Events
January - December 2016
Arts & Culture

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LifestyleSpecial Events

To book for an event, please call the Japan Society office on
020 3075 1996, email events@japansociety.org.uk or visit our
website and use the online booking form.

The Japan Society, 13/14 Cornwall Terrace, London NW1 4QP

tel: 020 7935 0475 email: info@japansociety.org.uk www.japansociety.org.uk
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What do Anthropologists do in Japan? The Value of their
Increasing Numbers – Joy Hendry
Monday 18 January 2016

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way
London WC1A 2TH(Hall entrance on Barter St)
Free:
Booking recommended

Social anthropology came to Japan in
the late 1800s, and at the turn of the 20th
century the London-educated Tsuboi
Shōgorō established a department at Tokyo
University. Since that time, the field hasflourished, with membership numbers of
the professional association in Japan now
second only to those in the United States,and books about company anthropology
selling rather well to the general public.
In Britain the discipline is less well-known
outside universities, although it was herethat the Japan Anthropology Workshop was
founded in 1984.
Professor Hendry has been working as ananthropologist in Japan since before then,and although UK colleagues are still rather
few, the number of anthropologists working
there from other countries, including Japan
itself, has grown exponentially since thattime. This talk will explain what is so special
about the “fieldwork” that these people do,
and will propose that anthropology offers anunderstanding of Japan that goes beyond
those driven by sociologists, economists,
political scientists, journalists, and the manyother “Japanologists”. Professor Hendry
will illustrate the talk with some of her own
experiences, offer examples of contributions

made by others, and will even suggest thatany foreigner living and working in Japan
can pick up anthropological techniques
themselves. If you aren’t already ananthropologist of Japan, you may leave thetalk with plans to dabble!
Joy Hendry is Professor Emerita of theSocial Anthropology of Japan at Oxford
Brookes University, founder of the Japan
Anthropology Workshop and the Europe
Japan Research Centre, and a Senior Memberof St. Antony’s College, Oxford. She has held
visiting associations with Tokyo, Doshisha
and Keio universities, carried out long-term
fieldwork in Kyushu and a seaside town
south of Tokyo, and spent shorter periods inmany other parts of Japan. She has publishedmany books and articles on Japan, including
Wrapping Culture: Politeness, Presentation
and Power in Japan and Other Societies(Oxford University Press, 1993) and The Orient
Strikes Back: A Global View of Cultural Display(Oxford: Berg, 2000). She is presently working
to encourage the study of anthropology inschools.

Tw

The World in 2050: Long-term Forecasts for the UK and Japan
with Robert Ward
Tuesday 19 January 2016

12.00 for 12.30pm

Mitsubishi Corporation International (Europe) plc
6th Floor, MidCity Place
71 High Holborn
WC1V 6AB
Free of charge:
Members of the Japan Society only
Booking essential
Booking deadline – Friday 15 January
Much has been made of the many issues
currently facing the Japanese and British
economies: the EU in/out referendum,
the implementation of the Trans-PacificPartnership (TPP), and the ongoing travails
of Abenomics have all been considered in
depth by various sources. But what of thelonger-term trajectories of these countries,
and others? Where will we be in ten, twenty,
or thirty years’ time?

Robert Ward became Editorial Director of
the Economist Intelligence Unit in December
2013, and remains Director of Country
Publishing (2010-present). Prior to these roles
he was also Director of Global Forecasting(2007-2010), and Senior Economist (19972007), both at the EIU, as well as an Analyst
at the Japan Bond Research Institute (19941996).

The Japan Society is delighted to welcome
Robert Ward, Editorial Director of the
Economist Intelligence Unit, to discuss hisorganisation’s
recently-published2050
country forecasts. Is Japan’s lacklustre
projected economic growth as serious as
it seems? How can the UK work around its
infrastructure shortcomings to attempt toincrease its future productivity? Can China’s
current political system survive to 2050, when
its GDP is expected to be more than 2.5 times
that of the USA? This talk by Robert Ward, withhis extensive experience of global politicaland economic issues, will be of great interest
to all Japan Society members interested inlooking beyond the here-and-now.

Hosted by:Japan Society Annual Dinner
Monday 25 January 2016

7.30pm for 8.00pm

One Great George Street
London SW1P 3AA
Members under 30: £30 (first 30 to apply)
Members (& their guests): £55
Non-Members: £90
Booking essential
Booking deadline – Wednesday 20 January

The Japan Society is delighted to be returning
to the Great Hall of the spectacular One Great
George Street, home to the Institution of
Civil Engineers in the heart of Westminster,for its Annual Dinner, the largest event in its
calendar.
This Grade II listed building, completed in
1913, was conceived as a monument to British
engineering – a celebration of Victorian
gravitas and Edwardian vision. It was oneof the first buildings in London constructedusing a steel frame, allowing the architects
to create the great spaces that characterise
the building – the domed atrium, and GreatHall. Aside from the marble columns, goldleaf and magnificent crystal chandeliers, theHall’s defining feature is its painted ceiling,
depicting soaring biplanes and steel cranes –a gift to the ICE as a tribute to the role playedby its members in the First World War.

inform us of any special dietary requirements.
Tickets will be sent to all those attending.
Cancellation policy: a full refund will be given
where notice of cancellation is received atleast 72 hours prior to the event. In othercases, refunds will be given at the discretionof the Japan Society and event partners.
We are very grateful to JTI for their support
which enables us to offer discounted tickets
to all members and a further discount tomembers under 30, ensuring that the event
can be enjoyed by everyone.
Cost includes drinks on arrival, three course
dinner, wine and coffee.
Dress code: Black tie / National dress /Lounge suits

The dinner is traditionally a black tie eventand many guests will wear formal dress,
but for those who prefer lounge suits, thisis perfectly acceptable. Most people will
be sitting at round tables of 10. If you haveany seating preferences, please specify withwhom you wish to be seated. Please alsoThis event is kindly supported by:Lecture by Tim Hitchens, British Ambassador to Japan
Tuesday 2 February 2016

6.00 for 6.30pm(reception afterwards until 8.30pm)

Nomura International plc
One Angel Lane
London EC4R 3AB
Free:
Members of the Japan Society and their guests only
Booking essential
Booking deadline – Friday 29 January
In this 2016 annual update for the Societyby the British Ambassador to Japan, Tim
Hitchens will share his insights on thepolitical, diplomatic and commercial situationin Japan. This talk comes at a particularly
important time, following the Paris Climate
Change Conference and with heightened
concern over global, and regional, security.
Both are areas in which Japan and the UK
are close partners, with the visit to Japan in
July by the Secretary of State for Foreign andCommonwealth Affairs and the fourth annual
UK-Japan Nuclear Dialogue in November
2015. Mr Hitchens has held this post now forover three years and the event will be chairedby his predecessor, Sir David Warren.

There will be a reception immediately after
the lecture. The Japan Society is extremely
grateful to leading corporate member,
Nomura International plc, for hosting thisevent.
Tim Hitchens read English at Cambridge. He
joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Officein 1983 and held posts in Tokyo (1985-1989),
Islamabad and Paris, as well as serving as
Assistant Private Secretary to the Queen.
He was Director for Europe in the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office from 2008 to2010 and then Director for Africa from 2010
to 2012, before taking up his present role in
December 2012.

The Society’s annual lecture by the current
British Ambassador is always relevant,thought-provoking and useful to people
from across its membership, as well as being
extremely well attended. The Ambassador
will speak for 30-40 minutes, after which there
will be time for off-the-record discussion andquestions.

Hosted by:Japan Society Book Club:
Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino
Monday 8 February 2016

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members:
Booking recommended
The Book Club is held on the second Monday of every month

Two prostitutes are murdered in Tokyo. Twenty
years previously both women were educatedat the same elite school for young ladies, andhad seemingly promising futures ahead ofthem. But in a world of dark desire and vicious
ambition, for both women, prostitution meant
power. Grotesque is a masterful and haunting
thriller, a chilling exploration of women’s secret
lives in modern day Japan.
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly in English,
but you can choose the language in which
you read the book. The intention is simple:
to explore the themes of the book, express
personal opinions on the style and content,
discuss how the book has changed (or not) intranslation and to have a relaxed discussion
with others who have similar interests.
Natsuo Kirino, born in 1951 in Ishikawa
prefecture, was an active and spirited childbrought up between her two brothers. Kirino’s
father, being an architect, took the family
to many cities, and Kirino spent her youth inSendai, Sapporo, and finally settled in Tokyo
when she was fourteen, which is where she
has been residing since. After completing her
law degree, Kirino worked in various fields
before becoming a fictional writer. She beganwriting professionally, after giving birth toher daughter, at age thirty. However, it was
not until Kirino was forty-one that she madeher major debut. Her smash hit novel OUT(Kodansha, 1997) became her first work to betranslated into English and other languages.

Japan’s Role in the Great War 1914-18: A Reassessment froma Military History Perspective – Ian Gow
Monday 15 February 2016

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way (Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free:
Booking recommended

Studies of World War One is a vast and still
expanding area of world history. However interms of general surveys and indeed militaryespecially naval studies Japan’s contribution
has not been fairly and positively
acknowledged. Japan is given minimal
attention in various historical WW1 andNaval Survey Histories surveys and in recent
TV and journalistic coverage programmes
on WW1. Evaluations tend to range between
Japan as a ‘hyena state’ feeding off the spoilsof war at worst or an ally driven mainly by
self- interest and opportunism. Recent major
books focusing on Japan such as Dickenson’s
excellent War and National Reinvention:
Japan in the Great War, which focuses moreon the China dimension of the war, andFratillo and Best’s new Japan and the Great
War which looks at the impact of WorldWar One on Japan itself are very importantstudies using multi-archival sources. Whilethey do add considerably to the corpus
of excellent existing diplomatic studies of
the conflict they do not address the needto provide a more balanced evaluation ofJapan’s contribution globally to the war
and especially the existing overly narrowfocusing on the capture of Shandong or thecapture of the German Micronesian islands

with passing references to Japanese naval
activity in the Mediterranean in 1917-18 as
too little too late.
Ian Gow OBE is Director of the Confucius
Institute at the University of Glasgow. He
was previously Inaugural Principal of the
Sino-British College USST Shanghai (20092014). From 2003-2007 he was Founding
Provost and CEO of the multi-award
winning University of Nottingham, Ningbo,
China, China’s first independent foreign
university campus. He was Dean of theNottingham University Business Schoolfrom 1998 to 2003. He is a former Deputy
Principal, University of Stirling and Pro ViceChancellor, University of Sheffield and was
Head of Management Studies at both these
institutions concurrently with Director of theScottish Centre for Japanese Studies (Stirling)
and Chairman of the School of East AsianStudies (Sheffield). Professor Gow holds a
PhD in Japanese Studies and has publishedin both Japanese and English on JapaneseBusiness and Japanese Defence Policy. He
has also has been a visiting professor atTokyo and Saitama universities in Japan anda member of the UK –Japan 21st Century
Group.

My Shanghai, 1942-1946: A Novel,with author Keiko Itoh
Tuesday 23 February 2016

6.30pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way (Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free:
Booking recommended

It is 1942. Shanghai after Pearl Harbor. Newlyarrived Eiko Kishimoto, a 20-year-old, Londoneducated Japanese housewife, settles into aprivileged existence in the French Concession.
Initially, her days are filled with high societylunches and dinners, race course and night club
visits and open-air summer concerts, amidst
the ebullient and remarkably cosmopolitan
society that makes up Shanghai.
But all is by no means what it seems. As war
progresses, and Japan tightens its control
within China, tensions mount, relationships
unravel, and allegiances fall into question. It is
not long before Eiko awakens to the meaning
and implications of occupation for both herinternational friends and for Japanese civilians.
Her settled domestic life is threatened as Japan
escalates her war efforts.
Join us for this special event, introduced andchaired by Sir Hugh Cortazzi, in which Keiko
Itoh will read selected extracts, before entering
into a discussion about the novel’s genesis andthe experience of the Japanese community.
Partly biographical – the author taking

inspiration from her mother’s own war
experiences in China – My Shanghai, 1942-46
provides a fascinating insight into the Asia
Pacific War as never told before, that is throughthe eyes of a young Japanese woman caught
between her Christian values and loyalty to
her country.
Keiko Itoh, London-based writer andinterpreter, was born in Kobe. After highschool she continued her education in the
United States, receiving her MA from Yale
University. She has worked for the United
Nations in New York, and the European Bankfor Reconstruction and Development in the
UK. She gained a PhD in history from theLondon School of Economics, for her studyof the Japanese community in London of the
1920s and 30s, to which both her grandfather
and mother belonged. My Shanghai, 1942-46 is
a fictional account of her mother’s experiencein occupied China.
Copies of the book will be available on thenight at the discounted price of £15 (25%discount on normal price £19.95)

Sake Tasting and Food at Hox Cup Sake Bar
Tuesday 1 March 2016

6.00pm to 7.30pm

Hox Cup Sake Bar
The Hoxton
81 Great Eastern Street
London EC2A 3HU
Japan Society members and their guests only:£35 per head
Booking Essential
Deadline: Wednesday 24 February
Following our recent wine, whisky and beer
tasting events, the Japan Society is joining
forces with Hox Cup Sake Bar and returning
to the more traditional world of sake. This is achance for Japan Society members and theirguests to enjoy an exclusive tutored saketasting led by Sake Samurai Natsuki Kikuya of
the Museum of Sake.
Kikuya has selected a line-up of five premium
sake varieties to share with us, which will
be accompanied by a bento box speciallyprepared by Atsuko’s Kitchen.
Provisional Menu:• Tara no ko umani (simmered haddock roe
with herbs)• Chawan mushi (steamed egg and dashi)• Nuka zuke daikon (pickled radish)• Horensou no ume ae (spinach dressedwith ume paste)• Tsukune (free range chicken meat ballswith yuzu gosho)• Kobujime suzuki (kombu-cured seabass)
with salted cherry blossom
Please note that this menu is subject to change
depending on the catch of the day, and please
let us know of any allergies or special dietaryrequirements when booking.

