Past Events

17 May 2018

Artist Talk: Tokyo Rumando×Hideka Tonomura in conversation with Dr Simon Baker

Tokyo Rumando and Hideka Tonomura’s works depict two starkly contrasting types of reality. Rumando explores the reality of her own past inner life, while Tonomura radiates her own concept of reality on to the life surrounding her. Like doppelgängers, their artworks printed on paper are physical manifestations of the souls of the artists, and they blur the borders between the objective existence of the print and the inner souls of these photographers. For this event, the artists will be joined in conversation by Dr Simon Baker, Director of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris.

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15 May 2018

Wireless Technology

Wireless technologies have become deeply engrained in everyday life, with oyster cards and contactless bank cards becoming the norm. In this talk, Ichiro Seto will explain the faultless, complex technologies that facilitate these contactless and automated systems, and how they work so effectively. Seto will also introduce the next generation of contactless communication, TransferJet(TM), which have already been introduced in Japan.

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11 May 2018

Crafting Japan from Materials and Techniques: Hand Crafted Chrysanthemums

During London Craft Week, Made in Japan Project and The Creation of Japan will hold a one-day crafting exhibition at the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. The exhibition highlights the variety of Japanese materials and techniques used to create hand-crafted pieces. Taiyo Nakazato, 18th generation potter of Hirado Kosho Danemon Kiln, will demonstrate the techniques of Mikawachi ceramics, traditional porcelain with a 400 year old history.
Demonstrations at 11am, 1pm and 3pm .
Bookings available at goo.gl/dSbqij .

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10 May 2018

Private View: Double Method by Tokyo Rumando×Hideka Tonomura

Collaborating together for the first time, Tokyo Rumando and Hideka Tonomura are at the cutting edge of an exciting and groundbreaking generation of new photographers working in Japan today. Using photography to confront basic and instinctive key human issues, Rumando and Tonomura continually reverse expectations and take their audiences into complex and moving interior spaces through their emotionally engaging practices. Both photographers participate in a fictitious dream, based on a shared optimism about the potential for art to transcend the problems of daily life.

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26 April 2018

Human Rights in Japan: Freedom of Expression, the Media and the Constitutional Amendment

In this talk, chaired by William Horsley, Dr Fujita will draw on her experiences to address how Japanese freedom of expression, including the independence of the media, has deteriorated under the current administration. She will also discuss the Government’s plans for constitutional amendment, which may have negative implications for human rights, and the Japanese Government’s response to the UN’s recommendations.

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18 April 2018

Artist Talk: System as Medium and System as Motif, Goro Murayama

Systems Art is an approach associated with the dematerialisation of artworks, the tendency towards taking information and process as a medium, and the rise of cybernetic art in contemporary art. For this event Murayama will be joined in conversation by Dr Francis Halsall, art historian and author of the book “Systems of Art” (2008), to discuss how the artist connects the idea of Autopoiesis, self-sustaining systems, to his artistic practice in the hemp painting series, as well as to other bodies of works that explore the systems we live in.

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12 April 2018

Georges Bigot and Japan, 1882-1899: Satirist, Illustrator and Artist Extraordinaire

Incorporating over 250 illustrations, Georges Bigot and Japan is the first comprehensive study in English of French artist and caricaturist, Georges Ferdinand Bigot (1860-1927). Bigot remains well known in Japan where examples of his cartoons still appear in Japanese textbooks, but he is barely known in France, his home country, or in Britain. In this event, Sir Hugh Cortazzi will briefly introduce the volume, and Christian Polak will then give an illustrated talk about Bigot. The volume includes a full introduction of the life, work and artistry of Bigot by Polak, together with an essay by Sir Hugh on Charles Wirgman, publisher of Japan Punch.

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9 April 2018

Abandoning the Kimono

Kimonos were among the most highly sought-after export wares produced for the Western market after Japan’s 200-year-long isolation policy ended in 1868, opening its ports to trade. Surviving kimonos from this period show British and Japanese cultural, political and industrial characteristics through each other’s eyes. In this talk, Elizabeth Kramer and Allie Yamaguchi will demonstrate the cultural relationship between Britain and Japan through dress with extant examples to show how Japanese kimonos became a strong visual trope representing a British understanding of the culture and people of Japan in the Meiji period.

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27 March 2018

Kaori Sato

Bizen Osafune Japanese Swords

The origins of Japanese swords are not widely known, however the present-day form of Japanese swords originated around a thousand years ago. Nowadays, Japanese swords no longer serve as weapons, rather they are appreciated both in Japan and overseas as items of beauty or symbolic protection. In this talk, former diplomat Kaori Sato will give an overview of “Bizen Osafune Japanese Swords” as well as the Japanese spirit through the art of sword making. She will also discuss the city’s challenge to revitalise the local economy through Japanese sword making.

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22 March 2018

Picture of the speakers

Japanese Security Legislation and Constitutional Reforms after the Elections: Prime Minister Abe’s Legacy?

In 2015, under Prime Minister Abe’s leadership, the Japanese government enacted controversial new security legislation with the aim to facilitate the country’s role as a ‘pro-active contributor’ to international peace and security. This seminar focuses on the political, legal, and strategic implications unfolding from possible constitutional reforms. This is a timely and much needed discussion with clear repercussions on Anglo-Japanese defence relations and on the prospects of Japan’s continued contribution to a stable international system. (The event is organised in cooperation with the King’s Japan Programme.)

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20 March 2018

Private View: Emergence of Order by Goro Murayama

Goro Murayama expresses self-organising processes and patterns through painting and drawings. He is particularly interested in fundamental theories of life systems, namely autopoiesis (self-creation), and the diverse life-like patterns implemented in computer-simulated cellular automata (discrete models studied in science).
Murayama’s works attain a unique expression by introducing these self-organising processes into them. For Murayama, painting is a mandala of emergences that appears when the mind, affected by forms and shapes, reiterates and amasses actions.

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15 March 2018

Photograph of speakers

Challenges of Regional Revitalisation in Japan

Japan’s population is shrinking at an alarming rate, and is expected to decrease from 127 million to 90 million people by 2060. In order to tackle this challenge, in 2014 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe created the Headquarter for Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalising Local Economy, which aims to promote regional revitalisation by implementing new policy and law. In this talk, Ueki Imaoka from Ministry of Finance will give a brief summary of Japanese Regional Revitalisation at the national level, while Takashi Hiranaka from the Embassy of Japan in the UK and Ichiro Oshiro, Mayor of Yawatahama will present several activities at the local level.

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