On this week in Tokyo! (27 March - 2 April 2017)

Plenty of events packed into the next few days, before the new academic year begins. The opening of the sakura in Tokyo are marked by a "Cherry Blossom Viewing" exhibition at Tokyo National Museum, with displays of artworks featuring cherry blossoms, haiku poetry gatherings, and other events. Also, the Institute of Italian Culture in Chiyoda-ku has a photo exhibition of the 2500 cherry trees at the "Japanese promenade" in Rome, donated after a visit by the Italian prime minister in the 1950s.

Lecture topics over the next few days include: two lectures on the press (one on press freedom in contemporary Japan, one on the East Asian press in the 1940s); politeness and material culture in eighteenth-century England; foreign relations in early modern Islamic states; Chinese films in Hollywood; and "Treacherous Translation". See below for a full list of lectures and art exhibitions. Intermediatheque in Marunouchi also has another in their series of their jazz gramophone concerts, which I keep meaning to go to...

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Lectures and Conferences

(** = event in English / * = partly in English, or translation provided)

**3/27 - Political Economy Tokyo Seminar lectures by Lawrence Klein (Cambridge), on "The Culture of Politeness in Eighteenth-Century Britain", and Maxine Berg (Warwick) on "Global Microhistory" (University of Tokyo, Kojima Hall, 2pm: https://politicaleconomyseminar.wordpress.com/)

**3/27 - Asiatic Society of Japan meeting - Peter O'Connor, “The Japan Times, the Nippon Times and the Cuckoo Press of Greater East Asia, 1940-1945”, Shibuya Kyoiku Gakuen, 6.30pm

3/27 - Takehiko Kariya (Oxford), "Catching-up Modernity: Reflections in between the two academic communities", UTokyo UTCP, 1pm

**3/27 - British Needlework Workshop, Japan-British Society, 1pm

**3/27 - Serk Bae Suh and Ken Yoshida (University of California), "Treacherous Translations/Transactions in Language and Art", Waseda University Toyama Campus, 5pm

*3/27 - "Early Modern Islamic States and the Surrounding World" symposium, TUFS, 1pm

3/28 - "中近世ヨーロッパにおける教会法、教会法学者と社会" (Potential of the New Notion of World History Symposium), Waseda Institute for Advanced Study, 13:30

*3/29 - Research meeting on Middle East and Islamic Studies, TUFS, 13:30

*3/30 - Film Workshop: Messages from Paradise, TUFS, 2pm

**3/30 - Vanessa Frangville (Brussels), "Going to Hollywood with Non-Han Films: A Potential Soft Power Synergy?", Waseda Building 19, 10:45am

3/31 - Gramophone Concert Jazz Summit 37 ("Oh, Lady Be Good!"), 18:00, Intermediatheque

**3/31 - "Press Freedom in Contemporary Japan" - Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies, Temple University, 7pm


Exhibitions

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

3/27 - 4/9 - Exhibition on cherry blossom in Rome (ローマの花見), Italian Cultural Centre

3/28 - 5/21 - Session: A Singular Painter, University Art Museum, Ueno

from 4/1 - Opening of new general exhibition at the Goethe Museum Tokyo (http://goethe.jp/)

until 4/1 - Performance of August Strindberg's Miss Julie / Dance of Death, Bunkamura Theatre Cocoon (http://www.bunkamura.co.jp/english/cocoon/20170310.html)

until 4/2 - Special Exhibition on "Titian and the Renaissance in Venice", Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (http://www.tobikan.jp/en/exhibition/h28_titian.html)

until 4/2 - "Revisiting Siebold's Japan Museum", Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture

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

until 5/7 - "Cherry Blossom Viewing" exhibition, Tokyo National Museum

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