Centre for Japanese Studies E-Newsletter Spring 2014 Welcome to the UEA Centre for Japanese Studies e-newsletter. Please forward this on to anyone you think may be interested and let us know about any events or news you think would be of interest to the Japanese studies community in Norwich. The deadline for the next issue is 15 April 2014. How to connect with Japan-related teaching, research and events through the Centre for Japanese Studies? It’s simple: Keep an eye on the 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.
Spring is coming: Early February marks ‘Risshun’ （立春）, 立春） start of spring, in the traditional Japanese calendar. CJS begins the year with two major new initiatives: The Sasakawa Japanese Studies Postgraduate Studentship Scheme The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and the Nippon Foundation have announced a five-year programme of funded postgraduate studentships for Japan-related MAs and PhDs. Each studentship is worth £10,000 per year and 2-3 such studentships are anticipated to be available for UEA students, beginning in Autumn 2014. Full details are available on the Centre for Japanese Studies website. If you are interested, or know anyone who might be, please contact us as soon as possible. Applications must be submitted via the Centre for Japanese Studies to arrive with the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation by the end of March 2014. To meet the deadline, please contact us at cjs@uea.ac.uk for an application form before 28 February 2014. For full details please see www.uea.ac.uk/cjs. UEA International Summer School in Japanese Studies CJS is coordinating the first of what is expected to be an annual Summer School in Japanese Studies in conjunction with UEA International Summer Schools. Members of the Centre for Japanese
Studies and several guest lecturers will take part in the Summer School, which runs from August 30 to September 10. For full details see www.uea.ac.uk/cipo/japan. Dates for your diary: TUESDAY 4 FEBRUARY: Rayna Denison (FTM) is inviting Japanese movie director Ohne Hitoshi (Moteki 2011) to UEA for a short talk and Q&A 17.00-18.00 at the Thomas Paine Study Centre 1.6, with the support of Japan Foundation, SISJAC and CJS. All welcome and free but please register on r.denison@uea.ac.uk. THURSDAY 20 FEBRUARY: ‘Dragons in Japanese Art’. An illustrated talk by Simon Kaner as part of the Norwich Dragon Festival. 13:00 SISJAC Free, all welcome but reservation advised as places are limited. (http://www.heritagecity.org/eventsfestivals/norwich-dragon-festival/norwich-dragon-festival-2014-event-listings.htm). THURSDAY 20 FEBRUARY: ‘Garo and the Birth of Alternative Manga’. SISJAC Third Thursday Lecture by Dr Ryan Holmberg (Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow). 18:00 Norwich Cathedral Hostry. All welcome, admission free. (http://sainsbury-institute.org/news-events/). FRIDAY 21 FEBRUARY: ‘The nature of '”the masterpiece” in Japan: from prehistoric figurines to Living National Treasures’. Talk by Simon Kaner as part of the Masterpieces Symposium at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. Further information at http://www.scva.ac.uk/whatson/fullsummary/?id=1809. WESNESDAY 26 FEBRUARY: Rayna Denison plans to show the award-winning film, ‘Okuribito / Departures’ (Directed by Takita Yojiro in 2008). Lecture Theatre 3, 18:00. Free and all welcome. (http://www.mangamoviesproject.com/publications) SATURDAY 1 MARCH: ‘Museums in the digital age: case studies in the digitisation of Japanese cultural artefacts’. One day workshop at the British Museum. Co-sponsored and coorganised by the British Museum, Art Research Center of Ritsumeikan University and SISJAC. Speakers include Simon Kaner, Nicole Rousmaniere (Research Director, SISJAC) and John Mack (ART). Booking essential. For further details see http://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/lib/GCOE/info/BMcomfe_program_A4.pdf WEDNESDAY 5 MARCH: ‘The Art Lover’s Guide to Japanese Museum’ Lecture by Sophie Richard. 18:00-19:30 at the SISJAC. Free entry for SISJAC Friends / non-Friends £3. Booking essential. Please contact Keiko Nishioka at k.nishioka@sainsbury-institute.org. A lecture by the author and gain an insight into the collections, history and characteristics of some of the most distinctive and exciting museums in Japan. Follow the link: ‘My Japan – Sophie Richard’ in the SISJAC Friends’ e-magazine Issue 06 http://sainsburyinstitute.org/support-us/e-magazine/e-magazine-issue-06/my-japan-issue-06/ TUESDAY 8 APRIL: An introduction to sake: tasting and talk with sake expert Yoshitake Rie from Sake Samurai (http://www.sakesamurai.jp/project_english.html). 18:00-19:30pm at the SISJAC. Free entry for SISJAC Friends/ non-Friends £5. Booking essential. Please contact Keiko Nishioka k.nishioka@sainsbury-institute.org. In line with the Japanese tradition of ohanami (flowers or cherry blossoms viewing) at this time of the year, we can enjoy the flowers at the Institute in the scenic Cathedral Close whilst sipping sake!
