Japan 400
Many thanks to everyone who registered an event as part of the Japan400 year of special events and celebrations in 2013.
We are no longer registering events under ‘Japan400’. But please watch this space! This website is being evolved into a E-book which will include many of the event highlights, images and features about the expanding horizons of Japan-British relations which thousands of people have helped to create. The Japan400 team is also supporting a small number of follow-up events in 2014—see the letter from the co-chairs of Japan400 on the front page to find out more. Please come back to www.japan400.com in a while and see what we have become!
DECEMBER
As we rush towards the end of the year and ‘Bonenkai’ parties are happening all around us, the excitement and enthusiasm for events and activities celebrating Japan400 doesn’t stop!
Everyday this month we can see over ten exhibitions, lectures, seminars, concerts, workshops and films in one day! You can also have a peek at the events lined up for January in our Events Calendar.
This year, 2013, we hope Japan400 has brought the magic of the special relationship between Japan and Britain a little closer and that you’ve been able to experience something new for the first time.
With a focus on the small beginings in 1613, who would’ve thought it would lead to the dynamic relations between Japan and Britain today, in Education, trade, science, lifestyle, business and the arts and culture? With the enthusiasm and confidence and affection for this special relationship, we are sure it will continue for at least another 400 years!
As we look into next year we see that people are talking already about celebrations to commemorate that small wooden ship the Clove returning from Japan in September 1614 to Plymouth. ..
We also have plans to continue to celebrate the special relationship in [My Japan, My Britain] next year. This may be popping up as a feature in one of our supporters sites, in a gallery of inspiring stories of the mutual interest, respect and admiration that the British and Japanese continue to share.
We are hoping to keep an online presence (please follow our Twitter and Facebook pages for latest updates). This maybe linked to sites such as Embassy of Japan in UK, Japan Society, Japan Foundation, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation and Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, so please check back to this site and see our plans!
With best wishes for the festive season!
Past Events
Events List Navigation
Romantic Connections 2014
An international scholarly conference on Romanticism and intercultural connections, drawing together four scholarly societies from three continents. In addition to discussing representations of the “East” by Romantic authors, we will view Romanticism itself in a global context, as a movement shaped by wider eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century forces of trade, migration, material circulation, intellectual exchange, slavery, and colonialism. Drawing on our location in Tokyo, we will also use this conference to consider the broader task of forging connections between Eastern…
Find out more »From King James’s Telescope to the Present and the Future – Symposium and Celebration of Departure of Japan400 Telescope for Japan
400TH ANNIVERSARY OF JAPAN – BRITISH RELATIONS On 17th January Japan400 and the University of Cambridge will mark a key anniversary with a unique seminar at Jesus College, Cambridge, one of the university’s most ancient colleges. Professor Lynn Gladden FRS, the University’s Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research, Professor Ian White FREng, Master of Jesus, and Lord Rees FRS, Astronomer Royal are among the distinguished speakers, celebrating the 400th Anniversary of Japan-British Scientific Relations. The focus of the seminar is on Japan-British Partnership in…
Find out more »Yumiko Yoshioka Butoh Workshop and Film Screening in London
Yumiko Yoshioka Butoh Workshop in collaboration with Butoh Research Project by Florencia Guerberof There will also be a talk and screening of the film “Ju-ni hitoe “ by German filmmaker Jutta Ohlenberg. This event is part of the Japan 400 celebration Registration open 1st November 2013 Further info and bookings: carmencastro@asianperformingartsuk.com Webpage: www.asianperformingartsuk.com Info: Yumiko Yoshioka This event held in association with: Japan Society, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, and Japan 400
Find out more »Japan’s Regional and Global Future
