Cutty Sark re-opens to the public

The Cutty Sark has opened its doors to the paying public.

After the residents’ day, a starring role in the London Marathon and an opening ceremony attended by the Queen, it was finally a chance for the general public to see the transformation that has taken place.

On board, visitors can learn about Cutty Sark’s role in the tea trade, look up crew members from the archives, try to navigate from Australia to England and enjoy great views across London as well as look up to see eleven miles of rigging.

The iconic tea clipper, as has been well noted before, has now been raised by three metres, to create a new space below, called the Sammy Ofer Gallery, where there is the world’s largest collection of merchant navy figureheads and a new cafe.

Address: Cutty Sark Gardens, Greenwich, London SE10 9BG

10 Sinful Cities

According to Traveler’s Digest

10. Full Moon Parties, Koh Phangan Island,Thailand
Bungalows range from $2 to $20, but who wants to sleep when over 10,000 tourists flock to Haad Rin Beach, where drinks are free-pouring and DJs are spinning the best in hip-hop, techno, rap, and reggae. For show (i.e. when you are drunk and delirious by the beach), jugglers and fire-eaters entertain the crowd.

 9. Monaco
If you really want to live like a true player, then visit this grandiose and charming principality in Europe that many call the continent’s most fascinating vacation spot. Get ready to abuse the checkbook though. Did you really think royalty cuts corners?

 8. Ios, Greece
How could you omit the Greek Islands? Where generally sane, well-mannered folks congregate only to go crazy, get drunk, dance on tables and deprive themselves of sleep and all other things pure?

 7. Gold Cost, Australia
Surf’s up! Sex and alcohol blend in a wonderful orgy of vices. The Gold Coast also offers the tourists the first topless car wash alongside the Best Beauty Down Under Contest. Imagine that; beautiful girls put coins in parking meters so you can party more — it’s only fair at $13 a car wash.

 6. Goa, India (November and February)
New age enlightenment for the twenty-something crowd. Flights could fetch as much as $1000, but at $8 per room, you will have enough spending money to fly like a kite. A stay here will give new meaning to decadence. You thought Aerosmith was reckless in the 1970s? You ain’t seen nothing yet.

 5. Gatecrasher, England
Very few music festivals match the energy, adrenaline and debauchery levels shown in the Sheffield area Festival at the monstrous and epic Gatecrasher; where Trance meets Techno meets Electronica (meets sweat, drugs and alcohol). If you have ever had the fortune of visiting this event, you know what we’re talking about.

 4. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
You have to hand it to the Dutch. As hard as it might be to believe, some locals felt that the Red Light District was not organized or structured enough to greet the World’s Best. So lo and behold comes the annual Cannabis Cup in mid-November. For the recoveringtourists, visit the Seksmuseum.

 3. Las Vegas, Nevada
Okay, the original sin city has disrupted marriages before they even began, torn families apart, and probably ended a few lives ominously. What else could you possibly ask for? Oh and it’s also the setting of many a great movie about partying hardy.

 2. New Orleans, Louisiana
The city’s spicy food is great, its historic blues music is even better, its lax (more like nonexistent) drinking laws are a lifesaver as bars are open 24 hours a day. This sin city has rapidly dislodged and out-Vegased Las Vegas… no small feat. Of course, it helps to have a Mardi Gras, a.k.a show your boobs for my beads event in the streets.

 1. Pattaya, Thailand
Government officials refer to their city as the “Sexual Disneyland”; the mantra is “if you can suck it, use it, eat it, feel it, taste it or abuse it, Pattaya never sleeps and it is the best resort for you.” Three million visitors flock here every year to partake in casual sex and sexual freedom in the city’s 275 hotels and 35,000 rooms (which range between $10 to $80 a night).

Fukushima Colours

3 May 2012

6:00 – 7:00pm, followed by a drinks reception to 8:00pm

Daiwa Foundation Japan House

Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation

Fukushima Colours

Published by Langenskiöld

By Elin Lindqvist

The catastrophe on 11 March 2011 has had a deep impact on the Japanese society, and on our global world. Almost twenty thousand people were left dead or missing after the disaster, and the tsunami destroyed entire communities. It will take years for the full extent of the nuclear crisis’ impact on Japan to become clear. Yet, a year after the tsunami, it is possible to see some of the consequences that the disaster has had on agriculture, the fishing industry, people’s health and research about renewable energy sources.