Hox Cup Sake Bar is a one-week-only popup bar open from Monday 29 February,
showcasing 20 different varieties of cup sakegathered from across Japan, in the garden
courtyard of the Hoxton, Shoreditch for the
first week of March. Cup sake was originallyinvented in 1964 to enable thirsty Japanesespectators to enjoy drinking sake whilst
watching the Tokyo ’64 Olympic events.
These individual portions of sake are typically
packaged in beautiful and distinctively
illustrated glasses and cans, opened by simply
peeling off the metal lid. In somewhat eager
anticipation of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,
visitors can watch original Tokyo ‘64 footage
around a 20m long concertina paper bar.
www.hoxcupsakebar.com
The special tasting event will feature premium(not cup) sake, but never fear – Japan Society
members have been offered a discount of
20% on drink-in cup sake at Hox Cup Sake Bar;
please show the following logo when ordering
at the bar:Japan Society Book Club:
Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age! by Kenzaburo Oe
Monday 14 March 2016

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members:
Booking recommended
The Book Club is held on the second Monday of every month

K is a famous writer living in Tokyo with hiswife and three children, one of whom ismentally disabled. K’s wife confronts him
with the information that this child, Eeyore,
has been doing disturbing things – behaving
aggressively, asserting that he’s dead, evenbrandishing a knife at his mother – and K, given
to retreating from reality into abstraction,
looks for answers in his lifelong love of William
Blake’s poetry.
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly in English,
but you can choose the language in which
you read the book. The intention is simple:
to explore the themes of the book, express
personal opinions on the style and content,

discuss how the book has changed (or not) intranslation and to have a relaxed discussion
with others who have similar interests.
Kenzaburo Oe, born in 1935 in Ehime
prefecture, is a major figure in contemporary
Japanese literature. His novels, short stories
and essays were strongly influenced by
French and American literature and literary
theory. They deal with political, social andphilosophical issues including nuclear
weapons, nuclear power, social nonconformism, and existentialism. Oe wasawarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994
for creating “an imagined world, where lifeand myth condense to form a disconcerting
picture of the human predicament today”.
Up next: Junichiro Tanizaki’s poignant The
Makioka Sisters on 11 April

The Importance of Being Visible: Media and Religion inContemporary Japan – Erica Baffelli
Monday 21 March 2016

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way (Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free:
Booking recommended

Since the 19th century, Japanese ‘newreligions’ (shinshūkyō) have been noted
for their ability to use various media. While
movements that emerged in the 19th andearly 20th centuries were adept at using theprinted page – often in the form of books,
pamphlets and newsletters – in more recent
times new religions have adopted newer
media forms and technologies. In particular,
in 1980s and early 1990s some movements
attracted attention with visual imagery,developing elaborately staged events andrituals, feature films and animated movies,
and, more recently, elaborate websites.
Through media these groups created newmodes of ritual engagement and communityand new forms of interaction between
leaders and members. At the same time, theintensive use of media attracted criticism,and religious groups had to confront issuesof image control and media exposure. This
talk will discuss key issues in the creation ofmedia narratives by religious organisations
in order to proselytise, communicate withmembers and create (and, at times, recreate
or reshape) their image.

Erica Baffelli is currently a Senior Lecturer
in Japanese Studies at The University ofManchester. She is interested in religion incontemporary Japan, with a focus on groups
founded from the 1970s onwards. Currently
she is examining the interactions between
media and new religions in 1980s and 1990s
and the changes in the use of media by
religious institutions after the 1995 Tokyo
subway attack. Recent publications include
Media and New Religions in Japan (Routledge,
forthcoming 2016); Baffelli and Reader,‘Aftermath: the Impact and Ramificationsof the Aum Affair’ in Special Issue of theJapanese Journal of Religious Studies, 39,
1, 2012; and Baffelli, Reader and Staemmler
eds. Japanese Religions on the Internet:
innovation, Representation and Authority,
Routledge, 2011.

The EU-Japan EPA Free Trade Agreement – is it a gamechanger? – Kenichi Kawasaki
Tuesday 22 March 201612.30 for 1.00pm

JETRO
MidCity Place
71 High Holborn
London WC1V 6AL
Free: Japan Society members, and those introduced by
JETRO or BIS
Booking essential
Booking deadline: Friday 18 March 2016
Dr Kenichi Kawasaki, senior fellow of the
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies,
will present the results of his recent research
into the value of the EU-Japan EPA Free Tradeagreement to Japan, the UK, and the EU.
Negotiations on the EU-Japan EPA, whichhave been through 15 rounds, have been
conducted alongside discussions on the TransPacific Partnership which were concluded(pending ratification) last October. While
media attention has focussed heavily on
the larger TPP, the outcomes of an EU-Japanagreement present significant opportunities
to businesses and consumers in both the EU
and Japan, and strengthen economic ties
between the world’s largest economic trading
bloc and the world’s third largest economy.
In this talk, Dr Kawasaki will discuss the EUJapan EPA, its potential value to Japan, theUK, and the EU, and consider how it compareswith other major trade agreements. He will
also consider the impact of the EPA regionallyand globally.

Dr Kenichi Kawasaki is a senior fellow of the
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
He is a consulting fellow at the ResearchInstitute of Economy, Trade and Industry, andan adjunct fellow at the Japan Institute ofInternational Affairs.
Dr Kawasaki spent more than two decades
in the Japanese government, including the
Department of Economics and Statistics of
the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development. He has contributed tonumerous policy studies, working for the
research projects of the Economic Committeeof the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation(APEC) on the impacts of trade and investment
liberalization and facilitation. During thelast decade and a half he has participatedin the joint study groups of the Japanese
government and trading partners on Japan’s
Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA),
and most recently, estimating the impactsof Japan’s participation in the Trans-PacificPartnership (TPP) agreement.

A sandwich lunch will be served from 12.30pm
and the lecture will start promptly at 1.00pm.
The event should be concluded by 2.25pm.
In association with:

Suzuki Method and its international significance,with Professor Koji Toyoda
Thursday 24 March 2016

2.30pmDaiwa Foundation Japan House
13/14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QPFree:
booking essential“Talent is no accident of birth... the rightenvironment can change a person with
undeveloped ability into a talented one” Dr
Shinichi Suzuki
We are delighted to welcome Professor Koji
Toyoda, President of the Talent Education
Research Institute in Japan, for a special
afternoon lecture. Koji Toyoda is a direct
musical descendant of Shinichi Suzuki, having
been one of his first students of violin, andin 1999, a year after Dr Suzuki’s death, wasappointed president of the Talent Education
Research Institute (now International Academyof the Suzuki Method), a position he held until
2010. In this lecture Dr Toyoda will discuss thesignificance of the Suzuki Method of teaching,from his experience as student, teacher andmentor.
The lecture, which will be given in Japanesewith English translation, will be followed bya short demonstration by some very young
students of the violin with the British Suzuki
Institute.
Born in 1934, Koji Toyoda began studying theviolin with Suzuki when he was only three andcontinued with him until the Second World
War. After the war, during which Toyoda lost

both of his parents, they resumed their studies
for another two years. At the age of 12, Toyoda
left Japan to become a student at the French
National Conservatory of Music in Paris. He
later furthered his violin studies in Europe
under Georges Enesco and Arthur Grumiaux.
Toyoda has had an impressive career. He has
won numerous solo playing competitions anddistinctions in Europe throughout the years.
He was also concertmaster of Rheinischem
Kammerorchester in Cologne, and the Radio
Symphony Orchestra in Berlin. From 1979 to
2000, he served as professor at the Hochschuleder Künste in Berlin, directed several summer
music festivals in Germany and Japan, and has
made numerous recordings in Japan, Europe,and the United States.
The Suzuki Method of music education
is based on the philosophy and teaching
methods developed by the Japanese violinist,
pedagogue, educator and humanitarian, Dr
Shinichi Suzuki. Dr.Suzuki believed in the great
potential of music to enrich children’s lives,and developed a method of music education
to enable children to play music to theirhighest possible level of ability. His method
was derived from his observation of the easeand facility with which young children learn tospeak their own language.
In association with:

Joint Lunch with the JCCI: The Future Shape of London,
Sir Edward Lister, Deputy Mayor for Policy & Planning, GLA
Wednesday 6 April 2016

12.00 for 12.30pm

National Liberal ClubWhitehall Place
London SW1A 2HE£50 per head:members of the Japan Society, the JCCI and their guests
Booking essential
Booking deadline: Friday 1 April

As Chief of Staff to the Mayor of London
since 2011, and Deputy Mayor for Policy &Planning, Sir Edward Lister has been at thecentre of planning for London’s growth andhighlighting infrastructure requirements fora successful city. Edward has been closely
involved with London’s promotion overseas,
major regeneration projects (Crossrail, NineElms), supporting emerging business sectors(Tech, Science) and delivering high-profile
events (2012 Games, Rugby World Cup).

Sir Edward Lister was appointed Chief of Staff
and Deputy Mayor for Policy and Planning by
the Mayor of London in May 2011. In this rolehe has co-ordinated implementation of the
Mayor’s priorities, strategy and policy work,and activities by the Mayoral Team. He advises
the Mayor on strategic planning applications
and has oversight of the London Plan andCommunity Infrastructure Levy. He delivers
the Mayor’s jobs and growth agenda in thisarea.

On behalf of the Mayor, Edward spearheads
London’s engagement with Japan – thefourth highest investor here and an important
community in the capital. Building on yearsof expanding bilateral business relations,
Edward focuses on increasing trade in tech,life sciences, hosting major sports events, andinfrastructure projects.

Sir Edward served as leader of Wandsworth
Council from 1992 to 2011. He is a Director andChairman of London & Partners, the London
inward investment, tourism and trade agency.
He is also Deputy Chairman of the Old Oak andPark Royal Mayoral Development Corporation.

A month ahead of the London mayoral
election, which will decide who follows Boris
Johnson in this important role, Edward will
give his observations on how Japan andLondon can continue to learn from each otherand do business.

Following a two-course lunch, Sir Edward will
speak for about 20 minutes, after which there
will be time for questions until 2.00pm.

Co-organised by:Vickers Bovey Guitar Duo with Clive Bell (shakuhachi):Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji
Friday 8 April 2016

7pm

The Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH£6.50
Booking recommended: to guarantee a seat,tickets must be paid for in advanceThirty Six Views of Mount Fuji is a brand newlarge-scale work for two guitars, composed
by Ryan Probert in collaboration with the
Vickers Bovey Guitar Duo. This concert
marks the culmination of their four yearlong project, and celebrates the CD releaseof this delicate yet expansive piece.
Taking inspiration from both Hokusai’s
famous woodblock prints and Probert’s own
time in Japan, the thirty-six movements
enchant in their serenity and contrast,
being described as ‘charmingly Satie-like intheir oddity, and played with truly uncanny
unanimity by guitarists Julian Vickers andDaniel Bovey’ (Ivan Hewett, Daily Telegraph).
The concert will also feature music from
Sergio Assad’s Summer Garden Suite for two
guitars, composed for the 1994 film Natsu
no Niwa ( The Friends), and a set of solo
improvisations and classical Japanese works
performed by shakuhachi flautist Clive Bell.
The Vickers Bovey Duo owe a debt ofgratitude to the Great Britain Sasakawa
Foundation for financial assistance withproduction costs.
The

Vickers

Bovey

GuitarDuo

haveperformed extensively around the UK,
including at Wigmore Hall, Kings Place(London Guitar Festival), The Sage (NorthEast Guitar Festival), Bath Guitar Festival,
Shrewsbury Guitar Festival, Symphony
Hall (Birmingham), Colston Hall (Bristol),
Frome Festival and The Forge (Camden).
They have won multiple awards, including
IGF’s young artist scheme in 2014, and havereceived grants from Help Musicians UK,
Blythe Watson Charitable Trust and theCountess of Munster Postgraduate Awards.
www.vickersbovey.co.uk
Clive Bell is a musician,composer and writerwith a specialist interestin the shakuhachi, khene(Thai mouth organ) andother East Asian wind
instruments. He has travelled extensively inJapan (where he studied shakuhachi withthe master Kohachiro Miyata), Thailand, Laosand Bali, researching music and meeting local
practitioners. Clive is the shakuhachi player on
Karl Jenkins’s album Requiem on EMI Classics,
the final two Harry Potter movies, and The
Hobbit. His shakuhachi has been featured liveon Radio 3’s Late Junction and In Tune.

