related teaching and research, and details of the members of CJS.  Check out the CJS blog to see what the members of the CJS are up to  Sign up to become a CJS Volunteer and help out at our events. Email cjs@uea.ac.uk with your reasons for wanting to become a CJS volunteer.

Headline news: New Japanese Language degree programmes get off to a flying start A very warm welcome to UEA’s first cohort of Japanese Language degree students.

Good luck to all of you, and to the many other students taking Japanese language and other Japan-related modules. To see a Tokyo Shimbun article in Japanese about the new programme see http://www.uea.ac.uk/news.

Did you know?  Any UEA student can now apply to Study Abroad at selected Japanese universities.

Contact the Study Abroad Office, http://www.uea.ac.uk/study/study-abroad.  The Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (SISJAC) is launching a Friends’ scheme. Look out for the new e-magazine and encourage your friends and relations to join up, http://sainsbury-institute.org/support-us/.  CJS is preparing a project on 50 years of UEA-Japan relations, to help celebrate the University’s half-century in 2013. If you would you like to contribute, please email cjs@uea.ac.uk  CJS moved over the summer. We are now located in Arts 0.01. You can contact us by email (cjs@uea.ac.uk, or by phone 01603-591819).

What are CJS members up to at the moment?  An exhibition of amazing prehistoric ‘Flame pots’ at the British Museum, http://sainsbury-institute.org/news-events/exhibition-flame-and-water-pots/  ‘Dogu Cosmos’ exhibition at the Miho Museum, Shiga Prefecture, till December 9, bringing together some 200 of the best prehistoric Jomon ceramic figures http://www.miho.or.jp/english/inform/new.htm. Nicole Rousmaniere gave a talk there in October.  As part of our ongoing engagement with ‘Virtual Kyoto’, CJS Director Simon Kaner will give a talk at the Culture Matters Conference in Norwich on November 16 http://www.shaping24.eu/en/conference.  As part of a research project into tourism and cultural heritage in Japan, Simon Kaner is getting ready to lead a tour of Japanese archaeology for Andante Travel: watch out for his blog. http://www.andantetravels.com/archaeologytours/travelsinarchaeology/japan-fiery-ceramics-and-the-citadels-of-the-shogun.html; http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/tours/asia-tours-2012/.  Regular get togethers and Japanese lessons with the UEA Japan Society Monday evening, ueajapansociety@gmail.com.

What’s coming up? Dates for your diary.  NOVEMBER 14-16 Exhibition of stunning Japanese dolls at the Assembly House, and Lectures on 14 November, http://sainsbury-institute.org/news-events/japanese-artdolls/.  NOVEMBER 14: Free Japanese film screening at UEA Lecture Theatre (Entrance in front of Library), ‘The life of Oharu’, (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952), http://www.mangamoviesproject.com/contact-us.html.  NOVEMBER 15. ‘Japanese Porcelain Today: future directions and past references by Professor Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere (SISJAC and British Museum). (Toshiba Lectures in Japanese Arts on ‘Japanese Porcelain: A Four Hundred Year History’).18:00: Norwich Cathedral Hostry. http://sainsbury-institute.org/newsevents/toshiba-lectures-in-japanese-art/.  NOVEMBER 30: Deadline for applications for the JET scheme (Japanese government programme for teaching English in Japanese schools), http://www.jetprogramme.org/

 DECEMBER 6: Deadline for Daiwa Scholarships: A 19-month programme of language study, work placement and homestay in Japan www.dajf.org.uk. One of the 2012 Daiwa Scholars is Eluned Gramich, who has an MA in Creative Writing from UEA: http://www.dajf.org.uk/scholarships/scholars.  DECEMBER 7: Concert inspired by Jomon music at the British Museum. Performance

by Tsugaru Shamisen player Yamagami Susumu, with introduction by ethnomusicologist David Hughes and talk by Professor Taniguchi Yasuhiro (Kokugakuin University and SISJAC Academic Associate) http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/events_calendar/event_detail.aspx?eventId= 2012_12_07_jomon-inspired_music.  DECEMBER 20: 18:00. ‘The English East India Company and the Race for Japan’.

Speaker Professor Timon Screech (SOAS). SISJAC Third Thursday Lecture at the Norwich Cathedral Hostry. http://sainsbury-institute.org/news-events/third-thursdaylectures/  FEBRUARY 4: Sebald Lecture organised by British Centre for Literary Translation: Speaker Boris Akunin at Kings Place, London. This famous crime writer spent time in Japan, http://www.bclt.org.uk/events/sebald-lecture/ MARCH 12-APRIL 20: ‘Washi: the art of Japanese paper’ at the George Street Gallery, Norwich University College of the Arts. Supported by the Japan Foundation and Doshisha University.

