JANUARY 2024

Centre for Japanese Studies
e-Newsletter
Spring Semester 2024

Newsletter
Highlights
A Message from the
Director

CJS in 2023:
Highlights and ActivitiesCJS in 2023:
Colleagues

Partnerships with Japanby Katrien Verbruggen

WELCOME MESSAGE
CJS

ニュースレターへようこそ

Studying in Japan: A
report by John Garner

Welcome to the 2024 edition of our Centre for Japanese Studies e-Newsletter.
In this issue, we will be reflecting on the achievements and activities of the Centre forJapanese Studies (CJS) over the past year and taking the opportunity to look forward

Beyond the MA with
Emma Kiey

to some of our upcoming events and initiatives.
2023 saw the University of East Anglia (UEA) celebrate its milestone 60th anniversary
and colleagues at the Centre for Japanese Studies continued to be busy across a
range of interdisciplinary research projects, publications and events - a theme at thevery heart of CJS. As we enter 2024, the Year of the Dragon, the Sainsbury Institutecelebrates its 25th anniversary - you can find out more about some of the activities
planned for this in this issue.
We hope you enjoy this issue, and please do submit any questions or suggestions to
our team at cjs@uea.ac.uk.
Professor Simon Kaner
Director of the Centre for Japanese Studies

Olivia Butler
Project Co-ordinator at the Centre for Japanese Studies

Image: Norwich snapdragon. NWHCM : 2011.239. © Norfolk Museums Service. Read more
about Norwich’s snapdragon tradition here.

PhDs at UEA with
Hirohito TsujiCJS NEWSLETTER 2024

JANUARY 2024

A MESSAGE FROM THE
DIRECTOR
Professor Simon Kaner
2023 was a challenging year for UEA but we were pleased
that the Centre for Japanese Studies was relatively
unaffected. I was on sabbatical leave for the first half of theyear and am grateful to Dr Sherzod Muminov for directing
CJS in my absence. I was able to spend time in Japan
preparing a monograph on the archaeology of the Sea ofJapan, and also worked with colleagues from English
Heritage to bring some Japanese archaeology to Stonehenge
as part of our Circles of Stone project. Interest in Japan
across the University and our broader community continues toflourish – as was so well exemplified by the wonderful andinspirational Bunkasai in December. Congratulations to Mika
Brown and all involved, and thanks to the Japan Foundation
Sakura Network for continuing to support our activities

We are planning to mark UEA’s 60th anniversary in Japan inencouraging greater interest in Japanese.

the spring – discussions are ongoing with our wonderful UEA

We look forward to 2024, the Year of the Dragon, despite thetroubled start to the year in Japan, with the earthquake thatdevastated much of the Noto peninsula and the terrible
events at Tokyo’s Haneda airport the following day. Ourthoughts are with everyone affected.

Alumni Ambassadors Mr Takanashi Hisashi and Mr Ando
Mikio, both of whom I saw in December. Japan continues toattract students wishing to take up study abroad options –whether on our Japanese language programmes or, as
demonstrated by John Garner’s report on his year at ICU,
following other degrees. And Norwich continues to attract
excellent students from Japan – see the report by our PhD
student Hirohito Tsuji. The report by UEA International’s
Katrien Verbruggen on her recent visit to many of our partner
universities in Japan demonstrates the appetite for enhanced
exchanges at all levels. We hope to use the double
anniversaries (UEA’s 60th and the Sainsbury Institute’s 25th)
to further develop collaboration and exchange between
Norwich and Japan.
Wishing you all a happy and successful Year of the Dragon.

Upcoming EventsCJS RESEARCH SEMINARS

IN CONVERSATION: Paul Madden CMG,
formerly British Ambassador to Japan andcurrently Special Advisor to the CJS Board andBill Emmott, Chair of the Japan Society.