Japan Society Book Club:
The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki
Monday 11 April 2016

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members:
Booking recommended
The Book Club is held on the second Monday of every month

In Osaka in the years immediately before WorldWar II, four aristocratic women try to preserve a
way of life that is vanishing. Tsuruko, the eldest
sister, clings obstinately to the prestige of her
family name even as her husband prepares tomove their household to Tokyo, where thatname means nothing. Sachiko compromises
valiantly to secure the future of her younger
sisters. The unmarried Yukiko is a hostage
to her family’s exacting standards, while thespirited Taeko rebels by flinging herself into
scandalous romantic alliances. The story of
the Makioka sisters forms what is arguably
the greatest Japanese novel of the twentiethcentury, a poignant yet unsparing portrait of afamily – and an entire society – sliding into theabyss of modernity.
The book club is held every month. The
discussion is conducted in English, but you
can choose the language in which you readthe book. The intention is simple: to explore
the themes of the book, express personal

opinions on the style and content, discuss how
the book has changed (or not) in translationand to have a relaxed discussion with others
who have similar interests.​​
Junichiro Tanizaki (谷崎 潤一郎 Tanizaki
Junichiro, 24 July 1886 – 30 July 1965) was
one of the major writers of modern Japanese
literature, and perhaps the most popular
Japanese novelist after Natsume Sōseki.
Some of his works present a shocking worldof sexuality and destructive erotic obsessions.
Others, less sensational, subtly portray the
dynamics of family life in the context of therapid changes in twentieth-century Japanesesociety. Frequently his stories are narrated in
the context of a search for cultural identity
in which constructions of ‘the West’ and‘Japanese tradition’ are juxtaposed.
Up next: Taichi Yamada’s haunting In Searchof a Distant Voice on 9 May.

GN

Girls’ Aesthetics in Japanese Theatre
Nobuko Anan
Monday 18 April 2016

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way (Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free:
Booking recommended
The monthly lecture series takes place on the third Monday of every month

Japanese girls’ culture evokes various
images, from kawaii Hello Kitty and fighting
girls in anime to female students involved in
the sex business. While these are all parts ofa vibrant Japanese girls’ culture, in this talk,I will focus on a particular group of girls andadult women, who embody what I call “girls’
aesthetics.”
Girls’ aesthetics have their genesis inearly twentieth-century Japan with thecreation of Western-style girls’ schools andmagazines for girls. These physical places
and objects created a space where girls
could escape from societal pressures within
Japan’s growing empire. In this space, girls
rejected state-sanctioned motherhood andwife-hood and instead fantasised samesex intimacy, longed for the West andromanticised death as a means to reject
adulthood. These aesthetics continue into
the contemporary period, influencing
various artistic genres, such as Rococo/
Victorian-inspired Gothic-Lolita fashion andboys’ love manga.

In this talk, I will explore girls’ aesthetics incontemporary Japanese theatre througha discussion of the Takarazuka Revue, an
all-female musical company which stages
Western romances, and Yubiwa Hotel,
whose adult members perform Barbie-dolllike girls fetishising death.
Nobuko Anan is Lecturer in the Department
of Cultures and Languages at Birkbeck, University of London, where she runs the Japanese Studies programmes. She researches
widely on Japanese and intercultural theatre and visual arts, and her current research
examines the intersections of girls’ culture
and various forms of performance. She is
the author of a monograph, Contemporary
Japanese Women’s Theatre and Visual Arts:
Performing Girls’ Aesthetics (Palgrave 2016).
Up next: Henry Dyer – the Japanese Art of a
Scottish Engineer, with Rosina Buckland.

Generation to Generation: Window on Ise – Japan’s Most
Sacred Place
Wednesday 20 April 2016

6.30pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way (Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free:
Booking recommended

The 42nd G7 summit will take place on 26-27
May in Ise-Shima in Mie Prefecture. The site of
the Ise Grand Shrine, this area is known as thespiritual heart of Japan, a place of both cultural
significance and scenic beauty.

Kenichi Suzuki has been Mayor of Ise City since2009, having been elected to Ise City Council
in 2003 after periods working in business andas secretary to a member of the House ofRepresentatives.

For this special event we welcome a numberof guest speakers, including the Mayor ofIse, who will share their experience of this
distinctive region and discuss what it means
to them. The evening will include short talks
and a panel discussion, a shakuhachi and kotoperformance and end with a chance to taste
specialities from the region.

Reverend Katsuji Iwahashi is Chief of the
Public Relations Section of Jinja Honcho (theAssociation of Shinto Shrines). He studied
for an MA in Shinto studies at Kokugakuin
University and an MA in the Modern History of
Shinto Shrines and the Relationship between
the Government and Shinto Shrines at SOAS.
He has worked extensively on the ecologicalaspect of Shintoism in modern Japan,
attending many international events on faithbased ecological action.

Among other things, we will learn about
the Shikinen Sengu: the ritual in which theshrine is rebuilt every twenty years. What
does this signify, and how does it enable thehanding down of wisdom and traditions
from generation to generation? Is it indicativeof a distinctive relationship with the local
environment?
Shin’nyo Kawai is currently a senior priest at Ise
Jingu. He has written a number of books about
the Shrine and Japanese history including The
Wisdom of Ise (Ise Jingu no chie), recently
translated into English.
In association with:Dr Simon Kaner is Director of the Centre forJapanese Studies at the University of East
Anglia and Head of the Centre for Archaeology
and Heritage at the Sainsbury Institute.
The Hibiki Ensemble, featuring this evening
Michael Coxall (shakuhachi) and Keiko
Kitamura (koto), perform music from thetraditional, classical repertoire to the very
contemporary and will set the mood, with ashort recital at the start of the evening.

Japan Festival for Families at the V&A
Sunday 1 May 2016

11.00am to 5.00pm

Victoria and Albert Museum
Cromwell Road
London SW7 2RL
Events are free and drop in

The Japan Society is delighted to becollaborating with the V&A for their Japan
Festival for Families on Sunday 1 May. Join in
the Japanese Festival for Children to celebrate
their health, growth and happiness. Listen to
traditional storytelling and music, make minibanners and origami shapes, watch traditional
puppets, try your hand at manga drawing anddigital creations. Activities for all the family.
Programme for the Day:
Pop-up Performances: Tales from Old Japan
30 minute performances at 11.00, 13.00 &15.00 Raphael Gallery, Room 48a
Nihon Buyō Japanese Dancewith Hiroko Tanaka
25 minute performances at 11.30, 13.30 &15.30 Raphael Gallery, Room 48a
Masuda String Puppets
25 minute performances at 12.00, 14.00 &16.00, The Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture
Theatre, level 4
Paper Banner Making
11 .00 – 17.00, Raphael Gallery, Room 48a

Make a Card Samurai Helmet
11.00 – 17.00, Raphael Gallery, Room 48a
Drop-in Design: Create your own Mon
11.00 – 17.00, Japan, Room 45
Wear a Kimono (with the Japan Society)11 .00 – 17.00, Japan, Room 45
Japanese Calligraphy(with the Japan Society)14.00 – 16.30, Lunchroom, level 3
Manga
35 minute workshops at 11.00, 12.00 14.00,
15.00 & 16.00, Learning Centre, Art Studio
Digital Kids: Design your own Emoji
11.00 – 17.00, Learning Centre, Foyer
Dressing a Samurai in Armour
25 minute demonsrations at 12.00, 14.00 &16.00, Raphael Gallery, Room 48a
Formal Kimono
25 minute demonsrations at 12.30, 14.30 &16.30, Raphael Gallery, Room 48a

Organised by:Japan Society Book Club:In Search of a Distant Voice by Taichi Yamada
Monday 9 May 2016

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members:
Booking recommended
The Book Club is held on the second Monday of every month

A woman is trying to contact Kasama Tsuneo
at a crisis point in his life. But she won’t reveal
her identity. Kasama is an immigration officer
in Tokyo, struggling to live a ‘normal’ life
after an event that happened eight years
previously, when he lived in the USA. Hisarranged marriage is looming, and he’s seized
by a strange emotional fit. And then thedisembodied voice begins. All Tsuneo can
do is desperately chase this woman, and themystery behind what happened eight years
earlier over the sea.
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly in English,
but you can choose the language in which
you read the book. The intention is simple:

to explore the themes of the book, express
personal opinions on the style and content,
discuss how the book has changed (or not) intranslation and to have a relaxed discussion
with others who have similar interests.
Taichi Yamada, born in 1934 in Tokyo, attendedWaseda University before entering the
Shōchiku film studios, where he trained as
an assistant director under Keisuke Kinoshita.
He left the company at age thirty to focus on
writing scripts for television dramas, penningsuch successful series as Kishibe no arubamu
and Fuzoroi no ringotachi. He has also written
scripts for film and the stage. As a novelist, his
novel Ijintachi to no natsu, published in 1987,
won the Yamamoto Shugoro Prize. It wastranslated into English, in 2004, as Strangers.
Up next: Kanae Minato’s dark Confessions

Henry Dyer: The Japanese art of a Scottish engineer – Rosina
BucklandMonday 16 May 2016

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way (Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free:
Booking recommended
The monthly lecture series takes place on the third Monday of every month

The Scottish engineer Henry Dyer spentnine years in Japan (1873–82) as one of
the foreign advisers hired by the new
Meiji government. The Japanese artworks
he acquired were divided after his death
between public institutions in Glasgow and
Edinburgh. Among these works, of particularinterest is an exceptionally large handscroll
painting, entitled Theatres of the East andcreated circa 1720 by Furuyama Moromasa,
grandson of Hishikawa Moronobu, theacclaimed progenitor of ukiyo-e.
Over its length of 13 metres, the handscroll
depicts the lively appearance of Edo’s theatre
district, with a range of entertainments(kabuki, puppet theatre, comedy skits),
numerous commercial operations, andhundreds of people from all walks of life. Dr
Buckland’s research has revealed the wealthof detail contained in the painting, as well as
its close link to another, comparable workby Moromasa in an overseas collection. In
her presentation, she will introduce thescroll and the world it portrays, and suggest
the motivation for the commission of thisspectacular work.

Rosina Buckland read Japanese Studies at the
University of Cambridge and obtained her
doctorate in Japanese Art History from New
York University (Institute of Fine Arts). She
joined National Museums Scotland in 2010,
where she curates the Japanese collections,comprising a large group of 19th-century
woodblock prints, ceramics, metalware,lacquer, miniature arts, textiles, arms andarmour, archaeological and ethnographic
material.

Joint Lunch for His Excellency The Japanese Ambassador
Tuesday 17 May 201612.30pm for 1.00pm

Cavalry & Guards Club
127 Piccadilly
London W1J 7PX£50 per head: Members of the Japan Society, the JCCI and their guests
Booking deadline: Thursday 12 May
Booking is essential and payment must be made in advance, by banktransfer, credit/debit card or cheque made payable to the Japan Society.

The guest of honour at the Japan Society
and the Japanese Chamber of Commerceand Industry in the UK’s second joint lunchof 2016, will be His Excellency the Japanese
Ambassador, Mr Keiichi Hayashi, thePresident of the Japan Society.
Ambassador Hayashi will shortly be leaving
London on retirement from the Japanese
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after a tour of
duty as Ambassador to the Court of St Jamesof over five years. He took up his post in
early 2011, shortly before the tragedy of theGreat East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. In
2012 he oversaw the visit of Their Majesties
the Emperor and Empress of Japan on theoccasion of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee,
and he has of course been Ambassador
during the 2012 London Olympics and lastyear’s Rugby World Cup, as well as receiving
a full programme of high level governmental
visits, including two visits by the JapanesePrime Minister, Shinzo Abe.

