The Bokujinkai, or “People of the Ink”, were a post-war avant-garde calligraphy group that challenged the classical constraints on calligraphy. By highlighting, and arguably emphasising, the similarities between Japanese calligraphic pieces and Euro-American abstractRead More
The following essay is an examination of the difficulties that an anthropologist might hypothetically face in the field, when studying a tent city in a park in Osaka, and ideas as to how thoseRead More
The relationship between anthropology, photography and Japanese governmental policy, in colonial Taiwan, was intricate and complicated. Photography was utilised to emphasise anthropology as a scientific discipline, whilst simultaneously providing a form of visual evidence.Read More
Photograph of the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima The study of Japanese history has traditionally been centred around the metropole but this is fundamentally limiting – it risks oversimplification by suggesting that only theRead More
Photograph of Heian Shrine (平安神宮) gardens, Kyoto Lecture given in 2016 as part of The Third Ishibashi Foundation Lecture Series – Japanese Gardens: To Whom Do They Belong? Professor Toshio Watanabe’s lecture How theRead More
Photograph of a Meiji Period plaque in the V&A’s Japan collection, that is discussed in the article below. The restricted access to museums and art galleries, due to Coronavirus, has increased the importance ofRead More
‘Spirits of Action: Japanese Manga and Sports’ Japan Foundation Webinar with Yoshimura Kazuma (followed by discussion with Rayna Denison). Yoshimura Kazuma’s lecture ‘Spirits of Action: Japanese Manga and Sports’ provided a fascinating, chronological overviewRead More
History Painting in the Meiji Era: A Consideration of the Issues discusses the introduction of the concept of ‘history painting’ into Japan as well as the definition of history painting both in Meiji JapanRead More
A consideration of Center and Periphery in Japanese Historical Studies by Michael Lewis (Chapter 24) in William Tsutsui’s Companion to Japanese History. Center and Periphery in Japanese Historical Studies, by Michael Lewis, is fundamentallyRead More
Siberia Under Snow by Kuroshima Denji (translation by Lawrence Rogers) Kuroshima Denji’s Siberia under snow tells of two Japanese soldiers posted in Siberia and the chain of events that lead to their deaths. ThereRead More