THURSDAY 20 MARCH: ‘Putting Japan into a Pacific Context: Some Ideas from an Anthropologist’. SISJAC Third Thursday Lecture by Professor Joy Hendry (Oxford Brookes University). 18:00 Norwich Cathedral Hostry. All welcome, admission free. (http://sainsburyinstitute.org/news-events/). TUESDAY 7 -WEDNESDAY 8 APRIL: Specialist workshop on radiocarbon dating in Japanese archaeology, inaugurating a new relationship between Chuo University, Tokyo and SISJAC. Keynote speaker will be Professor Kobayashi Ken’ichi from Chuo University. Please contact Simon Kaner (s.kaner@uea.ac.uk) if you are interested in attending. FRIDAY 23 MAY: ‘Ceramics, art and cultural production in modern Japan’. A one-day research workshop at the SISJAC organised by Dr Meghen Jones, Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow. Ceramics in modern Japan, as in other parts of the world, developed within three main ontological trajectories—as art, craft and design. Yet no other modern nation was engaged with ceramics as much as Japan -a "potter's paradise"- in terms of creation, exhibition, and discourse. As forms of modernist art, ceramics in Japan developed within the genres of bijutsu kōgei and obuje, but throughout the modern period ceramics also asserted meanings as material embodiments of tradition, preservations of folk culture, and commodities signifying the technical acumen of the nation. This is the first international workshop dedicated to expanding critical inquiry on ceramics in modern Japan. Limited spaces available. Full details at www.sainsbury-institute.org. MONDAY 16-FRIDAY 20 JUNE: Renowned Japanese author Ono Masatsugu will be taking part in the Worlds Literary Festival organised by Writers' Centre Norwich (writerscentrenorwich.org.uk).
What else are CJS members up to? On campus we kicked off 2014 with UEA Japan Society with sake tasting and Japanese costumes as part of ‘Give It a Go Week’, organised by the UEA Student Union. Friends of SISJAC enjoyed special new year’s food a calligraphy demonstration by Master Teramoto Shoho at the Friends’ New Years Party. Simon Kaner was in Japan in November leading the second archaeological tour of Japan for Andante Travel, aided by former Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow Werner Steinhaus. He was back in Japan in January with Executive Director of SISJAC, Mami Mizutori. We signed an agreement of collaboration with Nara University, an occasion marked by a special lecture by Simon on Recent Developments in British Archaeology and Cultural Heritage. Simon also gave a talk at an international symposium at the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo (Tobunken) on the theme of ‘katachi’ or ‘form’ (http://sainsburyinstitute.org/news-events/tobunken-international-symposium). SISJAC has an ongoing collaboration with Tobunken, gathering data on exhibitions relating to Japan in other countries. In October Tobunken-based researcher Mai Sarai, a specialist on Buddhist sculpture, will visit Norwich and give the SISJAC Third Thursday Lecture. Ulrich Heinze’s courses on ‘Mangamania’ and ‘Media Studies in Japan’ are both being taught this spring semester. Ulrich is currently planning two film screening events for March in the city. Please watch out for more details.
