Upcoming Events

Suitable for young adults and adults at beginner level. This is a beginner level workshop delivered by Ms Yukiko Ayres who will introduce participants to the Japanese Calligraphy items, demonstrate kanji’s basic lines and the kanji symbol for ‘Tiger’. She will then assist participants in writing the basic lines and the symbol for "Tiger" with brush or pen.

Discover a collection of rare drawings by Katsushika Hokusai – one of Japan's most celebrated artists, best known for his iconic print, Under the Wave off Kanagawa, popularly called The Great Wave. In a global first, this exhibition will display 103 recently acquired drawings by Hokusai, produced in the 1820s–1840s for an illustrated encyclopedia called The Great Picture Book of Everything. *Supported by Japan Society Small Grants.

This is a beginner level workshop aimed at breaking down what goes into creating a character, looking at the anatomy, character expressions, clothes and accessories that make the character feel unique and stand out! Shangomola is a UK based creator with a passion for creating ethnic diversity in comics.

Richard Cocks was the head of the English Factory in Japan for the ten years of its operation, from 1613 to 1623. Soon after his arrival he began sending Japanese books back to England and some of them survive to this day. Why did he do it, since he must have known that nobody in England could read a word of them? He sent them to prominent people and one of them showed a Japanese almanac sent by Cocks to King James I, who was unimpressed. In this talk, Professor Peter Kornicki shall explore how and why the books reached England and what subsequently became of them.

In conjunction with the exhibition ‘Fukushima Narratives’ at The Appleby Gallery this is a one-off opportunity to view a rare collection of Japanese Country Textiles, given to Eleanor Burkett by her former teacher, Harue Yoshida. Explore the techniques, processes and history of this exquisite collection and gain an understanding of the paper-textile traditions of the Fukushima area.

In Edo period Japan, a night-time game of one hundred flickering candles and one hundred supernatural tales became a widespread folk phenomenon - Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai. This unnerving folk custom forms the basis for our Game of Candles show. After each teller finished their story, a candle would be extinguished, plunging the room, by small degrees, into a darkness filled with ever more hungry ghosts... On 06 February, world-class storytellers Tim Ralphs and Sarah Liisa Wilkinson will pay tribute to the game with stories of ravenous flying heads; demon masks that possess the wearer; faceless ghosts; goblin-rats, women made of snow; seductive statues; warrior monks; abandoned farmhouses; haunted bridges; mountaintops and lonely roads...

The renowned Japanese drumming troupe, KODO, visits the UK this February celebrating its 40th Anniversary with One Earth Tour 2022: Tsuzumi. This new anniversary production features some pieces composed in the 80’s when the group first formed, but also features some of the newer recently composed work of the younger Kodo members. Basingstoke (9 Feb), Manchester (11 Feb), Birmingham (13 Feb), Sunderland (16 Feb) and Saffron Walden (18 Feb). 

Sumida River in Sign Language brings the natural and human worlds together in a drama of physical gesture and facial expression. Performed by deaf, unmasked actors, the play is suffused with the life of the river: pines bending in the wind, flocks of Miyako birds and mist swirling in from the bay.