In her reportage book Fukushima Colours, multilingual author Elin Lindqvist has documented the aftermath of the crisis, in collaboration with Japanese journalist Yuko Ota, and Japanese photographer Yoshikazu Fukuda. She has closely followed eight individuals or groups of individuals representing different parts of Japanese society all through 2011, in order to see how people affected by the crisis have recovered. Through these individual stories, we hear the emergence of a common voice striving towards a more sustainable and ecological future in Japan.         

* The book will be available on the day at the discounted price of £18.

Elin Lindqvist

Elin Lindqvist was born in Tokyo in 1982 and currently lives in England. She has studied at New York University in New York and Sophia University in Tokyo. She is an international writer, and has published three novels in Swedish (Tokyo natt, 2002; Tre röda näckrosor, 2005 and Facklan, 2009). She also works as a freelance journalist, dramaturge and translator. In the spring of 2011, she reported about the catastrophe in Japan for Sweden’s largest newspaper Aftonbladet, and she wrote about the aftermath of the crisis for leading daily newspapersSvenska Dagbladet in Sweden and Aftenposten in Norway.

Dr Akira Matsuda

Dr Akira Matsuda studies the relationship between archaeology – and more broadly cultural heritage – and the general public from anthropological and sociological points of view. He is currently doing research into the representation of damage caused by natural disasters in Japan over the last 500 years. Matsuda completed his PhD in public archaeology at University College London in 2009. He worked as a project-based consultant in UNESCO’s Division of Cultural Heritage in 2004 and 2005, and was a Handa Japanese Archaeology Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures from January 2009 to August 2011. Since 2010, he has been teaching at the School of World Art Studies and Museology, UEA, and most recently co-edited a book, New Perspectives in Global Public Archaeology (Springer, 2011) with Okamura Katsuyuki. He is the Membership Secretary of the World Archaeological Congress, and is now working on the publication of a book on cultural heritage in East Asia.

BOOKING FORM

North Korean Human Rights Film Festival ‘Kimjongilia’

Date: 27 April 2012, 6pm

Title: Kimjongilia (2009)

Director: N.C. Heikin

Running time: 76min (Eng subs)

Venue: Multi-purpose Hall, Korean Cultural Centre UK

          (No bookings required)

Organised by Christian Solidarity Worldwide

About the Film

North Korea is one of the world＇s most isolated nations. For sixty years, North Koreans have been governed by a totalitarian regime that controls all information entering and leaving the country. A cult of personality surrounds its two recent leaders: first, Kim Il Sung, and now his son, Kim Jong Il. For Kim Jong Il＇s 46th birthday, a hybrid red begonia named kimjongilia was created, symbolizing wisdom, love, justice, and peace. The film draws its name from the rarefied flower and reveals the extraordinary stories told by survivors of North Korea＇s vast prison camps, of devastating famine, and of every kind of repression. All of the interviews featured took place in South Korea, where the defectors now live. Their experiences are interspersed with archival footage of North Korean propaganda films and original scenes that illuminate the contours of daily life for a people whose every action is monitored and whose every thought could bring official retribution. Along with the survivors＇ stories, Kimjongilia examines the mass illusion possible under totalitarianism and the human rights abuses required to maintain that illusion. Ultimately, the defectors are inspiring, for despite the extremes they have suffered, they still hold out hope for a better future.

Concert: Toki Quartet

26 April 2012, 7:00 – 8:30pm

Daiwa Foundation Japan House

Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation

The Toki Quartet was formed by four prize-winning musicians in 2010 at the Royal Academy of Music. They have studied with Martin Outram (Maggini Quartet), and the Vanburgh Quartet, among many others. The group were highly commended in the Sir Arthur Bliss Prize in 2010 and were selected by Peter Manning to perform at the 2011 MasterPiece Fair in Chelsea. They have also been selected to perform pieces by contemporary composers such as David Lumsdane and Steve Reich, in which the latter culminated in a CD recording produced by the Royal Academy of Music. In July 2012 they look forward to working with the composer Nicola LeFanu. Their experience of performing alongside the Scottish Ensemble and the Chillingarian Quartet, and individually with Nobuko Imai and Stephan Picard, has fostered their great interest to explore chamber music further. The Tokis enjoy an ever-expanding performance schedule and are currently planning a tour through England and Japan to promote the link between British and Japanese music. Toki Quartet website.