Matsuda Akira (ART) is running his MA in Cultural Heritage with a Japanese Strand again this year, with modules on 'Introduction to Cultural Heritage in Japan' this autumn, and another module 'Uses of Cultural Heritage in Japan' in the spring semester. Publications: Simon Kaner is Co-Editor of the Japanese Journal of Archaeology, a new English-language open access online journal published by the Japanese Archaeological Association that presents the latest cutting-edge research on Japanese archaeology. The first issue has just been published: http://www.jjarchaeology.jp/contents/current.html Recent events In December, in the distinguished surroundings of the Fukutake Hall at Tokyo University, SISJAC Research Director, Professor Nicole Rousmaniere and the Director of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Professor Paul Greenhalgh gave the first series of the Ishibashi Foundation Lecture Series on ‘Euro-Japanese Exchanges in the World of Creative Expression’. The second series of Ishibashi Foundation Lectures are currently being planned for late autumn 2014 in Japan. A full report of the first series can be seen in the current issue of the E-Magazine of the Friends of the Sainsbury Institute which can be accessed through the SISJAC website www.sainsbury-institute.org. Nicole was back in Tokyo in late January, giving a special lecture at a symposium at the Tokyo National Museum held in conjunction with the exhibition of art / craft by Living National Treasures. Other speakers included Professor Donald Keene. With sponsorship from Hitachi Europe Ltd and Hitachi Solutions Ltd, SISJAC is currently preparing an English Language Online Resource on Japanese Archaeology and Cultural Heritage. This new resource, aimed at secondary school students in the UK and other English speaking countries, will go live in the summer of 2014. A special workshop was held for a focus group of teachers at the Society of Antiquaries of London in December 2013.
Following the very successful event at the British Embassy in Tokyo last summer, the ADAPT Low Carbon Group at UEA led by Dr John French and Tsukuba University held a joint workshop at the Norwich Research Park in December and there is a further visit from Tsukuba in February. We are promised a Japanese flavour in the new Innovation Centre currently being built at UEA.
New Norfolk-Japan school links: UEA Alumnus Sam Laws has started an Afterschool Japan Club at the Sheringham High School in November. Sam hopes to provide pupils in North Norfolk with opportunities to learn about Japan and develop communication with Japanese schools. Over the past year Natsue Hayward has also worked on linking Notre Dame Schools in Norwich and Kyoto, and this summer a group of pupils from Kyoto will come to Norwich on a new language programme. We also continue to foster links between Thetford and Nagawa in Nagano prefecture, and hope to see an exchange of students from 2015. Japan400: 400 years ago the voyage of the first English ship to go to Japan, the Clove, was well underway, with Captain John Saris at the helm. You can track the voyage on the Japan400.com website. In January we attended a special symposium at Cambridge University
celebrating the donation of a reconstruction of one of the gifts presented to the Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu by this first English mission, a telescope. Speakers included the Astronomer Royal, Lord Rees, and presentations covered a range of topics from the history, present and future of astronomy, and other scientific collaborations between the UK and Japan. Events will continue over the coming year. www.Japan400.com. CJS people Gibson D’Cruz (NSC) will receive students and staff members again from the Niigata University of Nursing and Welfare. This year there will be seven students and three staff members staying in Norwich 17-21 March. Doshisha Women’s College will send a group of students again to UEA INTO for a one month programme from 9 February. Miyaguchi Moe, a PhD student from University of Tokyo, gave a talk on the Japanese medical system and IPL(Interprofessional Learning), wrapping up her internship at UEA MED. BCLT (British Centre for Literary Translation) is offering a mentorship between 1st January and 30 June. (Geraint Howells mentored by Michael Emmerich) and organising a JapaneseEnglish Translation Masterclass as part of the Tokyo Literature Festival on 7-8 March in Tokyo. (http://www.bclt.org.uk/events/). Several new members of CJS have placed their profiles on the CJS website: Professor Peter Kitson (Professor of English, LDC), Dr Martin Doherty (Senior Lecturer, PSY) and Professor Dobeta Yuko (Visiting Scholar, EDU). Membership of CJS is open to any staff interested in Japan at UEA. Dr Ryan Holmberg, specialist on Manga, joins SISJAC for six months as a Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow, joining Dr Meghen Jones, specialist in contemporary Japanese ceramics. View their profiles at http://www.uea.ac.uk/japanese-studies/people. Useful links and opportunities 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/ EU-Japan Centre: http://www.eu-japan.eu/ Canon Foundation : www.canonfoundation.org Applications for JET Programme : http://www.jetprogramme.org/ Japanese Language Proficiency Exam : http://www.jlpt.jp/e/index.html