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 › art
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 »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 »WE LOVE JAPAN: Yu Kobayashi
Renowned artist Yu Kobayashi will be visiting The Shop Floor Project in Cumbria for an evening event introducing her new ceramics and giving a talk about her work and philosophy; Live to make, make to live. Accompanied by hand made Japanese sweets, talks, films and music by Ryoko Akama. Here is a film which introduces the artist: https://vimeo.com/73088497 We wanted to be part of the JAPAN400 celebrations as Japanese design and culture inspires us in many ways here at The…
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…
Find out more »‘Japan Suite’ by Chris Steele-Perkins
Japan Suite is an exhibition and book of photographs by world-renowned British Magnum photographer Chris Steele-Perkins. On show for the first time this collection is the culmination of over twenty years of personal documentary work in Japan. Seen through the eyes of an outsider, Steele-Perkins, whose wife is Japanese, shows us a country that is seemingly full of contradictions. On the one hand striving relentlessly to the future, embodying the essence of modernity and increasingly embracing outside influences, while on…
Find out more »The Japanese Art of a Scottish Engineer
Dr, Rosina Buckland, senior curator responsible for the Japanese collections at the National Museum of Scotland, will chart the contribution that a handful of Scots made to the formation of modern Japan and the extraordinary collection of Japanese art that Henry Dyer, known as “the father of Japanese engineering”, bequeathed to public collections, in particular the recently rediscovered 17th century handscroll ‘Pleasure of the East’: a 40-foot long depiction of a lively street scene in Edo (today’s Tokyo). Our event…
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 »Beneath the Surface: The Culture of Cosmetics in Japan
For the first time in the United Kingdom, Noriyo Tsuda, Chief Curator of POLA Research Institute of Beauty and Culture, will explore the culture of cosmetics in Japan. In two special talks Tsuda, an expert in comparative studies on the history of cosmetic culture in both Western and East Asian countries, will discuss how the production, application and use of cosmetics illuminates the cultural, social, and aesthetic changes that have taken place in Japan through the centuries. 07 November from…
Find out more »Art School Futures: What does it mean to be an art graduate in 2013?
This one-day international collaborative symposium and unique networking event brings staff, students and graduates from two of the world’s leading Fine Art Programmes; Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, UK and Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan, together with established British and Japanese artists, curators and art project managers to discuss support for emergent art practice, new and recent graduate artists’ work, ideas, connections and careers within the contemporary art world. Highlighting regional, national and international contexts and situations;…
Find out more »Shozo Michikawa Exhibition
Erskine, Hall & Coe is pleased to present a new exhibition by esteemed artist Shozo Michikawa comprising of 40 works, demonstrating his ingenuity, dexterity and mastery of clay, which will run from the 6th through the 28th of November. The exhibition will be installed by Shozo Michikawa, and will include an Ikebana arrangement that will be composed by Ikebana master, Koho Wada. Shozo Michikawa lives and works in Seto, a home to potters for 1,300 years. His work has been…
Find out more »Koshu Japanese Art Exhibition
Japanese Art Exhibition by Koshu (Akemi Lucas) Calligraphy, Brush Painting and Seal Exhibition An Exhibition called ‘Love and Dream’ of Koshu’s latest innovative Japanese based Calligraphy Art is on at the Frameless Gallery, Koshu blends East and West to produce some of the most exciting Japanese Art in her field. It is very rare indeed to see such a talented artist with a renowned lineage in Japanese Calligraphy exhibiting in London. Koshu is a named deshi (honoured student) of Master…
Find out more »“Toko Shinoda – A New Century” Art Exhibition by Hanga Ten – Contemporary Japanese Prints and Paintings
In March 2013, Toko Shinoda regarded as one of Japan’s greatest artists of the 20th Century, turned 100 years old. She lives in Tokyo where she continues to produce powerful paintings. Hanga Ten’s exhibition, “Toko Shinoda: A New Century” brings together a selection of Shinoda’s limited edition lithographs and paintings over the past four decades, and celebrates Shinoda’s entry into her second century. We are delighted to be able to bring this show during Japan 400. Hanga Ten, which means…
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