28 February seishun stories in Japanese idol media - Dorothy Finan

Friday 16 February(University of Leeds)

Venue and times TBC

13 March The End of the Cold War in East Asia: An Overview - Aono

ASSOCIATION FOR ASIAN STUDIES (AAS)

Toshihiko (Hitotsubashi University/Cambridge University)

2024

March Title and date to be confirmed - Takamine Tsukasa (Meio University)

14 - 17 March (reception 15 March at 19:30)

Please check our website for further details and booking as it is announced

Seattle, Washington
Find out more about the programmes and papers here.

Japanin Norwich
Celebrating 25 years of the sainsbury instituteFounded in 1999, this year marks the 25th anniversary of the Sainsbury Institute for
the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures.
To celebrate this landmark event, we have a range of activities, events, exhibitions andinitiatives planned across Norwich and beyond.
We will be releasing further information on this programme as it is announced but
highlights will include:
May 2024 an exhibition and display at The Forum in Norwich focusing on our Nara to
Norwich project and in collaboration with the medieval Buddhist temple of Hasedera in
Nara
July 2024 an exhibition across sites in Norwich and Norfolk bringing renowned artist
Hokusai’s works to life through high resolution digital replicas, and a concurrent exhibition
on tanzaku exploring the creative environment of 19th-century salon and tea culture inJapan
November 2024 a conference in London looking back at the Institute’s achievements of
the last 25 years, and forward to what the next 25 might hold2024 - 2025 an enhanced provision of our flagship Third Thursday Lecture series

Keep checking our website as we announce further details
Image (right): © HOKUSAI-KAN MUSEUMCJS in 2023
Highlights and activities

JANUARY 2024

The Centre for Japanese Studies again continued to provide an impressive array of outputs, activities andinitiatives this year. The centre was led by Dr Sherzod Muminov until July 2023 when Professor Simon Kaner
returned from his study leave, and we are grateful to Dr Muminov for continuing the excellent work of CJS
during this time.

January 2023

UK-JAPAN 21ST CENTURY GROUPCONFERENCE HELD AT UEA
In January 2023, UEA hosted the UK-Japan 21st Century
Group conference, the most senior bilateral body acting inthe sphere of UK-Japan relations. The Centre forJapanese Studies and the Sainsbury Institute for the Studyof Japanese Arts and Cultures were both instrumental in
the organisation of the conference and were delighted tohost a reception for attendees at the headquarters of theInstitute at 64 The Close. Colleagues and staff were alsojoined by representatives from Norwich City Council
including the Lord Mayor, Sheriff of Norwich, and theLeader of the City Council.

CJS RESEARCH SEMINAR SERIES CONTINUES

Spring Semester 2023

Our research seminar series continued this year with talks
focusing on manga, tea trade between Japan and the UK,
the post-Imperial armed forces of Japan, and the use of
sexual orientation categories in contemporary Japan. You
can view recordings of our available seminars on the CJSYouTube channel.

May 2023

CJS COLLEAGUES VISIT ‘CIRCLES OF STONE’AT STONEHENGE
Along with colleagues from the Sainsbury Institute andstudents from our MA programme in Interdisciplinary
Japanese Studies, CJS colleagues made the trip to
Salisbury to visit the Circles of Stone: Stonehenge andPrehistoric Japan exhibition at the Stonehenge Visitor
Centre, co-curated by English Heritage and CJS Director
Professor Simon Kaner. A concurrent mini-exhibition at
Avebury stone circle opened on the day of the visit.

CJS VISITS EAJS GHENT
The academic side of both the Centre for Japanese Studies
and the University of East Anglia was exceptionally wellrepresented at the 17th meeting of the European
Association for Japanese Studies in August . As well as a
stimulating array of presentations, both in person andonline, the conference – the first time the Association has
met in person since 2017 due to the Covid-19 pandemic –was an excellent opportunity to reconnect with colleagues
from across Europe and beyond. Thanks to the support of
the University’s Japan Country Dialogue Group and UEAInternational, we had a stand promoting CJS and theSainsbury Institute, showcasing our publications and our
new Virtual Reality Sainsbury Institute.

