Japan 400
Many thanks to everyone who registered an event as part of the Japan400 year of special events and celebrations in 2013.
We are no longer registering events under ‘Japan400’. But please watch this space! This website is being evolved into a E-book which will include many of the event highlights, images and features about the expanding horizons of Japan-British relations which thousands of people have helped to create. The Japan400 team is also supporting a small number of follow-up events in 2014—see the letter from the co-chairs of Japan400 on the front page to find out more. Please come back to www.japan400.com in a while and see what we have become!
DECEMBER
As we rush towards the end of the year and ‘Bonenkai’ parties are happening all around us, the excitement and enthusiasm for events and activities celebrating Japan400 doesn’t stop!
Everyday this month we can see over ten exhibitions, lectures, seminars, concerts, workshops and films in one day! You can also have a peek at the events lined up for January in our Events Calendar.
This year, 2013, we hope Japan400 has brought the magic of the special relationship between Japan and Britain a little closer and that you’ve been able to experience something new for the first time.
With a focus on the small beginings in 1613, who would’ve thought it would lead to the dynamic relations between Japan and Britain today, in Education, trade, science, lifestyle, business and the arts and culture? With the enthusiasm and confidence and affection for this special relationship, we are sure it will continue for at least another 400 years!
As we look into next year we see that people are talking already about celebrations to commemorate that small wooden ship the Clove returning from Japan in September 1614 to Plymouth. ..
We also have plans to continue to celebrate the special relationship in [My Japan, My Britain] next year. This may be popping up as a feature in one of our supporters sites, in a gallery of inspiring stories of the mutual interest, respect and admiration that the British and Japanese continue to share.
We are hoping to keep an online presence (please follow our Twitter and Facebook pages for latest updates). This maybe linked to sites such as Embassy of Japan in UK, Japan Society, Japan Foundation, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation and Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, so please check back to this site and see our plans!
With best wishes for the festive season!
Past Events › performing arts
Events List Navigation
Yumiko Yoshioka Butoh Workshop and Film Screening in London
Yumiko Yoshioka Butoh Workshop in collaboration with Butoh Research Project by Florencia Guerberof There will also be a talk and screening of the film “Ju-ni hitoe “ by German filmmaker Jutta Ohlenberg. This event is part of the Japan 400 celebration Registration open 1st November 2013 Further info and bookings: carmencastro@asianperformingartsuk.com Webpage: www.asianperformingartsuk.com Info: Yumiko Yoshioka This event held in association with: Japan Society, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, and Japan 400
Find out more »Christmas Concert
This year’s Christmas concert features Handel’s Messiah, the most popular music at Christmas time in UK and many parts of Europe. A reputed UK-Japan Choir is accompanied by pipe organ with young professional soloists. It brings Japanese and British people together to sing Messiah to celebrate the anticipation of Christmas and also significance of this Japan 400 anniversary, towards the end of the special year to reflect on UK-Japan relations 400 years ago and today. price of attendance: £15, (£7…
Find out more »400 Years William Adams and San Juan Bautista with Music from West & East
400 years relations between Japan and UK Williams Adams and Shogun Presentation followed by the 400th Anniversary of Sant Juan Bautista voyage from Japan to Rome, the Centre now restored and reopening in Ishonomaki after the Earthquake and Tsunami damage. The final part of the evening, Guitar pieces by Hide Takemoto and Tsugara Shamisen complete a unique cooperation for the 2 musicians as West and East complete fusion of both Journeys. Our presentations invite the audience to reflect on the…
Find out more »Okeanos Ensemble with Tomie Ando
A fabulous contemporary & traditional programme featuring Haiku, Tanka and modern Japanese poetry, with traditional Japanese music for shakuhachi, sho & koto, including works by Yatsuhashi Kengyo, Michio Miyagi. Also contemporary compositions specially written for the ensemble by Dai Fujikura, Mai Fukasawa, Akiko Ogawa and Howard Skempton. Japanese eurythmist Tomie Ando will make traditional Haiku, Tanka and contemporary Japanese poetry visible through the movement art of eurythmy. A brilliant evening of discovery and introduction to Japanese poetry, eurythmy and music.…
