Centre for Japanese Studies E-Newsletter Summer 2013 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 30 August 2013. 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.
As the University gears up to celebrate its 50th birthday, CJS heads to Japan this summer. We will be hooking up with Japanese alumni for the Festival Weekend in September, joining UEA’s ADAPT Low Carbon Group at the British Embassy in Tokyo in August, and visiting Hirado in Kyushu, where the search is on to find the earthly remains of the first Englishman to reach Japan, Will Adams, also known by his Japanese name Miura Anjin. CJS has been represented at recent events marking the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first English ship, the Clove, in Japan in June 2013, including a special service at All Saints’ Church, Fulham, where the captain of the Clove, John Saris, is buried. Events will continue over the coming year. See www.Japan400.com. While in Japan, CJS Director Simon Kaner will be giving talks in Nagano at the Nagawa-machi Obsidian Festival, and at Nagaoka in Niigata he will be joined by SISJAC Research Director Nicole Rousmaniere, where we will be looking back over the successful ‘Flame Pot’ exhibition at the British Museum which closed earlier this year. A further anniversary being celebrated this summer is that of the arrival of the Choshu Five, the first group of students sent by from Japan to UK to study at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate as Japan began to re-engage with the outside world http://www.uk.embjapan.go.jp/en/event/2013/choshu/info.html. The five included the first Japanese Prime Minister and others who went on to establish modern Japanese diplomacy, the constitution, engineering and the Mint. Who knows what the future holds for the Japanese students being welcomed to UEA in August, including a group from Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo, who
will be studying at UEA INTO, and a second delegation of high school students from Osaka Prefecture. What’s coming up: dates for your diary:
MONDAY 17 – FRIDAY 21 JUNE: Worlds Literary Festival in Norwich, including Japanese authors http://www.writerscentrenorwich.org.uk/worldsliteraturefestival.aspx
WEDNESDAY 19 – THURSDAY 20 JUNE: ‘International Japanese modern art symposium: new boundaries in modern Japanese art history: extending geographical, temporal and generic paradigms’ at SOAS, supported by SISJAC, the Japan Foundation and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Speakers include renowned Japanese art historians Kinoshita Naoyuki, Sato Doshin, Kitagawa Noriaki. Further details at http://www.soas.ac.uk/jrc/events/rootjrc/events/jamahs/
WEDNESDAY 19 JUNE: ‘Japanese Porcelain Not for Sale: Nabeshima Ware and Other Presentation Ceramics’. Oriental Ceramic Society’s Annual Lecture by Professor Nicole Coolidge Roumaniere, Research Director SISJAC. http://www.ocslondon.com/news.htm
THURSDAY 20 JUNE: ‘Preserving Culture on the Margins: Toyama Prefecture in the Postwar Era’. SISJAC Third Thursday Lecture by Peter Siegenthaler, Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow and Texas State University. 18:00 Norwich Cathedral Hostry. http://sainsbury-institute.org/news-events/third-thursday-lectures/
WEDNEDSAY 26-FRIDAY 28 JUNE: ‘Cross-cultural pragmatics at a crossroads’. Conference organised by LCS. For information and registration, please see: http://www.uea.ac.uk/lcs/research/cross-cultural-pragmatics-at-a-crossroads-iii. There are also open and free events to professional translators and interpreters and anyone with a professional or non-professional interest in cross-cultural exchange: A Professional and Community Translation Panel (Thursday 27 June 15.00-17.00, Friday 28 June 10.00-11.30) and A Let’s talk across Languages, Cultures and Outlooks, Public Roundtable (Friday 28 June 12.30 for 14.00).
MONDAY 24 JUNE – THURSDAY 18 JULY: ‘Japan: historical images from the Cortazzi Collection’. Exhibition of early maps of Japan celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Lisa Sainsbury Library at SISJAC. Embassy of Japan, 101-103 Piccadilly, London.
TUESDAY 2 JULY: ‘Cultural preservation at the grass roots: How have citizens, local politicians, artisans, artists, and academics engaged with heritage sites, objects, and practice in postwar Japan?’ Academic workshop organized by SISJAC Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow Peter Siegenthaler. Limited places. Advance registration necessary. Further details from sisjac@sainsbury-institute.org.
THURSDAY 18 JULY: ‘A Glimpse of the Modestly Literate Picnic Lovers of Old Japan’. Lecture by Professor Yokoyama Toshio. SISJAC Carmen Blacker/ Third Thursday Lecture at Norwich Cathedral Hostry (18:00). http://sainsburyinstitute.org/news-events/carmen-blacker-lecture-series/.