August 2023

EAJS PICTURE HERECJS in 2023
Updates from colleagues

JANUARY 2024

Our Centre for Japanese Studies colleagues lie at the core of our work and activities. Continuing to provide an
impressive array of outputs in 2023, specialists cover disciplines such as Politics and International Relations,
History, Japanese Language, Health Sciences, Economics, Art History and Archaeology.

EUGENIA BOGDANOVA-KUMMER

Lecturer in Japanese Arts, Cultures, and Heritage

Eugenia was Acting Director of the Sainsbury Institute July
2022-July 2023 during Simon’s study leave. During thistime, she was busy as course leader for the MA in
Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies and undertaking
research to access and connect archiving and collecting
practices of modern and contemporary art in Europe andusing digital tools to link and connect these. She iscurrently on study leave.

ERIKO TOMIZAWA-KAY

HANNAH OSBORNE

Lecturer in Japanese Language and Culture

Japan Foundation Lecturer in Japanese Literature

Eriko is currently on study leave at the University ofMichigan, and has written an article on 'Nihonga in Okinawa'in a publication related to the 'Okinawa-ga' art exhibition
held at Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts in August.
She has also written a chapter on ‘Decentering Japanese
Art History: Case Study of Ainu and Okinawa’ resulting fromlast year’s Association for Asian Studies (AAS) conference.

Hannah Osborne has this semester taken over as course
leader of the MA in Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies at
UEA. She also continues in her role as Chief Editor ofJapan Forum where she is working on a special issue on
Decolonising Japanese Studies. She is also working on aforthcoming translation which we will announce details of in
the coming months.

NADINE WILLEMS

Associate Professor in Japanese History

Nadine has an upcoming article in The Japan Review (hardcopy due to be published in early 2024) about the personal
records left by a young army recruit who participated inJapan’s Siberian Intervention of 1918 to 1922. The soldier
was a talented artist who chronicled his experience of theconflict through a series of expressive drawings. Nadine has
also written an article about anarchism in pre-war Japan for
the Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Asian History and is
involved in an international and interdisciplinary research
project on Japanese islands convened by the International
Research Centre for Japanese Studies in Kyoto.

NAOKO KISHITA

Associate Professor in Dementia and Complexity in
Later Life

Naoko Kishita has this year launched a £1.23 million projectto help the carers of people living with dementia improvetheir own mental health. The team have created a digital
therapy platform to support carers, which can be accessed
via a mobile phone, laptop, or tablet – thanks to funding
from the National Institute for Health and Care Research(NIHR).

Image (left): Takeuchi Tadao, Winter in Peschanka. 1921. M.
Takeuchi Collection. Courtesy of the Art Research Center (ARC),
Ritsumeikan University.

CJS in 2023
Updates from colleagues

JANUARY 2024

RA MASON

Sasakawa Associate Professor of International
Relations and Japanese Foreign Policy

Ra has spent the past year conducting research on
Okinawa for his forthcoming book that focuses on the
Ryukyu Islands as a flashpoint for great power conflict. He
has also been expanding and enriching relations withmultiple Japanese partner universities, from Meio and
Ritsumeikan to Nichibunken and Tohoku.

RYOKO MATSUBA

Lecturer in Japanese Digital Arts and Humanities

Ryoko this year published a collection of translations of
essays by Hokusai and his peers in Mad About Painting,which was named as one of the best art books of 2023 by
the New York Times. She has also continued to lead on
important digitisation initiatives and workshops withcollections at the V&A, the British Museum, Chiddingstone
Castle, and the National Museum of Scotland. Ryoko has
also been conducting research into the techniques of
traditional craftspeople in Japan and how to record andpreserve these through digital techniques.

SHERZOD MUMINOV

Associate Professor in Japanese History

Sherzod has this year been appointed as Associate Editor at the Journal of the Historical Association, History. He has also
contributed a chapter on the Japanese Empire to the Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism and his book
Eleven Winters of Discontent (2022) has been named a finalist for the Association of American Publishers 47th Annual
PROSE Awards in the "World History" category.

