Beyond Japan with Oliver Moxham

Oliver is joined by Hiroshi Ōta , professor at the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University, to discuss Net-Zero Japan. With the COP26 gathering and a recently leaked document revealing the Japanese government as one of many lobbying for climate change to be taken off the UN agenda , I ask Hiroshi about the rhetoric and actions of the Japanese government in the face of climate...

Oliver is joined by Zoe Shipley , graduate from our MA programme in Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies to discuss her thesis research, “Reality or Fantasy? 19th c. Photography of Japan”. Zoe’s research is based on a family heirloom, the Japan Album, collected by her ancestor Robert T. Rhode between 1877 and 1884. Made up of a collection of commercial photographs and his own work, Zoe addresses how...

Oliver is joined by Ellen Van Goethem , Professor in Japanese Humanities at Kyushu University, to discuss Capitals of Fate. Ellen’s research focusses on the history and archaeology of Japan’s early and frequently changing capitals from the Asuka to the early Heian period. We explore why these capitals were moved, what the criteria was when creating a new capital city and the influence of practices...

Oliver is joined by David Fedman , Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, to discuss Landscapes of Empire. David will share his research on the legacy of the Japanese Empire’s foresting initiative on the Korean peninsula, taking a look at collaboration and resistance between colonised Koreans and Japanese imperial authorities, how afforestation was rich with oppres...

Oliver is joined by Dr Charlotte Linton , Robert & Lisa Sainsbury Research Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute, to discuss dorozome (泥染め) textiles and traditional crafts today. Charlotte will share with us how her change from the fashion industry to academia over environmental concerns brought her to the dorozome or mud-dyeing workshop of Amami Ōshima, Okinawa to understand the challenges and...

Oliver is joined by Dr Rumi Sakamoto , Senior Lecturer in Asian Studies at the University of Auckland, to discuss remembering the kamikaze and the role of affect in war memory. Rumi shares with us how the image of the kamikaze has gone from one of shunned fanaticism to self-sacrificing heroism in popular culture through Japan’s post-war history. Looking at their representation in the Yūshūkan Muse...

Oliver is joined by Dr Igor Prusa , lecturer in Media Studies at the Metropolitan University Prague, who will discuss “Ritualising Scandal”. Igor takes us through the surprisingly structured social phenomenon of scandal in Japan, the necessity for tears in a televised confession, and how those who confess can actually come out better for it. Read Japanese Scandals and their Ritualization (2019) Im...

Oliver is joined by Dr Philip Seaton , professor in the Institute of Japan Studies at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, to discuss “Contents Tourism”, travel behaviour motivated by narratives, characters and locations from pop culture. Philip explains how contents tourism stands out from film or literature tourism through its transmedia approach, the term’s origins in Japan and the global natur...

Oliver is joined by Maiko Kodaka , PhD candidate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, the challenges that come with researching such a contentious subject and the insights we can gain from it. Maiko will also share her research on josei-muke (女性向け) pornography, or “porn for women”, being produced in the Japanese Adult Video industry and how this new...

Oliver is joined by Caleb Carter , Assistant Professor of Japanese Religions and Buddhist Studies at Kyushu University, to discuss power spots, or pawā-supotto as they are known in Japan. Caleb walks us through how a global movement which began in 1960s USA and UK claiming the healing energies at key sites of natural beauty came to be embraced in Japan, peaking in popularity as recently as 2010. W...

Welcome back to the second series of Beyond Japan ! This week the tables are turned as Professor Simon Kaner, Director of the Sainsbury Institute, interviews host Oliver Moxham on the topic of his recently completed master’s thesis, Reinterpreting Difficult Heritage. The case study of Oliver's research is Mimizuka, the Hill of Ears, a burial mound containing tens of thousands of pickled ears and n...

For the series finale, Oliver is joined by Toshio Watanabe, Professor of Japanese Art and Cultural Heritage at the Sainsbury Institute , to discuss gardens of war memory, going over his latest project of transnational gardens across the Pacific with ties to the Asia-Pacific War (1937-45). Toshio invites us to consider gardens as spaces of memory and healing, but also as reminders of colonialism pa...

Oliver is joined by Amanda McGuire, PhD candidate at the University of East Anglia, to discuss the Ainu in Japan, exploring their historical and contemporary relationship with the peoples of mainland Japan and what the withdrawal of the Ainu dance from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Opening Ceremony says about the theme of "unity in Japan". For a comprehensive list of Japanese time periods, please see Ja...