Congratulations and publications  BCLT has collaborated with Words Without Borders on a special double issue of New Writing from Japan, in July and August 2012. See http://wordswithoutborders.org/issue/july-2012, http://wordswithoutborders.org/issue/august-2012, and http://www.bclt.org.uk/international-programme/.  Valerie Henitiuk on the publication of ‘Worlding Sei Shonagon: The Pillow Book in Translation’. (Ottawa University Press, 2012) http://www.uea.ac.uk/cjs/people/thepillow-book.  Akira Matsuda on the publication of ‘New Perspectives in Global Public Archaeology’ (edited by Katsuyuki Okamura and Akira Matsuda, Springer, 2011).  Nicole Rousmaniere on the publication of ‘Vessels of Influence: China and the birth of porcelain in Medieval and Early Modern Japan’ (Bristol Classical Press, Duckworth Debates in Archaeology, 2012). This summer Nicole was promoted to Professor of Japanese Arts and Cultures at UEA. See http://sainsburyinstitute.org/publications/recent-publications/vessels-of-influence/.  Nana Sato-Rossberg on the publication of ‘Translation and Translation Studies in the Japanese Context’, (co-edited by Nana Sato-Rossberg and Judy Wakabayashi (Continuum International, 2012). http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=160615&SeriesId=2232.  Mary Redfern (PhD candidate at WAM) on securing a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science grant to study at Kyushu University. Mary just returned from giving a talk at a conference in Toronto and a summer intensive Japanese course at ICU in Tokyo and participating in the Japanese Art History Workshop.  Luke Edgington Brown (postgraduate at WAM) on winning an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award for research on the great mounded tombs of Japan from the 5th to 7th centuries. Luke started his PhD at WAM and the British Museum this October.

  Dr Michael Loewe, who was made an Honorary Graduate of UEA at Congregation in July in recognition of his contribution of East Asian studies , page 14, http://www.uea.ac.uk/mac/comm/internal/broadview/archive/August+12.  UEA and Meiji University: on signing a new Agreement of Exchange. More agreements with Japanese universities are currently being negotiated to complement those already in place: we will keep you posted.  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science on its 80th Anniversary http://www.jsps.org/80th/index.html.

Recent events:  Thank you to everyone who came to support the CJS Start of Year Reception in WAM on October 3.  Two evening lectures on university museums were given by the Directors of the University Museum, University of Tokyo (Professor Nishino Yoshiaki) and Kyoto University Museum (Professor Ohno Nishino) followed by discussion moderated by Charles Clarke, Visiting Professor in Politics at UEA, at the Norwich Cathedral Hostry on October 25. Part of the conference, ‘Display, Discovery and Debate, New Agendas for University Museums’, sponsored by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. http://sainsbury-institute.org/news-events/university-museums-in-japan/.  We welcomed the new Education Attaché at the Embassy of Japan in London, Mr Watanabe Eiji to Norwich. He was promoting the JET Programme and the MEXT Scholarship programme to UEA students. Full details are available from the Careers Office, http://www.jetprogramme.org/.  Simon Kaner chaired an evening of Jomon archaeology at the Japan Foundation Offices in London, with a talk by SISJAC Senior Advisor Professor Kobayashi Tatsuo on ‘The World of Flame Pots’ (October 4). The Mayor of Nagaoka City, Mr Mori Tamio, gave a speech and helped the reception afterwards by sending a consignment of Niigata’s premier sake.  Visit by a delegation from Nagawa-machi in Nagano to sign an agreement of research cooperation with SISJAC and to establish cultural and educational exchanges with the historic town of Thetford (October 3-6).  Biggest-ever British Association for Japanese Studies Annual Conference: 200 scholars from around the UK and beyond arrive in Norwich (6-7 September). Sponsored by the Japan Foundation, the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, http://www.jetprogramme.org/.  The Media Mix conference at UEA marks the final stages of Rayna Denison’s AHRCfunded project (5 September).  British Centre for Literary Translation International Summer School keynote lecture on translating Japanese by Michael Emmerich (July). Sponsored by the Nippon Foundation.  CJS arrived at UEA London for a conference co-organised with PSI on A New Asia (27 June). Sponsored by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, http://documents.eujapan.eu/media/publications/newsletter/october12.pdf (page 13).

Useful links:  Embassy of Japan and Webmagazine: http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/  Japan Foundation: http://www.jpf.org.uk/  JSPS: http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/  Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation: http://www.dajf.org.uk/  Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation: http://www.gbsf.org.uk/