The concert will include pieces by Kosaku Yamada, Frank Bridge, Toru Takemitsu and Edward Elgar.

Aki Sawa (1st violin)

Born in Tokyo, Aki obtained her BMus with the highest ever marks from Tokyo Geidai. She won major prizes at university, and also obtained the 2nd prize at the International Bach Competition in Paris. Aki is now studying for her MA in Performance with Professor Gyorgy Pauk at the Royal Academy of Music, where she has been awarded major prizes and awards. She was a member of the London Symphony Orchestra String Experience Scheme 2010/2011.

Midori Komachi (2nd violin)

Midori is currently undertaking the Master of Music programme at the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Maurice Hasson. At the age of 12, she studied at Basel Music University in Switzerland with Adelina Oprean. She has appeared as a soloist with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, and has performed recitals in major venues including Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, St.George’s Bristol and Muza Kawasaki. She has won many awards from the Royal Academy of Music and the Hattori Foundation.

Steve Doman (viola)

Steve was awarded a scholarship to attend Wells Cathedral School at the age of sixteen, where his viola teacher was Patricia Noall. He then went on to study with Mark Knight at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and is currently studying for his Masters degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Garfield Jackson. He recently took part in an Erasmus exchange to the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki to study with Pirkko Simojoki.

Amy Jolly (cello)

A student of Josephine Knight at the Royal Academy of Music, Amy will tour to South Korea with the Sainsbury Academy Soloists and will perform in New York and at the London Proms 2012 with the Academy/Juilliard Symphony Orchestra. Amy performs extensively with her duo partner Mari Kawamura and is a recipient of the Birmingham Royal Ballet Mentorship Scheme.

BOOKING FORM

Monkey Man Gallops across Japan

 

Political Leadership in the UK and Japan

24 April 2012

6:00 – 7:45pm, followed by a drinks reception to 8:45pm

Daiwa Foundation Japan House

Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation

The next seminar in our 2012 series Leadership: People and Power in the UK and Japan looks at political leadership. The governing party changed in Japan in 2009 and the UK in 2010. In both cases, the new ruling party had spent a prolonged period out of power, and its leaders have had to forge a coalition to achieve a majority. Japan has plenty of experience of coalition governments, but its political leaders have often been criticised for ineffective leadership, and faced particular challenges following the earthquake last spring. What can the two countries learn from each other about political leadership? And to what extent are different leadership styles required by the different institutional set-ups in each country?

Taro Kono

Taro Kono is a Japanese Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) politician and a 5th term Member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. Born in 1963, Kono graduated from Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service. While in Washington, DC, Kono served for then Democratic Congressman Richard Shelby of Alabama for two years. Kono joined Fuji Xerox in 1986, moved to Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific in Singapore in 1991, and subsequently served as Managing Director at Nippon Tanshi from 1993 to 1996. Kono served in Prime Minister Koizumi’s final government as Senior Vice Minister of Justice from 2005 to 2006. Until the LDP defeat in the General Election in August 2009, Kono was the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of the Representatives. In September 2009 he ran for the Leadership of the LDP and lost to Sadakazu Tanigaki.

Professor Keith Grint

Professor Keith Grint is Professor of Public Leadership and Management at Warwick University. He is also a Visiting Research Professor at Lancaster University, an Associate Fellow of the Saïd Business School, a Fellow of the Windsor Leadership Trust, a Fellow of the Sunningdale Institute, and a Visiting Scholar at Sydney University. He is a founding co-editor of the Sage journalLeadership, and also co-edits the Sage Handbook of Leadership. He has written on various aspects of leadership, including: leadership theory (Leadership: Limits and Possibilities, 2005); historical aspects of leadership (The Arts of Leadership, 2001); leadership in the military (Leadership, Management and Command: Rethinking D-Day, 2008); and leadership in the public sector (The Public Leadership Challenge) (forthcoming) (ed. with Stephen Brookes). He wrote the literature review for ‘Strengthening Leadership in the Public Sector’ (2000) a project of the Performance and Innovation Unit (Cabinet Office).

Always

6:30 pm, April 26, 2012

Apollo Cinemas (Piccadilly)

Chul-min is a man whose life hides a dark past. He works as a delivery man by day and a parking-lot attendant by night.
One evening a chance encounter changes his life forever. He meets the partially sighted Jung-hwa whose optimism restores his faith in people and the world. As their friendship blooms Chul-min Seeks ways to finance the surgery that Jung-hwa desperately needs.
Fighting for high-stakes, can Chul-min’s return to the underworld be a success?