Oliver is joined by J. Alyssa White, PhD candidate in Archaeology at the University of Oxford , to discuss the prehistoric tragedy of the world’s oldest shark attack victim. The 3,000-year-old remains of Tsukumo No. 24 were first excavated in Okayama prefecture in the early 20th century covered in hundreds of small cuts to the bone which had baffled archaeologists until now after Alyssa, along wit...

Oliver is joined by Dr Mark Hudson , archaeologist in the interdisciplinary Eurasia3angle research group at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History , to discuss Bronze Age Globalization. Mark’s research of Jōmon-era Japan has indicated that socio-cultural exchange occurred between the Japanese archipelago and mainland Eurasia, followed by a re-Jōmonization where external cultures...

Oliver is joined by Dr Christopher Hayes, Research Associate at the Sainsbury Institute , to discuss “Binaries of Representation: Japan in the British Media”. Chris will share his insights on British travel shows that see TV personalities like Paul Hollywood or Sue Perkins travel the archipelago and reduce it to binary tropes such as “traditional Japan” and “ultra-futuristic Japan”, or “traditiona...

Oliver is joined by Kanako NAKAMURA, General Manager of Digital Interactive Rehabilitation System (Digireha for short), to discuss tech, art and rehabilitation. Kanako will explain how technological innovations and digital art can revolutionise monotonous rehabilitation processes for disabled children, creating a joyful, customised experience and fostering interactive relationships with family mem...

Oliver is joined by Dr Daria Melnikova , Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute, to discuss the art movement of Futurism in the early 20th century and how collaborating Russian and Japanese artists within the movement challenged its founding principles and Eurocentric nature. Japanese time periods mentioned: Taishō period: 1912-1926 AD Image credits [L] Kinoshita Shūichirō, A...

Oliver is joined by Professor Fabio Rambelli , lecturer at the University of California’s Department of East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies as well as International Shinto Foundation Chair in Shinto Studies, to discuss gagaku (雅楽), a traditional form of Japanese music which has endured to the modern day largely unchanged for over a thousand years. Fabio shares with us the cultural signif...

Oliver is joined by Professor Nicole Rousmaniere , Research Director at the Sainsbury Institute and Professor of Japanese Arts at UEA , to discuss ‘Exhibiting Japan’. Nicole has curated multiple exhibits at the British Museum including their permanent Mitsubishi Gallery as well as temporary exhibits such as the Manga Exhibit and Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan exhibit. As we gear up to a summer of...

Oliver is joined by Dr Ryōko MATSUBA, Lecturer in Japanese Digital Arts and Humanities at the Sainsbury Institute , to discuss the digitisation process of cultural artefacts. Ryōko is a specialist on Edo printed culture with wide-ranging experience of scanning kabuki prints and many other museum artefacts to create digital copies. As well as allowing for greater accessibility, Ryōko explains how d...

Oliver is joined by Dr Naonori Kodate , Associate Professor in Social Policy and Director of Research at University College Dublin, who will introduce us to the growing phenomenon of robotics in elder care. In super-aged Japan, robots are becoming more and more common in assisting care staff in a wide range of activities, from heavy-lifting to night-nursing, as the human workforce decreases due to...

Oliver is joined by David Slater, Professor of Anthropology at Sophia University in Tokyo , to discuss Article 9 and Youth Politics. Following Japan’s defeat in the Asia-Pacific War and the dismantling of its empire, occupying US forces put a clause in their revised constitution that forbade Japan from engaging in war or having a standing army. This clause, Article 9 , has been the subject of much...

As museums across Japan celebrate the 1,400th anniversary of the death of Prince Shōtoku Taishi , the legendary figure who brought Buddhism to Japan, the Sainsbury Institute together with the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia is currently collaborating with major universities and museums in Japan to create a special exhibit commemorating the event. This Shōtoku Inte...

As museums across Japan celebrate the 1,400th anniversary of the death of Prince Shōtoku Taishi , the legendary figure who brought Buddhism to Japan, the Sainsbury Institute together with the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia is currently collaborating with major universities and museums in Japan to create a special exhibit commemorating the event. This Shōtoku Inte...