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 › talk
Events List Navigation
Romantic Connections 2014
An international scholarly conference on Romanticism and intercultural connections, drawing together four scholarly societies from three continents. In addition to discussing representations of the “East” by Romantic authors, we will view Romanticism itself in a global context, as a movement shaped by wider eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century forces of trade, migration, material circulation, intellectual exchange, slavery, and colonialism. Drawing on our location in Tokyo, we will also use this conference to consider the broader task of forging connections between Eastern…
Find out more »From King James’s Telescope to the Present and the Future – Symposium and Celebration of Departure of Japan400 Telescope for Japan
400TH ANNIVERSARY OF JAPAN – BRITISH RELATIONS On 17th January Japan400 and the University of Cambridge will mark a key anniversary with a unique seminar at Jesus College, Cambridge, one of the university’s most ancient colleges. Professor Lynn Gladden FRS, the University’s Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research, Professor Ian White FREng, Master of Jesus, and Lord Rees FRS, Astronomer Royal are among the distinguished speakers, celebrating the 400th Anniversary of Japan-British Scientific Relations. The focus of the seminar is on Japan-British Partnership in…
Find out more »Japan’s Regional and Global Future
An invite-only conference which will look at the big foreign policy issues facing Japan today, and what its future holds. Chair: Sir Stephen Gomersall, KCMG With funding from The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation For more information please see the website of the Ditchley Foundation Supplementary reading material for the conference: http://www.ditchley.co.uk/conferences/future-programme/scrm—japan
Find out more »Workshop on the Traditional Arts of the Shizuoka Region
A workshop with specialist practitioners of traditional Japanese crafts. All welcome and suitable for all ages Please see Press Release for details of this Workshop and how you can take part: Shizuoka events 7Dec Press Release http://www.ieyasu400th.com/ This workshop is held in association with SOAS, University of London and Shizuoka City
Find out more »Mr Tsunenari Tokugawa and Professor Timon Screech in Conversation
The direct lineal head of the Tokugawa shogunal line Mr Tsunenari Tokugawa, will discuss his views of history with Japan400 co-chair, Timon Screech. This event will be followed by a workshop on the traditional arts of the Shizuoka area Please see Press Release for more information and how you can attend: Shizuoka events 7Dec Press Release In partnership with: SOAS, University of London
Find out more »The British Day at Toyo Bunko Museum – In commemoration of the completion of the visit to Japan by John Saris on 5th December, 1613.
The exhibition at Toyo Bunko Museum, “Marco Polo and the Silk Road World Heritage Sites – The Birth of Oriental Studies in the Occident” is held 7th August to 26th December 2013. The British Day of Toyo Bunko Museum will be held on 5th December to commemorate the completion of the visit to Japan by John Saris exacxtly 400 year to the day. There are exhibits related to the history of British-Japanese relations, a symposium and British chamber music in…
Find out more »WG Beasley Memorial Lecture: Professor William Marotti Timely and Untimely Politics: Art and Protest in Early 1960s Japan
Marotti explores politics and timeliness by examining the advent of a critical art of the everyday in Japan in the 1960s and its links to political action. Between Anpo and the Olympics, and out of sync with eventful mass activism, artists sought to create eventfulness against a state-promoted, depoliticized daily life in the high growth economy. Marotti argues that microhistorical attention to such groupuscular art activities reveals hidden dimensions of conflict and engagement within the context of a global 1960s.…
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 »Chemonostics: Chemical receptors in the development of simple diagnostic devices
A one-day symposium on Thursday 28th November in Bath to celebrate 400 years of Japan-British relations Speakers will Include: Seiji Shinaki (Kyushu University) Kazuo Sakurai (Kitakyushu University) Yuji Kubo (Tokyo Metropolitan University) John Fossey (University of Birmingham) Steven Bull (University of Bath) Thorri Gunnlaugsson (Trinity College Dublin) Yun-Bao Jiang (Xiamen University) Tony James (University of Bath) Toby Jenkins (University of Bath) One of the most important aspects of our Japan-UK collaboration is dissemination of the benefits of bilateral cooperation between…
Find out more »Tokugawa Japan – Ideologies in Conflict. The Priest – by Professor Richard Bowring
The Toshiba Lectures in Japanese Art and Culture provide a public platform for a senior scholar of Japanese studies to present a research project which is already well-developed in a series of three lectures to a broad public audience. To mark the 10th Toshiba Lectures Series, a commemorative reception will follow after each lecture where members of the audience are welcome. Japan in the Tokugawa period (1603-1868) was one of the most highly urbanised countries in the world, a situation…
Find out more »llustrated Lecture The English Presence and Anglo-Portuguese Relations in Japan (1600-1623)”
An illustrated lecture, open to academic public and public in general, in Lisbon on Anglo-Portuguese relations in Macau. Some of the conclusions have already been published in a book by Rogério Miguel Puga, recently published by the British Royal Asiatic Society (London) and Hong Kong University Press: go here for the Amazon link It studies the relations between British traders, Portuguese traders and priests the Japanese authorities in Japan (1600-1613). For more information, please see the website of the research centre:…
Find out more »Symposium “Sengu of the Ise Shrine: Rituals, Myths, and Politics”
The year 2013 is a significant year in the long history of the Ise Shrine, the imperial shrine where Amaterasu the Sun Goddess, the mythological ancestor of the present day Japanese imperial family, is enshrined. The architecture of the Ise Shrine is ritually rebuilt every twenty years to reflect the Shinto concept of renewal, and to preserve the pristine condition of the shrine. This regular rebuilding has been undertaken to ensure the continuation of the tradition that goes back to…
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