JAPANESE LANGUAGE AT UEA

Akiko Tomatsuri, Mika Brown and Yumiko Kita

The Japanese Language team at UEA have continued toteach cohorts at both an undergraduate and postgraduatelevel, as well as running a successful programme of
daytime and evening Japanese courses. We welcomedback 28 final year students as well as new students in bothundergraduate and postgraduate courses. UEA is ranked
20th for Languages and Linguistics in the Guardian
University Guide 2024, and successively received
outstanding NSS (2022) and Graduate Outcomes (2023).
Mika Brown also arranged another iteration of the popular
Bunkasai, held this year on 25th November on UEA
campus. Activities covered performance, speeches, anime,
and food, and demonstrated Norwich’s appetite for all
things Japan - you can view more about the day involved on
the Bunkasai Instagram page.

PARTNERSHIPS WITH JAPANBy Katrien Verbruggen

JANUARY 2024

I visited Japan in my capacity as UEA’s Study Abroad Partnerships Manager, on behalf of UEA Global Programmes and Study
Abroad. The main purpose was to visit university campuses and meet with academic and non-academic staff at UEA’s Japanese
partner universities in the Kansai and Kantō regions. Many fruitful meetings and conversations were had about student
exchange and how the programmes are currently running since we launched student exchange with Japan over ten years ago,
and we discussed future ambitions and our wider relationships as international partners. UEA has 20 partnerships forundergraduate student exchange in Japan, from as far north as Hokkaido to as far west as Okayama. This year I visited 9
partners in and around Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo (you can view images from all 9 partners here). I really enjoyed experiencing
part of the journey our students make when they go to Japan, and it was most rewarding to meet colleagues and peers,
academic staff, and Japanese students as well as UEA students who were studying on the beautiful university campuses.
UEA and Japan have very deep ties which we are honoured to contribute to and benefit from with the yearly exchange ofapproximately 50 students both ways. Japan has an impressive range of experiences to offer in terms of their top-quality
education and academic programmes, as well as extra-curricular experience - and it seems UEA is also a very popular
destination for inbound Japanese students as well. UEA’s campus and the experiences Norwich offers for international students
from Japan are highly valued – Japanese students describe how participating in UEA’s clubs and societies is a great way tointegrate into the wider university community during their time at UEA.
In addition to UEA’s Japanese language learners who study abroad in Japan as part of their degree, in recent years we’ve seen
growing numbers of students from other academic areas such as Psychology, Economics, Business, Global Development, andeven the Natural Sciences expressing their interest and effectively spending their year abroad in Japan. To manage this interest,
an important part of my meetings with partners was about their English taught academic offer and the access of UEA students
with no Japanese language knowledge to courses at Japanese universities. Japan is investing many resources in further
internationalisation of their Higher Education and university campuses, and most of UEA’s partners are developing wider English
academic offerings at a fast pace.

We are delighted tosee very healthy
numbers of Japanese
students joining us at
UEA year on year. As agreen campus
university and perfect
sized city, we remain avery attractive and safe
place for Japanese
students to experience
life in the United
Kingdom, and we lookforward to continuing
to contribute fruitfully
to UEA’s relationships
in Japan through theexchange of many
students every year.

STUDYING IN JAPANA report by John Garner

JANUARY 2024

A real joy of being in Japan was the ability to see for myself
artworks or historical sites that I had studied in theclassroom, both around Tokyo and when travelling. Tokyo ishome to major institutions like the Tokyo National Museum,
the National Art Centre, or the Japan Folk Crafts Museum,
but also being a central travel hub, it is relatively easy to takethe train or fly to anywhere across the country. During springvacation, a highlight of mine was touring the historic capitalof Nara, searching for iconic works of Buddhist sculpture at
the Kofuku-ji temple, or the seventh century wall paintings of
the Takamatsuzuka and Kitora Tombs in Asuka. On anothertrip I went to see the UNESCO World Heritage Jomonarchaeological sites in northern Tohoku and Hokkaido. This

By John Garner
Final year undergraduate student on BA

was all possible through funding from the UK Turing Schemeand the Japanese government’s JASSO Scholarship, which I
urge any prospective student to apply for and work towards.