Booking: http://www.apollocinemas.com/ 0871 220 6000

Celebrate the Korean Film Night’s 100th Screening
26th April 2012, Apollo Cinemas, Piccadilly

With Director Song Il-Gon’s 2011 film ‘Always’ the KCCUK presents its 100th Korean Film Night and after the Q+A we will celebrate this milestone with a small reception.

Songkran 2555

 

 

The Music of Toru Takemitsu: A talk by Noriko Ohtake

 

20 April 2012

2:00 – 3:00pm, followed by a drinks reception to 4:00pm

Daiwa Foundation Japan House

Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation

Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996), undoubtedly one of the most representative Japanese composers of the 20th century, conceived a unique synthesis of Japanese and Western aesthetics and, to a large extent, defined the role of the cosmopolitan artist. Highly influenced by musical languages of the West, especially Debussy, he merged in his music the Japanese philosophy of selflessness. By exploring Western musical style and by searching for his true inner self, Takemitsu succeeded in achieving individuality and universality at the same time.

In this talk, Dr Ohtake will discuss Takemitsu’s life and works and will demonstrate with music his style and sources of inspirations.

Ultimately, Takemitsu’s art cannot be classified as solely Western or Japanese, but as a unique composite of many influences.  Through his attainment of spirituality, Takemitsu conceived cosmopolitanism and the quality, which determines prominence in art by its ability to relate to human sensibility in any age and place.

Dr Noriko Ohtake

Dr Noriko Ohtake is a pianist, author and lecturer. Born in Japan, Dr Ohtake went to the United States at the age of 15 and studied the piano at the Juilliard School in New York. After graduating from Juilliard with a BM and an MM, she completed her doctoral studies at the University of Maryland. Her main teachers include Martin Canin and Thomas Schumacher. As the first prize winner of Enrico Fermi Foundation Competition, Dr Ohtake has also won the first prize at Brooklyn Arts and Culture Association Competition and the Homer Ulrich Award at the University of Maryland. She held recitals in Washington, DC sponsored by the World Bank and the IMF. After returning to Japan, she has performed in numerous recitals and chamber music concerts, specialising in contemporary Japanese composers. In 1996, she appeared on a BBC broadcast program commemorating the death of the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu. In 1997, she made a concert tour in Chile for the centennial celebration of the relationship between Japan and Chile. Dr Ohtake’s musical publications include: Creative Sources for the Music of Toru Takemitsu (Scolar Press, London) and The Dictionary of Piano Composers and Their Compositions (Yamaha). She has translated into Japanese the Study Guide series (Zen-on) and J.S. Bach Well-Tempered Clavier (Ed. Mugellini) (Yamaha) among many others. She has also edited scores including Haydn Piano Sonatas and Schubert Drei Klavierstücke (Zen-on). Dr Ohtake currently holds positions as an associate professor of music at Sagami Women’s University and a lecturer at the Open University of Japan.

BOOKING FORM

Book Launch: Obtaining Images – Art, Production and Display in Edo Japan by Prof Timon Screech

 

24 April 2012 from 6.30pm

The Edo period (1603–1868) witnessed one of the great flowerings of Japanese art. Towards the mid-seventeenth century, the Japanese states were largely at peace, and rapid urbanization, a rise in literacy and an increase in international contact ensued. The number of those able to purchase luxury goods, or who felt their social position necessitated owning them, soared. Painters and artists flourished and the late seventeenth century also saw a rise in the importance of printmaking. Obtaining Images introduces the reader to important artists and their work, but also to the intellectual issues and concepts surrounding the production, consumption and display of art in Japan in the Edo period. Rather than looking at these through the lens of European art, the book contextualizes the making and use of paintings and prints, elucidating how and why works were commissioned, where they were displayed and what special properties were attributed to them.

Timon Screech is Professor in the History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and, concurrently, Permanent Visiting Professor at Tama Art University, Tokyo. He is the author of several books on Japanese history and culture, including Sex and the Floating World: Erotic Images in Japan, 1700–1820 (Reaktion, 1999) and The Shogun’s Painted Culture: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese States, 1760–1829(Reaktion, 2000). Tim Clark, Keeper of Japanese Art at the British Museum will act as discussant at this event.