Keiichi Hayashi was Political Counsellor
and then Political Minister at the London
Embassy from 1996–1999 and served as
Minister Plenipotentiary and Deputy Headof Mission in 2010, before his appointment
as Ambassador. He also has extensive
experience working on Japanese diplomatic
missions in areas as diverse as South-east
Asia, North America and Ireland.
Following a two-course lunch, Ambassador
Hayashi will speak for about 20 minutes,
after which there will be time for questions
until 2.30pm.
Cancellation policy: a full refund will be given
where notice of cancellation is received by
5.30pm on Thursday 12 May. After this date,refunds cannot be guarenteed.​

This joint lunch provides a timely opportunity
for the Ambassador to look back over his
period in office and reflect on the current
state of, and future potential for UK/Japan
relations.
Co-organised by:Ta

The Media and Politics:
a conversation with Tadakazu Kimura
Wednesday 25 May 2016

6.00 for 6.30pm

Mitsui & Co Europe plc
9th Floor
1 St Martin’s-le-Grand
London EC1A 4AS
Free for Japan Society members and their guests
Booking essential
Booking deadline: Monday 23 May

For this event, Japan Society chairman, David
Warren, will be joined in conversation by
special guest Tadakazu Kimura to discuss therole of the press in a democratic society. An
independent media is invaluable in holding
government to account and enabling
members of the public to participate fully inthe democratic process, and Kimura, formerly
President and CEO of the Asahi Shimbun
and with wide international experience, isparticularly well placed to review the situationin Japan and the UK.
Tadakazu Kimura is Senior Robert and Lisa
Sainsbury Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute for
the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures.
He is an experienced journalist and former
President and CEO of the leading Japanesenewspaper the Asahi Shimbun. He joined
the company in 1976 after graduating fromWaseda University in Tokyo. Since then, he has
spent more than thirty years covering Japanese
domestic politics and international affairs. In

1994 he was dispatched to Washington D.C.
as political correspondent, and in 2005 wassent to London as European writer and Chiefof European General Bureau of the Asahi. Until
recently, he served as Executive Managing
Editor, Board member in charge of cultural
undertakings, and President and CEO of thecompany.
Kimura received the Award of the Tokyo
Art Directors Club in 2009 and was madeHonorary Commander of the British Empire(CBE) for his longtime contribution to the UKJapan relationship in 2014. He is author andco-author of a number of publications: The
Persian Gulf War and Japan; The Dominant
Rule by Takeshita Faction; What’s Going onin European Socialism? ; Policy Making andMedia; and Odd Constructions Heritage in theWorld.
The Japan Society is grateful to Mitsui & Co
Europe plc, one of its key corporate members,
hosts of this special event.

In association with:

Trooping the Colour 2016:
Special Seats at the Major General’s Review
Saturday 28 May 20169.15 for 10.00am

Horse Guards Parade
Whitehall London
SW1A 2NS
Booking essential
Japan Society members only: £11
Booking deadline: Friday 6 May

One of the great annual sights in London
is the Trooping the Colour ceremony on
Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall on Her
Majesty’s Official Birthday. All available
Foot Guards, Household Cavalry and King’s
Troop Royal Horse Artillery march past Her
Majesty starting at 11.00am. The event ends
at approximately noon.

tunics and full uniform will be on parade;
there will be Massed Bands, Mounted Band,and a large number of cavalry. The troops
will be reviewed and then will march past
twice. The Queen will not be present on 28
May, but the Dress Rehearsal parade will
be taken by the General in command of all
Household Troops.

The Society has once again made application
for a number of seats for the dress rehearsal,
held two weeks before the real parade.
If you are interested in attending, pleaseindicate this by booking with us. We will bein touch once we know whether we havebeen successful in obtaining tickets.

Members should be seated by 10.00am,
but we are arranging to meet at 9.15am forcoffee and a short talk. The cost of this isincluded in the price for the event. The talkwill explain in more detail the conduct of theparade, its history and tradition. Full details
will be sent to those who book.

The Household Troops, made up of the King’s
Troop Royal Horse Artillery, are the personal
soldiers of The Queen. It is important toremember that these are also fighting troops;
many of those on parade will be veterans ofvarious campaigns including Afghanistan
and Iraq. About 1,000 men in bearskins,

This is always a popular event – please
register your interest by 6 May. Once weknow the result of our application for places,
we will notify you. Should the number ofpeople wishing to attend exceed the numberof tickets, we will allocate places by ballot.

Japanese Vegetarian Cuisine, with Mari Fujii
Tuesday 7 June 2016

6.30pmSozai Cooking School
5 Middlesex Street
London E1 7AA£20 per person
Priority booking for Japan Society members and their guests
Booking essential d(eadline: Friday 3 June)
Payment must be made in advance, by bank transfer, credit/debitcard or cheque made payable to the Japan Society.
While London is home to some excellent
Japanese restaurants, there are still very
few opportunities to try Japanese temple
cuisine, shojin ryori. We are therefore
particularly delighted to welcome Mari Fujii,
author of The Enlightened Kitchen, for a
special lecture demonstration in which she
will prepare a selection of dishes inspired bythis school of cooking, and share her insights
into Japanese vegetarian cuisine.
Mari Fujii has made it her mission, for overthirty years, to teach shojin ryori both within
Japan and overseas. This temple food is basedon seasonal vegetables and staples suchas grains and tofu. In her own cooking andteaching, Mari aims to convey her husband’s
precept ‘cooking should be from the heart’
by always keeping in mind the person who isgoing to eat while she prepares food .
Joining us for a special lecture demonstration,
Mari Fujii will touch on the principles ofshojin ryori and show how to make some ofher favourite dishes inspired by this style ofcuisine, using locally available ingredients.
She wants participants to come away with aselection of recipes to try at home, and an
appreciation of the aesthetic and potentialof this vegetarian cuisine.
In association with:

Mari Fujii learned the secrets of shojin ryori
from her husband who was a Buddhist monkand served as a temple cook at three different
Zen temples. Together they establishedZenmi-kai in Kamakura, where they taught
temple cuisine. More recently Mari Fujii has
frequently travelled overseas, teaching andcooking in many countries in Asia, North
America and Europe and sharing her loveof good food. She has published a numberof books including Kokoro ni Yasashii
shojin ryori (Take Shobo, 2002), Itadakimasu(Koseishuppansha, 2006), Kamakura Fushikian shojin recipes (Kawade Shoboshinsha,
2008) and, in English, The Enlightened
Kitchen (Kodansha International, 2005).
The Japan Society is grateful to Sozai
Cooking School and Atsuko Ikeda from
Atsuko’s Kitchen for their help in arranging
this event, and to Clearspring who havesupplied ingredients for this demonstration.

Joint Lunch with the JCCI: Peter Mandelson
Wednesday 8 June 2016

12.00 for 12.30pm

Furniture Makers’ Hall
12 Austin Friars
London EC2N 2HE£57 per head:members of the Japan Society, the JCCI and their guests
Booking essential (deadline: Friday 3 June)
Payment must be made in advance, by bank transfer, credit/debit card or
cheque made payable to the Japan Society.
For their third joint lunch of 2016, theJapan Society and the Japanese Chamberof Commerce and Industry in the UK aredelighted to welcome Lord Mandelson,
former European Union Trade Commissioner
and Secretary of State for Business,
Innovation and Skills, and founder ofstrategic advisory firm, Global Counsel.
Lord Mandelson will speak about theforthcoming EU referendum as a board
member of the official Remain campaign,
as well as about trade policy, economic
integration and free trade agreements
between independent markets. He will also
consider these issues from the perspective ofJapanese companies looking out to Europe
from London, and is well positioned to touchupon EU-Japan and UK-Japan trade relations,having spent four years at the heart of theEuropean Commission, during which time
he was part of the 2008 EU-Japan Summit.
Lord Mandelson was also co-Chair of the UKJapan 2000 Group (now the UK-Japan 21stCentury Group) from 2001 to 2004

Lord Mandelson is Chairman of Global
Counsel. He is a former European Trade
Commissioner and British First Secretary ofState. As Trade Commissioner between 2004
and 2008, he negotiated trade agreementswith many countries and led European
negotiations in the WTO Doha World Trade
Round. Prior to this, he was Minister without
Portfolio, Secretary of State for Trade andIndustry, Northern Ireland Secretary andSecretary of State for Business, Innovationand Skills in the British government under
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown between 1997
and 2010. He was Member of Parliament for
Hartlepool in the UK from 1992 until 2004 andDirector of Campaigns and Communications
for the Labour party between 1985 and 1990.
He became President of the Great Britain
China Centre in 2015. This non-departmental
public body encourages dialogue andcollaboration between Britain and China. He
is also President of the Policy Network thinktank and Chairman of Lazard International.

Co-organised by:Japan Society Book Club:
Confessions by Kanae Minato
Monday 13 June 2016

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members:
Booking recommended
The Book Club is held on the second Monday of every month

Her pupils murdered her daughter. Now she
will have her revenge. After calling off her
engagement in the wake of a tragic revelation,
Yuko Moriguchi had nothing to live for except
her only child, four-year-old Manami. Now,
following an accident on the grounds of the
middle school where she teaches, Yuko hasgiven up and tendered her resignation. But
first she has one last lecture to deliver. She tells
a story that upends everything her students
ever thought they knew about two of theirpeers, and sets in motion a diabolical plot forrevenge.
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.

The discussion is conducted mainly in English,
but you can choose the language in which
you read the book. The intention is simple:
to explore the themes of the book, express
personal opinions on the style and content,
discuss how the book has changed (or not) intranslation and to have a relaxed discussion
with others who have similar interests.
Kanae Minato, born in 1973, is a Japanesewriter of crime fiction and thriller. She is amember of the Mystery Writers of Japan andthe Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan.
She started writing in her thirties. Her firstnovel Confessions became a bestseller andwon the Japanese Booksellers Award.
Up next: Yukio Mishima’s classic Spring Snow

The Film Compendium on the Japanese Mingei Movement: T
A presentation by Canadian film maker Marty Gross
Monday 20 June 2016

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way (Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free:
Booking recommended
The monthly lecture series takes place on the third Monday of every month

Marty Gross has been restoring andenhancing a selection of rare films on
pottery-making in Japan. This collection
begins with a film made by Bernard Leachin 1934. Segments from the films will bepresented documenting what Bernard
Leach, Shoji Hamada and Soetsu Yanagi
were actually seeing as they developed theirthinking on mingei, the Japanese folk art
movement.

Marty Gross is a consulting producer forcompanies based in North America, Europe
and Asia, with focus on Japanese art, film,
theatre and crafts. His company, Marty Gross
Film Productions, Inc. (founded in 1975),
manages one of the most comprehensive
websites devoted to films on Japanesecultural and historical subjects. Since
1974, he has produced and directed films(including As We Are, Potters at Work, The
Lovers’ Exile), restored archival films on
Japanese arts and crafts (such as The Leach
Pottery, Mashiko Village Pottery, Japan 1937),
conducted numerous interviews, produced
documentaries and coordinated publicationof books on the history of Japanese cinema
and on Japanese animation.

The Japan Society Annual General Meeting 2016
Wednesday 22 June 2016

6.00pmEmbassy of Japan
101-104 Piccadilly
London W1J 7JT
Free:
Japan Society Members Only
Booking essential
Booking deadline: Monday 20 June

The Japan Society Annual General Meeting2016 will be held on Wednesday 22 June at
6.00pm at the Embassy of Japan, London.
We hope to see many members at this year’s
AGM. Please remember that the Embassyof Japan’s security policy means that you
need to let us know in advance if you areplanning to attend – please call the Japan
Society office on 020 7935 0475 or email
events@japansociety.org.uk or submit theonline booking form.

Please also bring with you to the meeting aform of photographic ID.
Following the formal business of the AGM
there will be a special launch event andreception for Biographical Portraits Volume
X, which you are welcome to attend.
Please find encolsed all documentation
concerning the AGM, including the formal
Notice of AGM and Proxy Voting Form, andthe Trustees Report / Japan Society Accounts(ending 31 December 2015).

Book Launch: Biographical Portraits Vol. X
Wednesday 22 June 2016

6.30pmEmbassy of Japan
101-104 Piccadilly
London W1J 7JT
Free:
Japan Society Members Only
Booking essential
Booking deadline: Monday 20 June

To mark the publication of Britain andJapan: Biographical Portraits Volume X,
the Japan Society is holding a special booklaunch to mark this significant milsetone inits 125th anniversary year: ten books andnearly 600 ‘pen portraits’ of individuals andorganisations who have contributed to thedevelopment of the strong relationshipbetween Japan and the UK.
The event will feature talks by Sir David
Warren, Sir Hugh Cortazzi and James Hoare,and will afford an opportunity to look backon the 25-year project. These will be followed
by a short introduction to the Japan Society’s
new e-library, and a celebratory reception.