Archaeology, Anthropology and Art History, UEA
From August 2022 I embarked on a year-long exchange at theInternational Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo. Along withanother coursemate, we were the first undergraduate students
from UEA’s School of Art History to venture to Japan for the
study-abroad program. I chose Japan because it has always
been my dream to live and study there, and chose Tokyo for theabundant academic, travel and leisure opportunities.
ICU is a small private university located in the quiet suburbs of
Mitaka city, in western Tokyo. Life there was a change of pacecompared to UEA. Every weekday morning I had two hours ofJapanese language classes, before spending the afternoons

While studying and travelling developed my Japanese

taking degree-specific classes like Japanese art history,

language skills and focused my scholarly interests, it also

Japanese archaeology and the medieval history of East Asia, alldemanded a stronger confidence in myself. Throughout thetaught in English. Through these classes I could focus on myyear, by making connections through new people, places

exact interests, such as learning practical excavation skills in aand experiences, I came to appreciate life and see the world

real prehistoric site on campus, or being taught how to identify

through new eyes. At UEA, I am continuing research on

Buddhist deities in medieval scroll paintings. As a liberal arts

Japanese heritage and hoping to return to Japan soon forcollege, I could also take classes beyond my usual field, such as

possible fieldwork.

the environmental history and sociology of Japan, and even aclass on Japanese-American culture. These allowed me tobroaden my knowledge on subjects that aren’t offered at UEA
but are still important to my research. For extracurricular
activities, I joined the Taizanso Project, a student-led group thatconserves and promotes a collection of government-protected
Edo to Showa era teahouses and estate buildings that are
hidden away in the forest of ICU campus. Usually closed to the
public, the opportunity to be actively involved with Japanesearchitectural heritage was an impressionable experience, and isinforming my undergraduate dissertation topic.

Images:Header: Oyu Stone Circles, Akita Prefecture, part of the UNESCOWorld Heritage Jomon Prehistoric Sites of Northern Japan. Photo byauthor.
Image 1: John bagging a potsherd from a Jomon pit-dwelling in thestudent excavation trench, located on the International Christian
University Campus. Photo by Toru Hayashi.
Image 2: Yakushi-ji Temple, one of the UNESCO World Heritage
Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara. Photo by author.

Beyond the MA
with Emma Kiey

JANUARY 2024

By Emma Kiey
Graduate of the MA in Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies 2021-2022
It's been over a year since I completed my MA in Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies at UEA, and time has flown by. I first found
SISJAC during my undergraduate degree in history where I had developed a keen interest in modern Japanese history andmaterial culture. I began attending relevant virtual lectures held by the Sainsbury Institute and I then applied to their online
summer programme in 2020. This is where I discovered the vastness of Japanese studies and what their brand new MA had
to offer.
During the MA, which I joined in 2021, I was able to study an unmatched variety of topics I could never have imagined possible
in one year-long postgraduate degree. My first assignment was on the presentation of menstruation in Japanese women's
literature, followed by my second essay on Japan's climate policy and its vulnerable natural heritage. I also wrote on Japanese
female performance art history, and the history of sartorial Japonisme in international museum collections. While diverse, thecourse allowed me to delve into my own unique interests and encourage further study. I discovered my passion for dress
history, material anthropology, and museum studies - still very interdisciplinary!
Since graduating, I completed an internship with the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, and for the past year I have beenworking as a visitor experience assistant at Japan House London, giving exhibition tours and helping to teach visitors about
many different aspects of Japanese culture. I work here alongside another former MA IJS student, Amy Orton. I havecontinued working on digitisation projects across the UK with Dr. Ryoko Matsuba, after first working with her during my MA on
an assistantship at the British Museum and V&A digitising Japanese prints and books. In the past year I've also digitisedarchival materials at Kew Gardens and the Courtauld Institute independently. Recently, I began writing for the Digital
Orientalist, a digital humanities magazine. My first article expands on the digital aspects of my MA dissertation research on the
Kyoto Costume Institute. I hope to continue my independent research and writing on the many topics of Japanese studies thatfascinate me.

