Kounosuke Kawakami

1 February 2012

A Private Affair: Personal Collections of Contemporary Art at the Harris Museum & Art Gallery in Preston will include pieces by Kounosuke Kawakami, who previously exhibited his work at Japan House. The exhibition will run from 28 January – 5 May 2012. Please see the gallery’s website for more information, and the Guardian website for a review of the exhibition.

'Reflections on Debussy' festival curated by Noriko Ogawa, January to June 2012

26 January 2012

The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation is delighted to be supporting Reflections on Debussy at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, curated by pianist Noriko Ogawa in order to celebrate Debussy’s 150th anniversary and his connections with Japan, January to June 2012.

Carl Randall, 2003 Daiwa Scholar, wins the Nomura Painting Prize, Tokyo

4 January 2012

The Nomura Art Prize is organised by Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku) to assist with the purchase of outstanding works of art produced by its Doctorate graduate students, and to preserve them at the University Museum. The prize aims to promote fine arts in Japan and to support young artists by collecting, preserving, and exhibiting their works in the Museum. The 2011 Nomura Painting Prize was awarded to Carl Randall for his Doctorate Graduation exhibition, one of his paintings being bought by the University Museum for their permanent collection.

Carl has been based in Tokyo as an artist since 2003, having been awarded a Daiwa Scholarship, followed by a Japanese Government (MEXT) Scholarship. This extended period has been used to develop his interest in cities and portraiture, responding to the people and places of Tokyo. During this time he has completed a Master’s Degree and Doctorate in Oil Painting at Japan’s prestigious Tokyo University of Fine Arts, was selected to be artist in residence in Hiroshima City (to meet and make portraits of survivors of the Atomic Bomb), and was chosen to represent Japan as artist in residence at the 2007 Formula 1 Races. He has also exhibited widely in Japan, including  Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Arts, and Tokyo Art Award 2009. 

The artist’s new Japan paintings and drawings will be exhibited in London in the near future, including a solo exhibition at Japan House (January – March 2014). Examples of his work can be found at his website (recent work to be published soon).

'Postcards from Japan: A Message from Tohoku Artists'

22 December 2011

The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation is delighted to be supporting the UK tour of  ‘Postcards from Japan: A Message from Tohoku Artists’, an exhibition of A5 original art works by 22 artists from north east Japan. The exhibition is taking place at the Japanese Embassy, London (12 December to 31 January 2012) and will then tour to the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (15 February to 22 April 2012).

New book by former Daiwa Scholar Edmund de Waal

9 December 2011

The Pot Book, a new book by former Daiwa Scholar Professor Edmund de Waal OBE and Claudia Clare has just been published. It covers over 300 makers, styles and schools of ceramics.
Format: Hardback large format, 319pp
Publication date: Nov 2011
Publisher: Phaidon
ISBN: 9780714847993

Edmund de Waal has also entered a new partnership with the Fitzwilliam Museum in a project entitled Material Response as part of the Museum’s involvement with Stories of the World, a programme of the London 2012 Olympiad.

Shakespeare's Globe to Stage Coriolanus in Japanese, May 2012

8 December 2011

The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation is delighted to be supporting Shakespeare’s Globe’s staging of Coriolanus, in Japanese, by Chiten, a 15-member theatre company from Kyoto on 21 and 22 May 2012 as part of the six-week Globe to Globe  Shakespeare Festival.

The workshop 'Perspectives in Nuclear Fission' to be held at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 14-16 March 2012

30 November 2011

The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation is delighted to be supporting a fission workshop taking place in Japan next March.  The University of the West of Scotland and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency will be hosting an international workshop, Perspectives in Nuclear Fission, 14-16 March 2012 at JAEA, Tokai, Japan. The meeting will mainly be devoted to new experimental and theoretical achievements in fission. Attention will also be given to developments in the field of detectors and new facilities related to fission research.

Daiwa Scholarships 2012

24 November 2011

We are now accepting online applications for the Daiwa Scholarships 2012 programme. For further details, see application procedure. The deadline for applications is 1 December 2011.  Alumni and Foundation staff will be giving presentations about the Scholarship at universities around the country this autumn. For more information, see University Visits.

Premiere Japan 2011 at the Barbican, 25-27 November 2011

23 November 2011

The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation is delighted to be supporting Premiere Japan 2011. Now in its seventh year in London, Premiere Japan is at the Barbican for the first time from 25 to 27 November, screening six of the best and most recent features and documentaries from Japan including Locarno Film Festival winner TOKYO PARK, featuring rising star Miura Haruma; SKETCH OF MUJO, the first documentary to be filmed in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami earlier this year; SWEET LITTLE LIES , adapted from Ekuni Kaori’s bestselling novel; fresh from the London Film Festival, MY BACK PAGE; the latest thrilling historical fantasy anime,  LEGEND OF THE MILLENNIUM DRAGON; and Ishii Yuya’s poignant family drama, A MAN WITH STYLE.

19 recipients selected for Daiwa Foundation Tohoku Scholarships (in partnership with the British Council)

16 November 2011

19 recipients have been selected for Daiwa Foundation Tohoku Scholarships, with awards so far totalling £133,000. The Daiwa Foundation established its Tohoku Scholarships in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake, in collaboration with British Council Japan, for students from the Tohoku region of Japan wishing to study in the UK. The total scholarship fund available is £250,000, and the scholarships will run until this fund is exhausted.

Together with British Ambassador David Warren, Daiwa Foundation Vice Chairman Masahiro Dozen, and British Council Director Jeff Streeter, 10 of this year’s scholarship recipients visited the Yushima Tenjin Shrine in Tokyo on 25 October. The shrine is famous as a place where students traditionally pray for success in their studies.

Ambassador Warren had the following words of encouragement for the students: “I am very happy to be able to join you today at the Yushima Tenjin shrine, famous for its god of learning, to pray for the success of your studies in the UK. The people of Britain were shocked and deeply saddened by the great East Japan Earthquake. At this difficult time, many British people are eager to help Japan and to strengthen ties between our two countries. The Daiwa Foundation Tohoku Scholarships, in collaboration with the British Council, are one form that this assistance is taking. I very much hope that you will have a wonderful time studying in the UK and that your studies will prove fruitful. As the representative of the UK in Japan, I wish you all every success.”