Biographical Portraits X forms part of a series
recording the lives of men, women andinstitutions who have played a significant
role in the development of UK-Japan
relations. When read together these give amany-faceted picture of modern history,

shedding light on controversial issues,
illuminating past successes and failures, andproviding a valuable point of reference forresearchers and historians.
We are delighted to be able to offer copies
of Biographical Portraits X free of charge tomembers of the Japan Society, while stocks
last. Copies will be available to collect on thenight. Further information on how to obtainyour copy if you are unable to attend theevent will be available shortly.
Please remember that the Embassy ofJapan’s security policy means that you needto let us know in advance if you are planning
to attend – please call the Japan Society
office on 020 7935 0475 or email events@
japansociety.org.uk or submit the online
booking form.
Please also bring with you a form ofphotographic ID.

Japan Society Golf Tournament 2016
Thursday 30 June 2016

8.30amEssendon Country Club
Bedwell Park
Hatfield AL9 6HN£70 per head (all-in price for the day)
Booking deadline: Friday 12 June
Breakfast from 8.30am; shotgun start 9.30am

The Japan Society’s Annual Golf Tournament,
for the Asprey and Garrard Plate, is due to takeplace at Essendon Country Club on Thursday
30 June, with a shotgun start at 9.30am. The
format will be Stableford and players haveto be ready by 9.00am for transport to their
allocated teeoffs.
The all-in price is £70, including breakfast,
18 holes of golf and a two-course lunch oncompletion.

Designed by Fred Hawtree, the Old Course
was opened about forty-one years ago and isa testament to parkland courses. Undulatingin nature, the course provides a real test for
golfers of all abilities, while they can enjoy
the spectacular views. Probably the mostdemanding par 5 is the 12th, with tee shots
halted by a sloping, narrow, tree lined fairway.
The final hole, whilst being a long par 3, has agreen well below the tees and will hopefully
ensure a good end to a most enjoyable round.

BDO, a leading member of the Japan Society,is once again generously providing the prizes
and there will be competitions for ‘Nearest
the Pin’ and ‘Longest Drive’; a mobile halfway
house will be on hand to provide refreshments.

Supported by:

Hawaiian History with Britain and Japan
Thursday 30 June 2016

6.30pmLodge Room No 11
The Freemasons’ HallGreat Queen Street
London WC2B 5AZ
Japan Society members: £9Non-members: £15
Booking essential
Booking deadline: Tuesday 28 June
Speaker: Pauline Chakmakjian
Beautiful beaches as well as stunning naturalwonders and scenery are associated with the
Hawaiian island chain, but there is so much
more to this Pacific paradise than these andPearl Harbor. Hawaii is also the only American
State to have had a working royal palace.
This lecture will look at the connection
between British and Hawaiian monarchs,
Japanese immigration to Hawaii, and theJapanese experience there from arrival to thepresent day.

Please let us know if you would like to take anoptional tour of the Freemason’s Hall at 5.15 for
5.30pm.
Pauline Chakmakjian is a Visit Kyoto
Ambassador and a writer and speaker onJapanese and British Masonic history.

In association with:

Japan Airlines / Football Samurai Academy
5-a-side Tournament​
Sunday 3 July 2016

5.00pmPark Lodge
North Acton Playing Field
Noel Road
London W3 0JF​
Free:
Japan Society members and their guests only​
Booking deadline: Monday 20 June

Players Needed!
The Japan Society is once again recruiting
members for a team to compete in the FootballSamurai Academy 5-a-side Tournament. We
are looking to improve on our third placefinish at last year’s event, which was won by
Sumitomo Corporation.
Whether you currently play football or
enjoyed playing at school, university or for aclub, we need you. Players of all abilities, men
and women, are welcome, and if demand issufficient we will form two teams.
Companies and individuals interested infielding their own teams should contact
Samurai Academy directly at hello@footsamurai.com.

The tournament is taking place on the FootballSamurai Academy’s 3G artificial pitch in North
Acton, following their U6 and U14 5-a-side
tournaments earlier in the day. Players will be
required to wear full football kit with either
trainers or astro trainers (no football or rugby
boots). Matches will be 15 minutes long withrolling substitutions and teams will consist of
up to eight players.
During the day there will be a barbecue,
food and drink, activities and a raffle, and theSamurai Academy’s five adjacent tennis courts
will be available for taster sessions.​Even if you
aren’t playing, please do come and support us!

Japan Society Book Club: Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima
Monday 11 July 2016

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members:
Booking recommended
The Book Club is held on the second Monday of every monthTokyo, 1912. The closed world of the ancientaristocracy is being breached for the first timeby outsiders – rich provincial families, a newand powerful political and social elite. Kiyoaki
has been raised among the elegant Ayakurafamily – members of the waning aristocracy –but he is not one of them. Coming of age, heis caught up in the tensions between old andnew, and his feelings for the exquisite, spirited
Sakoto. When Sakoto is engaged to a royal
prince, Kiyoaki realises the magnitude of his
passion.
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly in English,

but you can choose the language in which
you read the book. The intention is simple:
to explore the themes of the book, express
personal opinions on the style and content,
discuss how the book has changed (or not) intranslation and to have a relaxed discussion
with others who have similar interests.
Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) is a Japanese
author, poet, playwright, actor, and film
director. Mishima is considered one of themost important Japanese authors of the20th century; he was nominated three times
for the Nobel Prize in Literature. His avantgarde work displayed a blending of modern
and traditional aesthetics that broke cultural
boundaries, with a focus on sexuality, death,and political change.

CUCarmen Blacker Lecture 2016 – Confucius in Tokugawa Japan:
Unofficial Ceremonies of Worship, with James McMullen
Monday 18 July 2016

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way (Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free:
Booking recommended
The monthly lecture series takes place on the third Monday of every month

For this year’s Carmen Blacker Lecture weare delighted to welcome James McMullen,a highly respected scholar of Japanese
Confucianism,​ and Fellow Emeritus at St
Antony’s and Pembroke Colleges, Oxford.
The Carmen Blacker Lecture Series honours
the memory and scholarship of Carmen
Blacker and is organised jointly by the
Sainsbury Institute for the Study of JapaneseArts and Cultures and the Japan Society.
Each year a senior scholar is invited to speak
on a theme related to Blacker’s research in
the area of Japanese religion and folklore.
This lecture explores the possibly
subversive nuances of two ceremonies toworship Confucius in 17th century Japan.
Confucianism is, with Buddhism and Shinto,
one of the great traditions that form theinheritance of modern Japan. Confucius
was widely worshiped during the late feudal(Tokugawa) period in a now little known
ritual called the sekiten. This ceremony
is generally interpreted as providing an
ideology for the political dominance of thesamurai. Early in the period, however, several
independent Confucian scholars initiatedunofficial, short-lived ceremonies whichreflected a different side of the tradition.

Two of these are well documented: theceremony of Matsunaga Sekigo (1592-1657)
was a cultural celebration that appealed tothe court and ancient civil nobility; and theliturgy designed by the merchant-scholar
Nakamura Tekisai (1629-1702) was explicitly
intended to appeal to commoners outside
the samurai estate.
James McMullen did National Service in theRoyal Air Force. He was posted to Hong Kongand from there visited Japan for the first timein 1959. At St John’s College, Cambridge,
he read for the Oriental Studies Tripos(Japanese). One of his teachers was the late
Dr Carmen Blacker. Following graduation in
1962, he embarked on research in Japanese
Confucianism. In 1963, he held a Japanese
Government Scholarship at the University of
Kyoto, where he prepared for his Cambridge
doctoral thesis on the Japanese thinker
Kumazawa Banzan (1619-91). He taught
Japanese Studies for seven years at the
University of Toronto and from 1972 at
Oxford. He is a Fellow of the British Academy
and now Fellow Emeritus at St Antony’s
and Pembroke Colleges, Oxford. He has
published extensively on Confucianism inJapan, and is now completing a book on the
Co-organised by:Tanabata:
Celebrate the Japanese Star Festival at Kew Gardens
Wednesday 3 & Thursday 4 August 201610.30am – 4.00pm

Bamboo Garden and Minka House
Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew​Richmond
Surrey TW9 3AB
Standard Kew admission fee (£1 discount when booking online)
No booking required – just turn up on the day!

Tanabata is the Japanese festival thatcelebrates the coming together of two stars,
Orihime and Hikoboshi, who can only meetonce a year, on the 7th day of the 7th month.
This year, join us at Kew Gardens to enjoy
workshops, activities and performances
marking this ancient summer celebration.

11.00am & 2.00pm:
Tour of the Bamboo collection with Ray
Townsend and Maria Vorntsova

Try your hand at Japanese calligraphy andorigami, then follow the Tanabata Treasure
Trail to create tanzaku and decorations to
be hung in the bamboo grove, learn about
the Tanabata story through performances
by Haruka Kuroda of A Thousand Cranes
Children’s Theatre Company, and tour Kew’s
famous bamboo collection with experts Ray
Townsend and Maria Vorntsova.

From 12 noon (4 August only)
Nihon Buyo on Orangery Lawn

Events include:
All day:
Drop-in origami and calligraphy workshops
All day:
Follow the Tanabata Treasure Trail and win
prizes10.30am to 12 noon:
Yukata dressing up

12 noon, 1.30pm & 3.00pm:
The Tanabata story with A Thousand Cranes
Children’s Theatre Company

1.30pm to 3pm:
Yukata dressing up
Don’t miss out on taking part in the Tanabata
story!
In Japan, Tanabata celebrates the romantic
story of the weaver star Orihime and thecowherd star Hikoboshi, who are separated
by the Milky Way and are only allowed to meeton this one day each year. People celebrate
by making paper origami decorations andwriting their wishes on strips of coloured
paper called tanzaku, which they hang withother paper ornaments on bamboo in thehope that their wishes will come true.

In collaboration with:

Japan Society Book Club: Apparitions –Ghosts of Old Edo by Miyuki Miyabe
Monday 8 August 2016

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members:
Booking recommended
The Book Club is held on the second Monday of every month

In old Edo, the past was never forgotten. It lived
alongside the present, in dark corners, and in
the shadows. In these tales, award-winning
author Miyuki Miyabe explores the ghosts ofJapan, and the spaces of the living world they
inhabit. Written with a journalistic eye and afantasist’s heart Apparitions brings the restless
dead, and those who encounter them, to life.
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly in English,
but you can choose the language in which
you read the book. The intention is simple:
to explore the themes of the book, express
personal opinions on the style and content,
discuss how the book has changed (or not) intranslation and to have a relaxed discussion
with others who have similar interests.

Miyuki Miyabe, born in 1960 in Tokyo, is a
popular contemporary Japanese author active
in a number of genres that include science
fiction, mystery fiction, historical fiction, social
commentary, and young adult literature.She
started writing novels at the age of 23. In 1984,
while working at a law office, Miyabe began
to take writing classes at a writing school run
by the Kodansha publishing company.She has
been a prolific writer, publishing dozens ofnovels and winning many major literary prizes,
including the Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize in1993 for All She Was Worth.
Up next: Sawako Ariyoshi’s The Twilight Years.

A Ruin Nation: Excavating Japan’s Haikyo Boom –Mark Pendleton
Monday 15 August 2016

6.45pmSmall Lecture Theatre, Cavendish Campus
University of Westminster
115 New Cavendish Street
London W1W
Free:
Booking recommended
The monthly lecture series takes place on the third Monday of every
month
Since the 1990s, Japan has been caught
up in a boom in interest in haikyo (ruins)that extends from literary and artistic
representations to industrial heritage
campaigns and tourist initiatives. Thesematerial remnants evoke past glory days,
such as the postwar economic boom, while
also bringing to the surface questions about
how Japan deals with crisis and change.
While the haikyo boom appears relatively
new, interest in ruins in Japan also has amuch longer cultural history that extends
throughout the 20th century, from the great
Tokyo earthquake of 1923 to the postwar
ruined landscapes of Japan’s cities andthe collapse of the economic bubble into
the Lost Decades. It might be tempting tosee fascination with ruins as nostalgic andbackward-looking – and that is certainly
part of the story – but it is not the full
picture. This lecture will discuss past andpresent popular representations of ruins inJapan as sites where complexities have been
and continue to be explored – from issues
associated with the difficult histories of East
Asia through changing economic, social andenvironmental presents and ultimately to anarray of competing visions of the future.
Dr Mark Pendleton is a cultural historianand Lecturer in Japanese Studies at the
University of Sheffield. He researches
broadly in the fields of 20th century Japanese
history, the politics of memory in East Asiaand transnational histories of gender andsexuality.