One of the most valuable things studying on the MA programme has given me is not only agroup of lifelong and like minded friends, but also a supportive network of Japanese studies
scholars, museum professionals, academics and more who I have stayed in contact with andcontinue to learn from.
The MA gave me an excellent foundation for work in Japanese studies both professionally and my future academic career. In
2024, I'm planning to travel to Japan to develop my Japanese language learning, continue working/volunteering with museumsin the UK and (hopefully!) abroad, and prepare for further academic study and professional development.

Images:Left: Emma Kiey with fellow MA Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies students on graduation day. Middle: Emma Kiey with Sainsbury Institute
and V&A colleagues during a digitisation workshop in December 2022. Right: Emma Kiey at the current exhibition at Japan House London,‘Ainu Stories: Contemporary Lives by the Saru River‘
Read more about the digitisation project at the V&A here and Emma’s recent article in the Digital Orientalist here.

JANUARY 2024

PhDs at UEA
with Hirohito TSUJI
Hello,

Iam

Hirohito

Tsuji,

apostgraduate

researcher (PhD candidate) in UEA’s School ofHistory. Before obtaining an MA in Interdisciplinary
Japanese Studies at UEA, I completed an MA in
History and the minor programme of Museology at
Kokugakuin University in Tokyo, and a BA in
Japanese history and the minor field of Shinto
studies at Kogakkan University in Ise, Japan.
Although I am Japanese, I felt keenly the need to
conduct research from a broad interdisciplinary
perspective, taking into account previous research
in English-speaking countries, and decided to study
outside Japan.

UEA, with the Centre for Japanese Studies and the Sainsbury Institute, is the perfect place for cross-disciplinary
Japanese studies, as it is home to renowned experts in a variety of fields related to Japan, including history,archaeology, literature, politics, language, and art history, etc. The Lisa Sainsbury Library at the Sainsbury Institute also
has a lot of valuable academic resources not only in English but also in Japanese (particularly related to art,archaeology, and cultural heritage), which can be very useful for those doing Japanese studies outside Japan.
Other than research, I was also very attracted to the fact that UEA offers excellent support for non-native English
speakers, and has a strong commitment to combating racism and academic harassment. Another reason I chose UEA
is that Norwich is comfortable for international students like me because it feels like a safe city, and is also located witheasy access to big cities such as London and Cambridge. As my PhD research, I am studying the genealogy of branchfamilies of the Imperial House of Japan, called “miyake”, and am also interested in a comparative study between theImperial Family of Japan and Western monarchies including the Commonwealth.
For international students, it is not easy to live in the UK with its high cost of living and high tuition fees compared to
British/EU students, but I was fortunate to have been awarded a Sasakawa Japanese Studies Postgraduate
Studentship for three years and also received a travel grant for research fieldwork by the Great Britain Sasakawa
Foundation (GBSF), which helped me a lot financially. After finishing my PhD, I would like to continue further academic
research, balancing it with my life's work as an amateur enka singer, to disseminate Japanese history and culture to theworld, and to contribute to the further development of Japan-Anglo friendship.

Find out more about the Sasakawa JapaneseStudies Postgraduate Studentship Programmehere.
You can also read more about the November 2021 Great Britain Sasakawa Alumni
workshop, hosted by the Sainsbury Institute, the Centre for Japanese Studies and
UEA.

Miss last year’s newsletter? You can read our last edition
here or visit our website for all our past issues.

Further information
Useful links
At UEA
MA Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies
Centre for Japanese Studies, UEA
UEA Japan Events
Japanese Language Evening Courses at UEA
UEA Undergraduate and Postgraduate Courses

Organisations and resources
Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation
Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
Japan Foundation (London)
The Japan Society
Japan House London
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Embassy of Japan in the UK
UK-Japan Events Calendar
Japan Research Centre, SOAS
British Association for Japanese Studies (BAJS)Applications for JET ProgrammeJapanese Language Proficiency Test
Japan Forum

Contact Us
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