Find out more »solo Butoh Performance Moeno Wakamatsu
The basis of my dance is quite simple. It is an attempt to be true to the environment at each instance, and thereby to let the environment to manifest itself in the body as presence, physicality, and movement Moeno Wakamatsu was born in Japan. A dance/theatre artist coming from a background of being a pianist and an architect, she began her solo dance career at the age of 27 in New York City. She is now based in France. Her…
Find out more »Barbican Britten: Curlew River
Britten’s Church Parable Curlew River is a ‘once heard, never forgotten’ work, exploring the themes of community, suffering and redemption through the unforgettable figure of the Madwoman and the loss of her child. This production is by multimedia director and video artist Netia Jones. It features an outstanding British cast led by Ian Bostridge as the Madwoman, alongside Gwynne Howell, Neal Davies and Peter Coleman-Wright, with Britten Sinfonia and Britten Sinfonia Voices. Curlew River Echo: Curlew River Echo is a reverberation…
Find out more »Richard II – Live from Stratford-upon-Avon
Live from Stratford-upon-Avon will see the Royal Shakespeare Company’s productions screened live from Shakespeare’s home town for the very first time. The opening production in the inaugural season is Richard II, with RSC Artistic Director Gregory Doran directing David Tennant in the title role. The production will be broadcast to 500 cinemas around the world, including 30 in Japan. The following Aeon Cinemas are showing the broadcast on 6 February 2014 and 9 February 2014. Ebina Fukuoka Fukushima Hirosaki Hiroshima…
Find out more »Valise – A MAN’S LIFE –
A series of bags for men created by Kyoko Wainai, a London-based designer. In addition to the exhibition, this event includes a Japan-premiere performance by English director Hilary Westlake. EIJI KUSUHARA FOUNDATION PROJECT launches in November 2013. It is a foundation to support current and next-generation theatre artists both in Japan and the UK, using the trail and network of a Japanese actor Eiji Kusuhara who was based in England since 1970’s, connected the theatre in England and Japan, and passed…
Find out more »Ami-Llanarth Group Collaborative Theatre Project
Phillip Zarrilli with the Llanarth Group, Wales, UK, and Yojiro Okamura with his AMI Theatre Company, Japan, have begun a two-year collaborative theatre project. This November, they will stage in Tokyo the Llanarth Group’s “Told by the Wind” and AMI’s “Silent Rain in the Neander Forest” and hold workshops in their respective psychophysical training methods. In November 2014 they will produce a new collaborative performance in both the U.K. and Japan. From the inception of British-Japanese relations, cultural exchange has been active. In the performing arts,…
Find out more »Boy Blue Entertainment: The Five & the Prophecy of Prana
Japanese manga artist Akio Tanaka joins the Olivier award-winning team behind Pied Piper for an explosive narrative dance work integrating hip-hop, manga and martial arts. Five troublemakers are sent to a rehabilitation camp for young offenders run by the Grand Master of martial art, Pih Poh Fu. Unknown to them, he is also a Guardian of Prana – a secret warrior group entrusted with the protection of a spell controlling peace. When a rebellious Guardian seeks to seize power, the…
Find out more »Butoh Research Project 2013
Florencia Guerberof is carrying out an ongoing investigation on butoh movement. She invites dancers, actors, visual artists, musicians and anyone interested in butoh to join these research sessions. The investigation focuses on a deep exploration of the work of Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata towards the creation of new work based on a personal interpretation, assimilation and integration of some of the movement’s ideas into the participants own work. This project aims at opening new possibilities in the creation process.…
Find out more »Plaid Tekkonkinkreet (12)
In the fictional pan-Asian metropolis of Takaramachi (Treasure Town), two orphaned street kids face the The Yakuza in an attempt to keep control of the slum where they live. Michael Arias’s 2006 adaptation of Taiyo Matsumoto’s manga Tekkonkinkreet is visually inspired by the Fernando Meirelles film City of God and translates the two-dimensional, black and white manga into an urban-baroque, vibrant animation. See Tekkonkinkreet on the big screen, as Warp-signed duo Plaid perform the lush electronics of their original soundtrack…
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