TTales of Ise with Translator Peter MacMillan
Thursday 8 September 2016

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way (Hall entrance on Barter Street)
London WC1A 2TH
Free:
Booking recommended

Was it you who came to me,
or I who went to you?
I cannot tell.
Was I awake or sleeping?
Was it real, or just a dream?
Written by multiple authors over a period of
approximately one hundred years, the Tales of
Ise is one of the most famous and importantworks of Japanese literature. Consisting of
125 poem tales loosely based on the life of
the hero, Narihira, a model lover of the Heianperiod, they evoke a world in which beauty
and refinement are a way of life. Coveringsuch themes as love, friendship, and delight innature – these lyrical episodes combine great
elegance with a subversive, experimental
wit. This groundbreaking and brilliant newtranslation brings out the sophisticatedhumour and playfulness of the original, which
has inspired Japanese art and literature for amillennium. In this talk the translator, Peter
MacMillan, will introduce the audience to thepleasures of the Tales and the challenges oftranslating it.

Peter MacMillan is a prize-winning translator,
scholar, poet, and artist. He was born and grew
up in a part of the Irish countryside surroundedby more horses than people. He graduatedfirst in his class from the National Universityof Ireland, University College Dublin, and thenwent on to take an M.A. in philosophy and a
Ph.D. in English literature. He spent two years
as a Visiting Fellow at Princeton, Columbia, andOxford universities.
MacMillan is currently a Visiting Professor
at Kyorin University and also teaches at
The University of Tokyo. A citizen of both
Ireland and Britain, he has lived in Japan forover twenty years and strives to be a bridge
between Japan and the world. His artist nameis Seisai.
In addition to creating prints, MacMillan is
also a poet and translator. His translation, One
Hundred Poets, One Poem Each (Hyakunin
Isshu), was published in 2008, winning prizes
in both Japan and the United States. He
recently completed an English translationof the Tales of Ise (Ise Monogatari), to be
published by Penguin in 2016. He has also
published a collection of poetry, Admiring

Edo Kiriko:Two Perspectives on the World of Japanese Cut Glass
Thursday 15 September 20166.30 for 7.00pm

Art Workers’ Guild
6 Queen Square
Bloomsbury WC1N 3AT
Free:
Booking essential

This event brings together Edo kiriko artist
Toru Horiguchi and British glass historian
Sally Haden to discuss the tradition fromtheir own perspectives. Examining it fromboth the past and the present, they will
highlight the particular characteristics ofthis very Japanese craft which was built ontechniques brought from the UK, and offer
an insight into the work of those who seek topreserve it for future generations.
The evening will unfold through a series of
conversations, a video of Horiguchi at workin his studio and a display of Edo kiriko
glassware.
Toru Horiguchi is a third generation mastercraftsman in the Edo kiriko tradition. He
joined the Horiguchi Glass Company in 1999
to study under Tomio Suda. He succeeded
to the title of shuseki (designating mastercraftsman status) in 2008 and left Horiguchi
Glass to set up his own company, Horiguchi
Kiriko. He was recognised by the Association
for the Promotion of Traditional Craft
Industries in 2012 as a leading proponentof Edo kiriko. He is a regular exhibitor andprize winner in shows featuring Japanesetraditional crafts and glassware, suchas TOKYO CRAFTS & DESIGN where his
collaboration with Yoh Komiyama on Edo
Kiriko Ring was awarded the Grand Design
Prize. In 2015, Horiguchi featured in the CutGlass Accents exhibition at the Embassy ofJapan in London.
Sally Haden is a glass historian who hasa particular interest in the Shinagawa
Glassworks of Tokyo which transformed
Japan’s glass industry, 1873-1884. Since
the discovery ten years ago that one of thefour British men who assisted there was her
Scottish great grandfather, James Speed,
she has been researching, speaking andwriting about the significance of the factory.
As guest lecturer in Tokyo at the 2015
symposium of the Association for Glass Art
Studies, Japan, she was welcomed by a wide
range of Japanese glass manufacturers,
artists, curators and collectors who all
wanted to learn about this historic link
between British and Japanese glassmaking,and the influence it had on their country’s
industry.

Treaty Port Life, 1859-1899,
Seen from the British Consular Court – Chris Roberts
Monday 19 September 2016

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way (Hall entrance on Barter Street)
London WC1A 2TH
Free:
Booking recommended

The case records of the British Consular
Courts in Treaty Port Japan (1859 – 1899)
cover the whole gamut of cases. In thistalk, Chris Roberts will focus on what theytell us about daily life for Britons in Treaty
Port Japan, their inter-relationship witheach other, the other foreign communities
in Japan and with the surrounding hostJapanese society. Have things changed overthe last 100 or so years, or are many of theissues still the same? Obviously, the picture
is somewhat one-sided because most cases
involved a dispute of some kind; but Chris
will look beyond the working of the courts
and legal issues (which were the subject of
his PhD and his book) to extract the colourwith which these records provide us of daily
life, and indeed death, in the Japan of thattime. These records are an important recordof the social history of Britons in Japan at thattime, whose daily lives, for the most part,passed below the radar screens of broader
international political developments.

Chris Roberts graduated from Jesus College,
Cambridge before qualifying as a solicitor.
He lived and worked in Tokyo from 1988
to 1994 where he ran the Tokyo office ofAllen & Overy, a major global law firm. On
retirement, he gained his PhD from SOAS
on a detailed analysis of the history andcase-load of the British Consular Courts inJapan. An expanded version of his thesis
was published in 2013 as The British Courts
and Extra-territoriality in Japan, 1859 – 1899.
He continues to research and write on Treaty
Port Japan.

Asobi: Japanese and Korean Post-War Art Tour with Christie’s
Tuesday 20 September 2016

3.00pmChristie’s 8 King Street
St. James
London SW1Y 6QTFree:Members of the Japan Society only
Booking essential
Booking deadline Thursday 15 September

On 11 October Christie’s will auction an
extensive selection of works by well-known
Post-War artists associated with movements
including Gutai, Kyushu-ha and Mono-ha,
as well as by artists working independently
outside of these movements. Japan Society
members are invited to a special viewingof this sale led by Anastasia von Seibold,Japanese Art Specialist, who will present
highlights from the sale and give an insight
into Japanese Post-War art.

The auctions will take place on Tuesday 11
October, with viewing open to the public
between 16-21 September ( The Kenzo
Kagami Collection of Postwar Japanese Art
and Asobi: Japanese & Korean Post-War
Art) and 8-10 October ( The Kenzo Kagami
Collection of Postwar Japanese Art only).
Image © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS),New York / ADAGP, ParisJapan Matsuri 2016
Sunday 25 September 2016

10.00am – 8.00pm

Trafalgar Square
Westminster
LondonWC2N 5DN
Free

London’s very own festival of Japaneseculture – Japan Matsuri – returns on Sunday,
25 September 2016 in Trafalgar Square in thecentre of the city. A regular fixture now in
the London calendar, this free annual festival
brings people together to enjoy Japanese
food, music, dance, and activities for all thefamily.
Everything kicks off at 10.00am and runs
through till 8.00pm. With two stages, thereis plenty to see all day with an exciting
programme of martial arts, the thrillingsounds of taiko drumming and festival
dance. There is also the opportunity to join
in with the ever popular Nodojiman karaoke
contest.

Enjoy the atmosphere with Japanese festival
food from the numerous stalls. Join in the
fun in the family activities area with gamesand dressing in kimono. Try your hand at
Japanese cartoons on the manga wall.
Japan Matsuri is organised jointly by theJapan Association, Japanese Chamber ofCommerce and Industry, the Japan Society
and Nippon club, with support from theEmbassy of Japan and the Japan Foundation.
Come and meet Japan Society staff at out
stall on the north terrace in front of the
National Gallery (opposite St. Martin in the
Fields).

In association with:

The History of Manchuria:
Book Launch and Talk with Ian Nish
Wednesday 28 September

J
6.00pmThe Oriental Club
11 Stratford Place
London W1C 1ES
Free - Booking essential (deadline Monday 26 September)
Priority will be given to Japan Society members
Please note that club rules require gentlemen to wear a jacket and tie,and equivalent smart formal dress is required for ladies.

To mark the publication of Professor Ian
Nish’s two-volume The History of Manchuria,
1840-1948, the Japan Society is holding a
special book launch with a talk by the author.

later academic career, will comment on theplanning and publishing of this major work.
The talk will last 50 minutes and will befollowed by a drinks reception.

Ian Nish, doyen historian of Japan, willreflect on how he came to be ‘diverted’ tohis research on China – principally to address
and reassess the history of Manchuria, in thecontext of the ‘triangle’ of rivalries between
Russia, China and Japan – the significanceof which has long been overlooked bymodern historians. Japan Society Chairman,
Sir David Warren will speak on Professor
Nish’s remarkable contribution to Japanesestudies both in the UK and worldwide,
while publisher Paul Norbury, who has
worked with Professor Nish throughout his

The History of Manchuria, 1840-1948: A
Sino-Russo-Japanese Triangle is publishedby Renaissance Books and will be availablefor £78 on the night, a 60% discount on the£195 RRP.
Ian Nish is Professor Emeritus of International
History at the LSE and honorary seniorresearch associate of the Suntory Toyota
International Centre for Economics andRelated Disciplines (STICERD); he is one of
the most widely respected scholars in his
field worldwide.

Japanese in Britain: Oral Histories Film Screening
Thursday 29 September 2016

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way (Hall entrance on Barter Street)
London WC1A 2TH
Free:
Booking recommended

Following the devastation of the Second
World War and the privations of the postwar period, the Tokyo 1964 Olympics
marked the re-emergence of Japan on theworld stage. As Japan flourished, enjoying
economic growth and political stability,
the liberalisation of passports and the endof restrictions on foreign currency opened
the door for Japanese to travel abroad, andthe Japanese community in the UK began
to grow. Young travellers, businessmen,
artists, entrepreneurs and spouses of British
nationals have all contributed to this vibrantcommunity.

The Wasurena-gusa (Forget-me-not) Project,
run by the Japan Association in the UK records
the history of the Japanese community
through video interviews with those who
settled in the UK from the 1950s and onwards.
For this screening we will present a selectionof interviews taken from the project, painting
a picture of the many reasons for and ways
in which Japanese have come to live in the
UK and of the valuable contribution each has
made to enriching this country.
Please note that the videos are in Japanesewith English subtitles. Subtitling wasundertaken with support from a Japan
Society Small Grant.
(Photo: Tetsuro Hama, restaurateur, travelling
Europe in the 1970s. ⓒ Tetsuro Hama.)

In association with:

Family Cookery Day – Make a Hallowe’en Bento
Saturday 8 October 2016

10.00am to 12 noon
2.00pm to 4.00pm(two classes)

Clearspring
19A Acton Park Estate
London W3 7QE£15 per participating child
Deadline: Friday 30 September (early booking recommended)

Priority given to members bringing
children. One adult to every two children.
Children will be the active participants withaccompanying adults taking an assistingrole. Please note that places are limited
for what will be a popular event, so earlybooking is recommended.
The Japan Society is delighted to team up
with Clearspring and sushi art chef Satomi
Mizuno-Lewis for this special workshop to
make Hallowe’en themed bento boxes.
Using Clearspring’s brand new Creative
Kitchen, children will each make their own
healthy bento filled with ghosts, pumpkin
faces and black cats using fresh organic
vegetables and organic ingredients takenfrom the extensive Clearspring range. They
will make temari sushi, create character
faces, and pipe designs to produce anattractively presented bento comprising avariety of colourful ingredients combining
flavours and different textures.
Your children will be able to take their bento
boxes home with them. Alternatively, there
will be time after the morning workshop(until 1.00pm) for those who wish to stay andeat their bento for lunch together with otherparticipants.
The dishes made in this workshop arevegetarian (including egg); please notify
us when booking if your children have any
allergies or other dietary requirements.
Please bring your own apron.
Satomi Mizuno-Lewis has always loved
cooking. After training for two years with
Sumiko Ushida, who is a master instructorof classes and events in the Tokai regionof Honshu, Satomi’s aim now is to shareher skills in making decorated sushi whichlooks and tastes great. In this workshop, shetakes these skills into the realm of lunchbox
making. Packed lunches need never be thesame again! www.sushiartsurrey.com
The Clearspring brand promises premium
quality Japanese specialities and organic
fine foods that are authentic, versatile andsupport good health. Made to traditional
recipes by master artisan producers, theybring you full, authentic flavours of some of
the most exciting food cultures from aroundthe world. www.clearspring.co.uk

Japan Society Book Club:
The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon
Monday 10 October 2016

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members:
Booking recommended
The Book Club is held on the second Monday of every month

The Pillow Book (枕草子 Makura no sōshi)records the observations and musings of Sei
Shōnagon during her time as court lady to
Empress Consort Teishi in Heian Japan. The
book was completed in the year 1002. In it Sei
Shōnagon included lists of all kinds, personal
thoughts, accounts of interesting eventsin court, poetry, and some opinions on her
contemporaries. While it is mostly a personal
work, Shōnagon’s writing and poetic skill
makes it valuable both as literature and as ahistorical document..
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly inEnglish, but you can choose the language
in which you read the book. The intention is
simple: to explore the themes of the book,
express personal opinions on the style andcontent, discuss how the book has changed(or not) in translation and to have a relaxed
discussion with others who have similarinterests.