This event is presented in partnership with Reaktion Books, with this book having been awarded a grant under the Japan Foundation Support Programme for Publication on Japan.

 This event is free to attend but booking is essential. To reserve a place, please e-mailevent@jpf.org.uk with your name, details and those of any guests.

Led lights and girls

 

 

Trees, Small Fires and Japanese Joints by Edward Allington

19 Apr 2012 to 25 May 2012

Monday – Friday, 9:30am – 5:00pm

the Japan House Gallery

Professor Edward Allington, Head of Graduate Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art, will present a series of drawings of trees, small fires and Japanese joints. Some are based upon the famous screen by Kano Eitoku (1543 – 1590), Cypress Trees, now in the Tokyo National Museum, some from other Japanese prints, some from observation, and others from comic books and a children’s guide to Japanese carpentry.

Drawing has always been important to Allington. He collects volumes of ledgers, once used by companies for their financial records. Most are leather-bound and on extremely high quality paper. The entries, some faded, are in neat and formal manuscript. Allington draws over the rows of figures and texts, which add a layer of their own history to his ideas for sculpture or sculptural diagrams. Allington says, “Sometimes the information on the paper gives me ideas as to how the drawing might develop. But the main reason [I use ledger paper] is because these are records of everyday life. I want there to be a contradiction between my illusionistic style of drawing and the paper. If you read the writing on the paper, you have to ignore the drawing, and if you want to read the drawing, you have to ignore the writing.”

 

Professor Edward Allington was born in 1951 in Troutbeck Bridge, Cumbria. He studied at Lancaster College of Art, Central Saint Martin’s School of Art and Design, and the Royal College of Art. Allington came to prominence in the early 1980s when his work was included in influential group exhibitions such as Objects and Sculpture at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (1981) and The Sculpture Show at the Hayward Gallery (1983). Since then he has exhibited widely in America, Japan and throughout Europe, and is represented in major national and international collections such as the Tate Gallery and Victoria and Albert Museum in the UK, and the Aichi Prefectural Museum in Japan. He was a Sargant Fellow at the British School in Rome (1997) and a Gregory Fellow in Sculpture at the University of Leeds (1991-93). He is a regular contributor to art magazines such asFrieze, and a book of his collected essays, A Method for Sorting Cows, was published in 1997. Allington is Head of Graduate Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.

Political Leadership in Japan after March 11th: Challenges at home and abroad

 

17 April 2012 from 6.30pm

The Japan Foundation, London
Russell Square House
10-12 Russell Square
London WC1B 5EH

Following the events of March 11^th last year, Japan has been facing a number of challenges in terms of political leadership. Energy Policy is one area where a clear direction is needed to navigate the new landscape following the nuclear disaster at Fukushima. Similarly, strong leadership is required in the area of taxation reform in order to meet Japan’s current budgetary challenges, as is evidenced by the current political wranglings over increasing the rate of consumption tax. Then, on an international level, Japan needs to articulate a clear strategy in order not to get left behind in the constantly shifting seas of trade agreements that are being negotiated at this present time. These are just some of the many pressing issues that require strong and decisive leadership to emerge from within the Japanese political system – this event will discuss and assess what needs to be done to accomplish this.

Prof Akiko Yamanaka, Former Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan serves as Council member of the Japan Institute of International Affairs and Advisor on Research at the Japan Institute for International Policy Studies. She has been Visiting Professor at the United Nations University in Tokyo and Hokkaido University Graduate School and senior researcher at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University and CSIS in Washington D.C. She is currently Senior Visiting Scholar at Churchill College, Cambridge University.

William Horsley is an experienced journalist who has written and reported extensively on issues of governmental power and the role of the media during more than 30 years of international reporting and analysis. He spent 15 years as a BBC foreign correspondent for TV and Radio based in Asia and Europe. He is the co-author with Roger Buckley of a popular history of postwar Japan, Nippon: New Superpower.

event@jpf.org.uk

Feathers in the Wind

Feathers in the Wind (2005)

Song Il-gon

7pm, April 12, 2012

Hyeon-seong is a film director struggling to write a new screenplay, he decides to return to a remote southern island he stayed on 10 years earlier in order to fulfil a promise he made with his girlfriend at the time. As he waits on the secluded island to see if the promise will also be kept by his now ex-girlfriend, he gets to know an oddly charming young motel operator So-yeon.