SUNDAY 21 – SATURDAY 27 JULY: BCLT International Summer School in Literary Translation. Information about the Summer School is the BCLT website: http://www.bclt.org.uk/summer-school/. The Japanese workshop leader is Jeffrey Angles and the Japanese writer is Aoko Matsuda: http://www.bclt.org.uk/summerschool/biographies/. There is a YouTube film about the Japanese workshop at 2011 summer school: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx-TuCgnP9I
THURSDAY 15 AND FRIDAY 16 AUGUST: Public symposium on William Gowland and foreign specialists in Meiji period Japan at the Japan Foundation London Office. Matsuda Akira (ART) will discuss with Japanese specialists the contribution of William Gowland to archaeology in Japan. Gowland’s collection of Japanese archaeological materials at the British Museum is currently being researched by a team including SISJAC. For further details and registration see http://www.jpf.org.uk/
SATURDAY 14 SEPTEMBER: Morning public tours of 64 The Close, headquarters of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, part of Heritage Open Days http://www.heritageopendays.org.uk
FRIDAY 20 SEPTEMBER: UEA Japanese Alumni Group reunion in Osaka.
SATURDAY 28 SEPTEMBER: UEA Japanese Alumni Group reunion in Tokyo.
SATURDAY 28 – SUNDAY 29 SEPTEMBER: UEA 50th celebration anniversary weekend http://www.uea.ac.uk/50years
What else are CJS members up to?
The School of Nursing welcomed a delegation of student nurses from 19-25 March: Student nurses’ from Niigata University of Health and Welfare between 19-25 March. This was part of an annual programme of visits, and Gibson D’Cruz from NSC hopes to make a return visit in the near future. On a health-related theme, Bernardo Bueno (LDC) along with Ulrich Heinze (CJS) and Emma Jarvis from the NHS will be visiting the University of Tsukuba in early September as part of a project investigating art in hospitals. There will be a return visit to Norwich in later September. Congratulations to Bernardo for securing funding from the Daiwa AngloJapanese Foundation and the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation.
A group of twenty Japanese archaeologists and colleagues led by SISJAC Senior Advisor Professor Kobayashi Tatsuo and Simon Kaner visited Norwich in April as part of a tour of European Stone Age archaeological sites, before heading to London to see the Ice Age Art exhibition at the British Museum (partly curated by former SISJAC/SCVA postdoc Andrew Cochrane), and on to France see the Palaeolithic cave art sites of the Dordogne and Neolithic sites in Brittany.
Japanese alumna Kurisu Miki (ART 2012) co-curating an exhibition about African art, ‘Art of Communication’ at the Ancient Orient Museum Tokyo from 25 May-30 June (http://aom-tokyo.com/exhibition/130525_kanga.html)
Rayna Denison of the School of Film, Television and Media Studies (FTM) has just posted the first report on her AHRC-funded Manga Movies Project, ‘Transmedia Japanese Franchising’. Rayna welcomes feedback on the report, which can be seen at: http://www.mangamoviesproject.com/publications.
A delegation from Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto visited Norwich on June 3 to conclude an agreement to facilitate student and research exchange. UEA continues to develop its programme of establishing relationships with the best Japanese universities to allow both Japanese Language students and others with an interest in studying abroad in Japan to do so.
Publications:
Ulrich Heinze's new book on Japanese Visual Worlds (Japanische Blickwelten: Manga, Medien und Museen im Zeichen künstlicher Realität) was published in February http://sainsbury-institute.org/research/contemporary-japanese-visualmedia/japanese-visual-worlds/
Simon Kaner published a short note in Nature on recent discoveries about new findings on what was being cooked in some of the earliest pottery in the world, from Japan and dating to about 16,000 years ago, in ‘A potted history of Japan’. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v496/n7445/full/nature12093.html
Recent events
In March, BCLT was closely involved in the first International Literature Festival to be held in Tokyo, supported by the Nippon Foundation, http://tokyolitfest.com/?lang=en. Kate Griffin of BCLT has an article on New Writing: http://www.newwriting.net. The Nippon Foundation ran a story about the festival:http://www.nipponfoundation.or.jp/en/what/spotlight/read_japan/story1/index.html along with a story on the Read Japan programme in general, including the work with BCLT: http://www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/en/what/spotlight/read_japan/story3/index.html
‘Washi: The Art of Japanese Paper’ and ‘Washi: the art and soul of Japan’ projects brought four exhibitions and related events to Norwich from March to April. Events included performances by a visiting nagauta troupe and collaborations with the Simon Limbrick (MUS and Artistic Director of Sonic Arts). A series of short films inspired by this collaboration can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhWFe5u0tVQ and interviews with some of those involved in the project can be seen at http://www.mustardtv.co.uk/channels/freetime/japanese_culture_at_nua_1_1975881
On 16 March UEA hosted a symposium on Japanese Computer Games and Entertainment organised by Nana Sato-Rossberg (LCS). See the report at http://www.concrete-online.co.uk/ueas-symposium-on-japanese-games/
‘The archaeology of ritual and approaches to religious geography: landscapes and cityscapes of the sacred in Japan and Europe’ was a workshop organised by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow Werner Steinhaus at the University of Tubingen in Germany on March 19 and 20. Presentations explored a number of case studies, including the sacred island of Okinoshima, currently the focus of a bid for UNESCO World Heritage Status, and the role of tourism in heritage in Japan.