Sei Shōnagon was a Japanese author, poetand a court lady around the year 1000 during
the middle Heian period. Little is known
about her life except what can be found inher writing. She was the daughter of Kiyohara
no Motosuke, a scholar and well-known
waka poet, who worked as a provincial
official. Shōnagon became popular throughher work The Pillow Book. It was circulated atcourt, and for several hundred years existed
in handwritten manuscripts.

Up next: N.P by Banana Yoshimoto

The Collar Cup Golf Match 2016
Saturday 15 October 2016Mp

10.30am

Buckinghamshire Golf Club
Denham Court Drive
Denham
Buckinghamshire UB9 5PG£70 per head (all-in price for the day)
Booking deadline: Friday 30 September
Please remember to provide a handicap when registering

The annual golf match between theJapan Society and the JCCI is being held
this year on Saturday 15 October at the
Buckinghamshire Golf Club. Twelve players
from each organisation will compete for the
Collar Cup, which was won last year by the
JCCI.
The day will include a light breakfast on
arrival, the 18-hole competition (Stableford
Rules), a buffet lunch, and the presentation
ceremony for the Cup at the end of the day.
Teams are currently being selected, and theJapan Society is looking for members who
would like to help win back the title it last
held in 2013. Competition will certainly befierce!

The all-in price for everyone, including
members of the Buckinghamshire Golf Club,is £70. Those registering are asked to provide
handicaps.
To reserve your place, please contact theJapan Society office on 020 3075 1997 or
emma.routh@japansociety.org.uk. Payment
must be made in advance by bank transfer,credit/debit card, or cheque made payable
to ‘The Japan Society’.

Supported by:Murdered for their Art? Censorship and the Dark Side of Edoperiod Cultural Endeavours – Jenny Preston
Monday 17 October 2016

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way (Hall entrance on Barter Street)
London WC1A 2TH
Free:
Booking recommended

On the eighteenth day of the second yearof Enkyō [延享, 1746] Sekiguchi Kōsan [関口黄山] died in his home on Ukiyostreet off Nihonbashi. He was twentyeight years old, and the author of a small
handful of scholarly works: a seal script [篆書] version of the Tōshisen [唐詩選, Tang
Selection of Poems], a study of the historyof Japanese pronunciation, and a collectionof miscellaneous writings. On the face of it,
his narrative is unexceptional. Yet there areindications that his death was suspicious
and that his endeavour to resurrect the art ofseal script was not simply the product of anarchaizing imagination. Through its prefaces
and afterwords, Kōsan’s seal script version of
the Tang poems confronts us with the darkside of Edo.

Jenny Preston is a Leverhulme Early Career
Fellow at the School or Oriental and African
Studies, and teaches classical Japanese
literature. She is currently working on a bookon art and dissent in Edo period Japan.

Japanese Studies in Britain: Book Launch and Talk
Thursday 27 October 2016

7.30pmKhalili Lecture Theatre
SOAS University of London
Thornhaugh Street
Russell Square WC1H 0XG
Free:Booking essential (deadline Tuesday 25 October)

What is the state of Japanese studies in
Britain and what are the implications ofcurrent education policy for our relationshipwith Japan? These are two of the questions
at the heart of Japanese Studies in Britain:
A Survey and History. The Japan Society isdelighted to be supporting this important
new study, and invites you to a special event
marking its launch.

Japanese Studies in Britain takes an in depth
look at the study of Japan in contemporary
Britain, highlighting the many strengths but
also pointing out some weaknesses, while atthe same time offering a valuable historical
record of the origins and development ofJapanese Studies in British universities andother institutions. With essays looking at
every department currently offering anhonours degree in Japanese studies in theUK, this book will be of relevance not only
to policy makers, academics and potential

students, but also to any reader interested
in the developing relationship between
Britain and Japan. It puts the current state ofthe discipline in the context of the broader
business and political environment, and aims
to prompt discussion by those responsible
directly and indirectly for Japanese studies
in Britain.
The event will be chaired by Japan Society
Chairman, Sir David Warren and will featuretalks by the book’s editors, Sir Hugh Cortazzi
and Professor Peter Kornicki, who willanswer the question, why is it in our nation’s
interest for British people to have a goodunderstanding of modern Japan?
The launch will be followed by a drinks
reception.

J
G

Japan Society Anniversary Dinner with
Guest of Honour The Rt Hon Sir John Major KG CH
Wednesday 2 November 2016

7.00 for 7.30pm

Central London (W1)
Ticket holders will be informed nearer the event for security reasons.
Members under 30: £40 (first 30 to apply)
Members (& guests): £70
Booking essential – deadline Friday 28 October
Dress code: Black tie / National dress / Lounge suits
Cost includes drinks on arrival, three course dinner, wine and coffee.
The Japan Society was founded on 9
September 1891 at a London meeting of
the Japanese Section of the International
Congress of Orientalists. It was conceived‘for the encouragement of Japanese studies
and for the purpose of bringing together all
those [...] interested in Japanese matters’. In
its 125th anniversary year, the Japan Society isdelighted to welcome former Prime Minister
The Rt Hon Sir John Major KG CH, as its guest
for this special dinner. Also on this occasion,
the Japanese Ambassador will formally makethe presentation of the Foreign Minister’sCommendation to the Society in recognitionof its promotion of mutual understanding
between Japan and the United Kingdom.

bilateral trade. The nationwide Japan Festival
1991 also took place during his premiership:
Sir John and Dame Norma attended theopening ceremony along with His Imperial
Highness the Crown Prince of Japan and His
Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. Sir John
continues to be a regular visitor to Japan andencourages active engagement with Japanand Asia. On 8 May 2012 at the Imperial
Palace in Tokyo, His Majesty The Emperorof Japan bestowed the Grand Cordon of
the Order of the Rising Sun upon Sir John inrecognition of his invaluable contribution to
Japan-UK relations through his work not onlyin the political and economic arena but alsoin promoting mutual understanding.

Sir John Major was first elected to theHouse of Commons in 1979, becoming theConservative Member of Parliament for
Huntingdon. Having served in Cabinet under
Margaret Thatcher, including as Foreign
Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir
John became Prime Minister on 28 November
1990 and served in that capacity until 1997. As
Prime Minister, Sir John visited Japan on two
occasions. He made clear his determination
to develop “a true strategic partnership”
between our two countries and oversaw
significant campaigns aimed at boosting

For security reasons, details of the venue
will be sent to guests together with theirtickets. Suffice it to say that we are sure thatmembers will enjoy the chance to visit a gemof British architecture, full of intriguing detailand exquisite style. The dinner is traditionallya black tie event and many guests will wear
formal dress, but for those who prefer lounge
suits, this is perfectly acceptable. Most people
will be sitting at round tables of 10. If you
have any seating preferences, please specify
with whom you wish to be seated. Please also
inform us of any special dietary requirements.

Cancellation policy: a full refund will be given where notice ofcancellation is received at least three working days prior to the event.
In other cases, refunds will be given at the discretion of the Japan
Society and event partners.

This event is kindly supported by:Sixth Form Japan Day 2016:a global perspective, a door to new opportunities​
Thursday 3 November 2016
(Registration from 9.30am)

9.50am - 4.00pm

The University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL
Free of charge to schools
Booking deadline: Monday 17 October (Pleasebook early to avoid disappointment)

The Japan Society, in association with the
University of Manchester, is please to invite
sixth form students to attend its popular
FREE one-day course about Japan, its culture
and its role in the global community.

developed by the Japan-America Societyof Washington DC. During lunch students
will have the opportunity to discuss Japan
related study options with representatives
from UK and Japanese Universities.

The day is design to give students aninsight into aspects of Japan, traditionaland modern, through lectures and practicalworkshops. It is aimed at students who are
studying Japanese, but will also be of interest
to those who have not had the opportunity
to do so formally at school, but who are
considering Japanese studies at university in
the UK or applying to do other subjects atuniversity in Japan.

Booking information

The course will feature a lecture by Dr Peter
Cave, Senior Japanese Studies lecturer and atalk by final year Japanese studies students
from the University of Manchester. Elective
practical workshops in small groups willallow students to experience a range ofactivities, including: calligraphy, cookery,customs and business etiquette, manga,
origami, sumi-e and yosakoi soran. Also
for the first year this event will include the‘Japan Bowl Quiz’ a competition workshop

Reserve your place today! Places will be issued
on a first-come-first served basis. Students
may attend on their own or accompanied bya member of staff. To book places, please visit
the event page on our website, download
the spreadsheet and email the completed
document to education@japansociety.org.
uk. Please also read and acknowledge on thebooking form that you have read our terms
and conditions.
During the day students will have theopportunity to join three out of nine possible
workshop sessions. Please use the booking
form to specify workshop preferred options.
We will try, where possible, to give students
their chosen workshops, but please note that
this may not be possible in all cases. To help
us match interests, please rank the workshop
options 1-9, where 1 is the top preference.

‘Aliens Invade!’ The Barbarians and the Shogun
with Lesley Downer
Thursday 10 November 2016

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free:
Booking recommended

In 1853 Commodore Perry’s gunboat
diplomacy forced an end to 200 years ofJapanese isolationist policy. In this talkauthor Lesley Downer will unpick the many
compelling narratives set in motion by thearrival of Commodore Perry and his Black
Ships, telling the stories from both Americanand Japanese viewpoints.

the respective visits of Perry and the first
American consul, Townsend Harris?

Perry’s mission to Japan was underpinned
not only by American trade ambition, butalso by a desire to bring Western culture to‘backward’ Asian nations. What then was
the Japanese reaction to the minstrel show
offered up by USN sailors while negotiations
took place in Kanagawa? And what was therole of daimyo Shimazu Nariakira, whose wellconcealed factory complex, fledgling fleetof steam ships and daguerreotype camera
marked him out as the most far-sighted of
the shogun’s advisors? Additionally, what
were the circumstances behind the sudden
deaths of not one but two shoguns following

Lesley Downer first went to Japan more than
thirty years ago and her life has revolved
around Japan ever since. She is the author ofmany books on Japan, including Geisha: The
Secret History of a Vanishing World, Madame
Sadayakko: The Geisha who Seduced theWest and the first three in a quartet of novels:
The Last Concubine, The Courtesan and theSamurai and The Samurai’s Daughter. Her
new novel, The Shogun’s Queen, is a prequel,chronologically the first in the quartet, andbegins at the moment when the Black Ships
are sighted. Published 3 November 2016.

The talk will be illustrated with contemporary
documents
andpictures,includingwoodblock prints of Perry and Harris as
seen through Japanese eyes, and American
drawings of the Japanese.

Japan Society Book Club:
N.P by Banana Yoshimoto
Monday 14 November 2016

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members:
Booking recommended
The Book Club is held on the second Monday of every month

A celebrated Japanese writer has committed
suicide, leaving behind a collection ofstories written in English. But the book,itself titled N.P., may never be published in
his native Japan: each translator who takes
up the ninety-eighth story chooses death
too – including Kazami Kano’s boyfriend,
Shoji. Haunted by Shoji’s death, Kazami isinexorably drawn to three young people
whose lives are intimately bound to the latewriter and his work. Over the course of anastonishing summer, she will discover thetruth behind the ninety-eighth story.
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly inEnglish, but you can choose the language
in which you read the book. The intention is
simple: to explore the themes of the book,
express personal opinions on the style andcontent, discuss how the book has changed(or not) in translation and to have a relaxed
discussion with others who have similarinterests.

