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Fashion and the Floating World in Japanese Ukiyo-e Prints

Tuesday 22 April 2025 / 6:45pm

Date
Tuesday 22 April 2025*

Time
6.45pm

Venue
The Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way (Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
[Map]

Booking Details
Free- Booking essential

* Please note this event was originally scheduled for Monday 28 April 2025.

Please help us to keep this event free and open to all!

The activities of The Japan Society are made possible thanks to the support of its members. If you are planning to attend this event and are not a member (as an individual or through your employer), please consider becoming a member or making a donation if you can - the recommended donation is £5. Thank you!

The vivid woodblock prints of the late 18th and 19th centuries were integral to Japan's dynamic fashion culture. Drawing from the Victoria and Albert Museum's collection, curators Anna Jackson and Masami Yamada will explore how these ukiyo-e, "pictures of the floating world", served as compelling advertisements for kimono merchants, textile workshops, cosmetics brands, theatre promoters, and brothel operators. These prints also inspired individuals seeking to emulate the fashionable actors, courtesans, geisha, and other trendsetters they portrayed.

Anna Jackson is Keeper of the Asia Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum. A specialist in Japanese textiles and dress, she is the curator of the exhibition Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk, which was staged at the V&A in 2020 and subsequently toured to four venues in Europe. She has also written widely on the subject of cultural exchange between Asia and Europe. In 2004 she was co-curator of Encounters: the Meeting of Asia and Europe 1500-1800 and in 2009 lead curator of Maharaja: the Splendour of India’s Royal Courts. In December 2020, Anna was awarded the Foreign Minister’s Commendation by the Japanese Government for her contribution to the promotion of Japanese art and culture in Britain.

Masami Yamada is Curator of Japanese Art in the Asia Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum where she has responsibility for the museum’s renowned collections of woodblock prints, netsuke, lacquerware and contemporary crafts. She has contributed to various publications, including Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk (2020) and The Art of the Illustrated Book (2022). Her latest book, co-written with Anna Jackson, is Fashion and the Floating World: Japanese Ukiyo-e Prints which was published in October. Masami was also one of the curators of the exhibition Japan: Myths to Manga at Young V&A (2023-24), which is now touring in the USA.

If you have any questions, please call The Japan Society office on 020 3075 1996 or email events@japansociety.org.uk.

Supported by the Toshiba International Foundation (TIFO)

Booking Info

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If you are not a member of The Japan Society (as an individual or through your employer), please consider becoming a member or making a donation if you can - the recommended donation is £5.

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Event Tags: Curating Japan: Museums and Exhibitions Lecture

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Fashion and the Floating World in Japanese Ukiyo-e Prints

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