On 11 May the School of Language and Communication Studies organised another of their very popular City of Interculture events in Norwich city centre at the Forum. Japanese activities included Japanese language taster sessions and origami demonstrations: http://www.uea.ac.uk/lcs/city-of-interculture
The School of Art History and World Art Studies hosted the 11th Ecole de Printemps on behalf of the International Consortium of Art Historians from 20-24 May. Professor Miura Atsushi of Tokyo University, specialist in French impressionist painting, was the main Japanese representative, and will be organising the 12th Ecole in Tokyo in 2014. Simon Kaner also gave a talk on the decorated tombs of ancient East Asia, and SISJAC hosted a reception for the delegates.
‘The notion of the body in Japan and its depiction in fictional media’ workshop on 17 May brought an international array of specialists to Norwich. Organised by Ulrich Heinze, the workshop explored themes ranging from body metaphors in TV advertisements to butoh dance, tattoos, and ascetic religious practices. The workshop, sponsored by SISJAC and the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation was followed by a reception in the Council Chamber organised by CJS. http://www.uea.ac.uk/cjs/events/cjs-sisjac-research-workshop-2013.
‘Toyo shumi (Oriental taste) in imperial Japan’ was the theme for a research workshop at SISJAC organised by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow Oh Younjung on 14 June. Following a keynote lecture by Professor Jonathan M. Reynolds (Barnard College / Columbia University), exploring the ambiguities of cultural identity in Japanese architecture from 1881-1942, presentations discussed how imperial Japan’s ideological rhetoric of ‘toyo’ was appropriated and negotiated within various visual cultural practices and forms during the years of the Japanese empire. http://sainsburyinstitute.org/news-events/sainsbury-institute-workshop/.
People:
Farewell to Valerie Henitiuk who left her post of Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation to become Professor and Director at the Faculty of Commons at Grant MacEwan University in western Canada. As Director of BCLT, Valerie has worked tirelessly to incorporate Japan into BCLT programmes, notably the annual Summer School in Literary Translation, attracting major sponsorship from the Nippon Foundation to facilitate this.
Onuki Shizuo (Professor of Archaeology, University of Tokyo) is spending three months this summer from May to August based in Norwich. Prof Senda is a specialist in the Neolithic archaeology of China, Korea and Russia and is undertaking excavations in the Amur River valley in the Russian Far East.
Marie Orise (Associate Professor of English at the School of Business Administration at Meiji University, Tokyo) is spending a year as an Academic Visitor at LDC. Marie combines her academic interests in poetry and stylistics with a successful career as an author. For further details see: http://rwdb2.mind.meiji.ac.jp/Profiles/23/0002264/prof_e.html
Takayasu Keisuke (Associate Professor, Ehime University) is Academic Visitor at SISJAC until September. A specialist in aesthetics and modern art theory, he is especially interested in the cultural study of design, the writings of T.W. Adorno, Tobe-yaki ceramics from Ehime prefecture, and the relationship between the traditional and the modern in the aesthetic evaluation of art.
Senda Yoshihiro (Professor of Archaeology at Nara University and currently Visiting Professor at Tubingen University in Germany), spent a week in the UK in May, visiting Norwich and archaeological sites in East Anglia and elsewhere in England. A specialist in the archaeology of castles, Prof Senda was particularly interested to visit the largest castle mound in the UK, at Thetford. Professor Senda is contributing to the forthcoming book, ‘The Archaeology of Medieval Towns: Case Studies from Europe and Japan’ being edited by Simon Kaner and others, due to be published in early 2014.
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