Banana Yoshimoto was born in 1964 in
Tokyo as a daughter of famous poet Takaaki
Yoshimoto. Growing up in a liberal family,
she learned the value of independence
from a young age. She graduated from
Nihon University’s Art College, majoring in
Literature. During that time, she took thepseudonym ‘Banana’ after her love of banana
flowers, a name she recognizes as both ‘cute’and ‘purposefully androgynous.’ She named
American author Stephen King as one of her
first major influences, and drew inspirationfrom his non-horror stories.Her debut novel,
Kitchen, had over sixty printings in Japanalone.
Up next: And Then by Natsume Soseki

A Japanese View on World Energy Future: The “3E”
Challenges Under the Emerging Energy LandscapeTuesday 15 November, 2016

2.00 to 3.45pm

JETRO London Office
MidCity Place
71 High Holborn
London WC1V 6AL
Free of charge:
Members of the Japan Society and their guests
or those introduced by JETRO only
Booking essential (deadline Wednesday 9 November)
JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization)
London, the Japan Society and JOGMEC(Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National
Corporation) London would like to invite you
to a seminar on a Japanese view on worldenergy outlook with special focus given to
analyzing the impacts of lower oil price on
world energy and economic future, as wellas the issues related to the challenges forclimate change.
Professor Ken Koyama, Chief Economist andManaging Director of the Institute of Energy
Economics, Japan (IEEJ), will present anoutline of the IEEJ’s latest long-term Energy
Outlook up to 2040, followed by comments
and discussion by prominent energy experts.
Professor Koyama will also touch upon
Japan’s latest energy policy challenges toachieve the government energy-mix target
for 2030.
There will be a reception at 1.35pm.

Commentators:
Professor Paul Stevens, Distinguished
Fellow, Energy, Environment and Resources,
Chatham House
Peter Hughes, Director, Peter Hughes Energy
Advisory Ltd.
Professor Ken Koyama received his BA andMA degrees in Economics from Tokyo’s
Waseda University, and his PhD from the
University of Dundee where his thesis wastitled Japan’s Energy Strategies toward
the Middle East. He joined the IEEJ in 1986
and has held various positions within theInstitute, such as Senior Economist and later
Head of the World Oil and Energy Group,and Senior Research Fellow in the Energy
and Strategy unit. Alongside his current
position, Professor Koyama has also taught
at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate Schoolof Public Policy since 2010.

In partnership with:

The Abe Government, Freedom of Speech and the Issue of War J
Apology with Professor Arthur Stockwin
Monday 21 November 2016

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free:
Booking recommended

The central argument of this presentationis that with the election of the government
headed by Mr Abe Shinzō in December 2012,
the character of Japanese politics has changed
in ways that may be considered fundamental
The Abe administration ended a little over three
years of government led by the Democratic
Party of Japan (DPJ), which after early promise
had collapsed in disarray. The DPJ government,
however, was significant because it had
interrupted a previously near total monopoly of
power at national level by the Liberal Democratic
Party (LDP), whose tenure of office since it was
founded in 1955 had been permanent, except
for a brief interval in the early 1990s. The returnto office of the LDP in 2012 was not a returnsimply to ‘business as usual’. For reasons that
Stockwin shall explain, the LDP since the 1990s
had become far more united, and the powerof an LDP prime minister a good deal more
powerful, than used to be the case. Moreover,the party was now united around a leader, andaround policies, of the hard right.
Mr Abe is an able political leader, who haslearned much about the nature of politicalcontrol in the course of his career. He is also
what Stockwin shall call a ‘nostalgic nationalist’,determined to rewrite history in favour of apositive version of Japanese modern history.
His instincts veer towards the authoritarian,especially in relation to media freedoms.
In the course of this lecture, Stockwin shall
examine two contentious issues that havemarked his period in office: the Designated
Secrets Law of 2013 and the issue of war
apology. He shall offer a view on how far weshould regard the shift to the right in Japan
as causally similar to rightward trends in othercomparable countries.
Arthur Stockwin was born in Birmingham, holds
a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from
Oxford University and a Ph.D in International
Relations from the Australian National University
in Canberra. As a doctoral student he began to
specialise in the politics and foreign policy ofJapan and wrote a thesis entitled: The Neutralist
Policy of the Japanese Socialist Party. Between
1964 and 1981 he taught in the Departmentof Political Science at the Australian National
University. In 1982 he returned to the United
Kingdom, to take up the position of Nissan
Professor of Modern Japanese Studies, andDirector of the Nissan Institute of JapaneseStudies at Oxford University. He retired in 2003
but has continued to be active in research andwriting, largely on matters relating to Japan.

Japan Society Christmas Party 2016
Thursday 1 December 20166.30 to 8.00pm

Embassy of Japan
101-104 Piccadilly
London W1J 7JT£17 per head:
Members and their guests only
Booking essential (deadline Monday 28 November)
Please bring photographic identification with you as those
without may be denied entranceThis year’s Christmas Party will once again
be held in the Ballroom of the Japanese
Embassy, by courtesy of The Ambassador.

We are extremely grateful to the Japan
Centre which is again generously providing
the party canapes for the evening.

We hope that many members will join us forthis festive occasion. In addition to speeches
from His Excellency Mr Koji Tsuruoka andJapan Society Chairman, Sir David Warren,
we are delighted to welcome Mr Paul
Madden, British Ambassador-designate toJapan and Sarah Madden. Paul and Sarah
will be leaving for Japan in the New Year.

Names are required for the Embassy security
in advance therefore early booking isadvised. You will be sent a confirmationof your booking to print out and show on
arrival.

This annual gathering provides memberswith a great opportunity to catch up withfriends at the close of the year. Members
may bring guests but space may well belimited, so early booking is advised; places
will be allocated on a first-come-first-served
basis.

Book Launch: Carmen Blacker –Scholar Of Japanese Religion, Myth and Folklore
Monday 5 December 2016

5.45 for 6.00pm

Conference Suite
The Society of Antiquaries of London
Burlington House
Piccadilly W1J 0BE
Booking essential (deadline Friday 11 November)(places are very limited and will be issued on a first-come first-served
basis)

Carmen Blacker (1924–2009) was an
outstanding scholar of Japanese language
and culture, with a penetrating eye, arare descriptive ability and a sensitive
understanding of Japan. She was also closely
involved with the Japan Society, playing
a critical role in helping to re-establish it
following the end of the Second World War
and subsequently contributing as a memberof the Council and later an Honorary Vice
President, as well as giving numerous
lectures.
This event celebrates the launch ofCarmen Blacker – Scholar of Japanese
Religion, Myth and Folklore, a tribute to
her life and accomplishments published by
Renaissance Books. The volume, edited by
Sir Hugh Cortazzi, contains accounts of her

achievements by friends and colleagues,
significant extracts from her diaries,
selections from her published writings (someless well known) as well as the texts of theCarmen Blacker memorial lectures. There isa also a full-colour plate section drawn fromher extensive photo archive.
The event will be chaired by Lord Wilsonof Tillyorn and will be followed by a drinks
reception. Copies of the book will beavailable on the night at a special discounted
rate.
Places are limited, but anybody who wishes
to buy a copy of the book, but who is
unsuccessful in obtaining a place, will still beentitled to the launch discount if they orderby 5 December.

In partnership with:N
B

Noh Masks:
Behind the Scenes at the Pitt Rivers Museum
Monday 12 December 201610.15am to 12 noon

Pitt Rivers Museum
South Parks Road
Oxford OX1 3PP(Meet in front of the main entrance to the Pitt Rivers Museum)
Booking essential (deadline Monday 5 December)£20 per head (Places are limited and priority will be given to Japan
Society members)
The Japan Society is organising a special visit
to Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum, home to oneof the finest collections of noh masks outsideof Japan, for a private view at a time whenthe museum is closed to the general public.
Members will make their own way to and from
Oxford, allowing them to explore the town
at their leisure following the museum visit.
(Anyone attending from London who would
like to travel with Japan Society staff from
Paddington should notify the office whenbooking.)
The Pitt Rivers Museum’s stunning collectionof 54 noh masks is notable for the fact that itcame from an acting family rather than froma dealer and is believed to have been used bya noh theatre in the mid 19th century. Several
were crafted by renowned mask-maker Deme
Zekan in the early 17th century. In 2015 theMuseum commissioned a new set of masks toshow the various stages of fabrication of theseornate and striking objects.
The morning will be divided into two sessions.
In one, Dr Rachel Payne, who spent two years
studying the collection from 2001-2003, will
introduce the 54 original masks, giving an
insight into their carving, carvers, features,characters and the context of their use. In

the second session, Julia Nicholson, Curator
and Joint Head of Collections at the Museum,
will discuss how noh masks are made, using
the new masks to give members a new
appreciation of this living tradition.
Rachel Payne is Senior Lecturer and Japanese
Programme Director at the University ofCanterbury, New Zealand. She studied
Japanese theatre history at the University of
Oxford and Waseda University, and received
her doctorate, focusing on Meiji era kabuki
reform, from Oxford’s Oriental Institute in
2001. She then spent two years studying thenoh mask collection at the Pitt Rivers Museum
as a Junior Research Fellow at Queen’s College.
Since moving to New Zealand in 2003 she hascontinued her research into Japanese theatre,
most recently working as editorial assistanton the international project that produced
A History of Japanese Theatre (Cambridge
University Press, 2016).
The Japan collection at the Pitt Rivers Museum
includes more than 7,500 items, ranging froman ornate suit of armour dating to around
1750, to 19th century children’s toys, more than
800 netsuke, the remarkable collection of noh
masks and collections from Ainu indigenous
peoples.

Japan Society Book Club:And Then by Natsume Soseki
Monday 12 December 2016

7.00pmThe Japan Society
13 / 14 Cornwall Terrace
London NW1 4QP
Free for Japan Society Members:
Booking recommended
The Book Club is held on the second Monday of every month

Daisuke, the protagonist in Natsume Soseki’sclassic And Then, is a man in his twenties
who is struggling with his personal purpose
and identity as well as the changing social
landscape of Meiji-era Japan. As Japan
enters the 20th Century, ancient customs give
way to western ideals, and Daisuke works toresolve his feelings of disconnection andabandonment during this time of change.
The book club is held every month. Thereis no restriction on the nationality of theauthors read, but books should be available
in translation in both Japanese and English.
The discussion is conducted mainly inEnglish, but you can choose the language
in which you read the book. The intention is
simple: to explore the themes of the book,
express personal opinions on the style andcontent, discuss how the book has changed(or not) in translation and to have a relaxed
discussion with others who have similarinterests.
Natsume Soseki (1867-1916), was a Japanesenovelist of the Meiji period (1868-1912). He
was also a scholar of British literature andcomposer of haiku, kanshi and fairy tales.
Soseki’s literary career began in 1903, when
he began to contribute haiku and literarysketches to literary magazines. However, it
was the public success of his satirical novel
I Am a Cat in 1905 that won him wide public
admiration as well as critical acclaim. Major
themes in Soseki’s works include ordinary
people fighting against economic hardship,
the conflict between duty and desire, loyalty
and group mentality versus freedom andindividuality, the rapid industrialization ofJapan and its social consequences.

Madness and Moral Panic in Japan, Meiji to the Present Day –Christopher Harding
Monday 19 December 2016

6.45pmThe Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way(Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
Free:
Booking recommended

Japan is one of a number of countries aroundthe world where in recent years government,
the media, medics, and pharmaceuticalcompanies have worked to increase publicawareness about mental illness. Efforts
are made to reduce stigma and encourage
openness, with an insistence that mental
illness is just like physical illness: it canhappen to anyone, and it can be treated. For
depression, there was even a popular slogan
in the early 2000s: ‘kokoro no kaze‘ – a ‘coldof the soul’.
But alongside these efforts runs a sensethat rates of psychological distress are an
indicator of wider, deeper problems inany given society: the robustness of thegeneral population, the shifting demandsof work and family life, the promise (ordisappointment) of each new generation –even the ultimate fate of the country as awhole.
In this talk, we look at how in modern Japan,‘madness’ and moral panic have often
gone hand in hand. We look at worries in
the 1870s connecting ‘neurasthenia’ withthe alien pressures of westernized forms oflife, the ‘existential distress’ into which thecountry’s educated youth of the 1920s wereprone to fall – and the ‘salaryman anxiety’suffered by their fathers. We explore theboom for psychological theorizing after thewar, pitting the ‘Japanese self’ against theAmerican one, all the way up to hikikomori
and depression in our present age.
Should societies always try to avoid turning
mental health into moral panic? Or in doingso, do they deprive themselves of a powerfultool of social and political criticism – ‘solving’pressing problems by medicating the humanfall-out?
Christopher Harding is a cultural historianof modern India and Japan. He is Lecturer
in Asian History at the University of
Edinburgh, where he specializes in religion,
spirituality, and mental health. His mostrecent book is an edited collection: Religion
and Psychotherapy in Modern Japan. He iscurrently working on a history of Japan’s 20th
century for Penguin. Dr Harding also writes
and presents documentaries for BBC Radio
4. His series on culture and mental health,
The Borders of Sanity, was broadcast earlier
this year.
Image: Disintegrating, by Torisugari