An invite-only conference which will look at the big foreign policy issues facing Japan today, and what its future holds. Chair: Sir Stephen Gomersall, KCMG With funding from The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation For more information please see the website of the Ditchley Foundation Supplementary reading material for the conference: http://www.ditchley.co.uk/conferences/future-programme/scrm—japan
Find out more »Christmas Concert
This year’s Christmas concert features Handel’s Messiah, the most popular music at Christmas time in UK and many parts of Europe. A reputed UK-Japan Choir is accompanied by pipe organ with young professional soloists. It brings Japanese and British people together to sing Messiah to celebrate the anticipation of Christmas and also significance of this Japan 400 anniversary, towards the end of the special year to reflect on UK-Japan relations 400 years ago and today. price of attendance: £15, (£7…
Find out more »Workshop on the Traditional Arts of the Shizuoka Region
A workshop with specialist practitioners of traditional Japanese crafts. All welcome and suitable for all ages Please see Press Release for details of this Workshop and how you can take part: Shizuoka events 7Dec Press Release http://www.ieyasu400th.com/ This workshop is held in association with SOAS, University of London and Shizuoka City
Find out more »Mr Tsunenari Tokugawa and Professor Timon Screech in Conversation
The direct lineal head of the Tokugawa shogunal line Mr Tsunenari Tokugawa, will discuss his views of history with Japan400 co-chair, Timon Screech. This event will be followed by a workshop on the traditional arts of the Shizuoka area Please see Press Release for more information and how you can attend: Shizuoka events 7Dec Press Release In partnership with: SOAS, University of London
Find out more »WE LOVE JAPAN: Yu Kobayashi
Renowned artist Yu Kobayashi will be visiting The Shop Floor Project in Cumbria for an evening event introducing her new ceramics and giving a talk about her work and philosophy; Live to make, make to live. Accompanied by hand made Japanese sweets, talks, films and music by Ryoko Akama. Here is a film which introduces the artist: https://vimeo.com/73088497 We wanted to be part of the JAPAN400 celebrations as Japanese design and culture inspires us in many ways here at The…
Find out more »Japan Society Christmas Party
The Japan Society Christmas party is held in 2013 on the 400th anniversary, to the day, of the departure of The Clove from Japan. John Saris and his crew returned to this country with gifts from the Shogun to King James and an official Vermilion Seal Letter (shuinjô) granting the English permission to live and trade throughout Japan. This year we are delighted to welcome delegates from Shizuoka City as special guests for the evening. The Mayor of Shizuoka will…
Find out more »The British Day at Toyo Bunko Museum – In commemoration of the completion of the visit to Japan by John Saris on 5th December, 1613.
The exhibition at Toyo Bunko Museum, “Marco Polo and the Silk Road World Heritage Sites – The Birth of Oriental Studies in the Occident” is held 7th August to 26th December 2013. The British Day of Toyo Bunko Museum will be held on 5th December to commemorate the completion of the visit to Japan by John Saris exacxtly 400 year to the day. There are exhibits related to the history of British-Japanese relations, a symposium and British chamber music in…
Find out more »WG Beasley Memorial Lecture: Professor William Marotti Timely and Untimely Politics: Art and Protest in Early 1960s Japan
Marotti explores politics and timeliness by examining the advent of a critical art of the everyday in Japan in the 1960s and its links to political action. Between Anpo and the Olympics, and out of sync with eventful mass activism, artists sought to create eventfulness against a state-promoted, depoliticized daily life in the high growth economy. Marotti argues that microhistorical attention to such groupuscular art activities reveals hidden dimensions of conflict and engagement within the context of a global 1960s.…
Find out more »Japanese Modern Foreign Language (MFL) Launch Day
Hurrah! Omedeto! to Great Malvern Primary School for its launch event to adopt Japanese as its MFL to key stage 2. To celebrate there will be a full day of workshops from anime to calligraphy, origami to taiko for all children in Years 4 to 6 (Appx 130) The whole school will have a Japanese themed lunch and experience a taiko drum concert. The event launches closer ties between this school and our partner school In Tokyo. Our KS2 children…
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