On this week in Tokyo! (3 - 9 April 2017)

Happy cherry blossom season to everyone! A slightly quiet week ahead on the lecture front, although there are still talks on Donald Trump (a popular topic this year!); public art in the digital age; the Jesuits in Latin America; Bertrand Russell; and two lectures by Dr Katarzyna Starczewska on 16th century Islam-Christian relations. Also, visits by two novelists: Mari Akasaka (author of Vibrator and Muse) and the Italian crime fiction writer Sandrone Dazieri.

Waseda University, which has one of the largest collections of Papua New Guinean artwork in Japan, has put it on display: "Meeting with Papua New Guinea" features over a thousand items, including earthware, weapons, and religious artefacts.

New exhibitions are opening on Marvel superheroes and the contemporary Japanese house, and this week is also the last chance to see the "Edo and Beijing: Cities and Urban Life in the 18th Century" exhibition, which is great.

Congratulations also to Barnaby Ralph, Angela Kikue Davenport, and Yui Nakatsuma, who have just brought out "London in Literature, 1603-1901", a Festschrift volume dedicated to the Dickensian scholar Eiichi Hara.

Talks

(** = event in English; * = partly in English or translation provided)
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​**4/4 - Javier Perez Jara, "The Feet of Clay underlying Bertrand Russell's Critiques of Idealism", UTokyo TFAP, 5pm (?)

**4/4 - Joseph A. Kéchichian, "Donald Trump and the Middle East", TUFS, 6pm

**4/5 - "#vivalarevolucíon: New Millennium Political Protests", Temple University, 7pm

4/5 (Italian) - discussion with the Italian crime fiction writer Sandrone Dazieri, Italian Institute of Culture Tokyo, 6.30pm

**4/7 - Martin Zebracki, "Whither Digital Public Art? The Question of Amphibian Matter", Tokyo University of the Arts, 4.45pm

**4/7 - Guillermo Wilde, "Religious Conversion and the formation of Space-Time categories in the Borderland Missions", Waseda University, 10.40am

**4/7 - Katarzyna Starczewska, "The Qur'ān as an authority in Christian polemics against the Muslims in Medieval and Early Modern Europe", Keio University Mita Campus, 4.30pm

**4/8 - Katarzyna Starczewska, "Philology and Forced Conversion: The Role of Learned Converts in Qur'ānic translations in 16th-century Spain and Italy", Keio University Mita Campus, 2pm

4/8 - (Japanese) Mari Akasaka (赤坂真理), America and Japan and Me (アメリカと日本と私), Tokyo American Literature Society special lecture, Keio Mita Campus, 2pm 

Exhibitions and drama

until (tbc) - "Tokyo Mosaic (2): The Face of New Japan", Intermediatheque

until 4/4 - Food design exhibition: "Jikifu: A Japanese Aesthetics of Taste", Intermediatheque

until 4/5 - Treasures of the Waseda University Library exhibition

until 4/5 - Seize the Uncertain Day (ふたしかなその日), Tokyo University of the Arts University Museum

until 4/9 - Exhibit on "The Romanov Dynasty: Russia seen from Japan, Japan seen from Russia", Toyo Bunko (http://www.toyo-bunko.or.jp/museum/romanov.pdf)

until 4/9 - Exhibition on cherry blossom in Rome (ローマの花見), Italian Cultural Centre

until 4/9 - "Edo and Beijing: Cities and Urban Life in the 18th Century", Edo-Tokyo Museum

until 4/16 - "Parody and Intertextuality: Visual Culture in Japan around the 1970s", Tokyo Station Gallery

until 4/16 - "This is Kyosai!" (これぞ暁斎), Bunkamura Museum of Art

until 4/25 - Meeting with Papua New Guinea, Waseda University Collection

until 4/28 - "Tea utensils from the Tomioka Collection", Waseda University Aizu Museum (free)

until 5/7 - Cherry Blossom Viewing at the Tokyo National Museum

until 5/21 - Session: A Singular Painter, University Art Museum, Ueno

until 5/28 - Special Exhibition: "Akamon Gate: From Yo-hime Palace to the University of Tokyo",University of Tokyo Museum

until 6/5 - Alfonso Mucha Exhibition (ミュシャ展), National Art Center, Tokyo

until 6/11 - Treasures of the Natural History Museum in London, National Museum of Nature and Science Ueno

until 6/11 - Indian contemporary artist N.S. Harsha, Mori Art Museum, http://www.mori.art.museum/english/contents/n_s_harsha/

until 6/18 - "Old Masters from the State Hermitage Museum", Mori Arts Center Gallery

until 6/18 - "The formation process of print typeface: from movable type to digital font", Printing Museum Tokyo

4/7 - 6/25 - Marvel: Age of Heroes, Roppongi Hills Tokyo City View

4/8 - 6/25 - "Japan, the Archipelago of the House: Contemporary Japanese houses seen through photographs by a French photographer and architects" (日本、家の列島), Shiodome Museum Rouault Gallery

until 6/25 - "Reflections of Nature", Yohohama Museum of Art

until 6/30 - The Major Works of Goethe (ゲーテの主要著作), Goethe Museum Tokyo

until 1/21/2018 - "Treasures from Foreign Lands - The Jewelry of Desert Tribes", Intermediatheque