COMMUNICATIONS

I am delighted to have started at Nichibunken. I was first invited here by Professor Haga Tōru in the 1990s, and it is with a great feeling of honour that I come back permanently.

I was invited by Professor Haga during the first ‘shunga boom’ and that resulted in my book Shunga: Katate de yomu Edo no e, which is now in bunko-bon, as well as being available in English, Chinese, and Polish translations. After that, I produced some more work on ukiyo-e and its wider impact, as well as on the culture of the Tenmei/Kansei periods. I then made a big transformation, turning to the early Edo Period. This came about because 2013 marked the 400th anniversary of Anglo-Japanese relations: Tokugawa Ieyasu received a letter from King James I of England, in 1613, and the present of a silver-gilt telescope. A major international festival was organised in Japan and the UK, and I served as co-chair and historical advisor. As centre-piece, we commissioned a new British-made telescope, and presented it to the City of Shizuoka in Sunpu Castle. From this, I wrote a book, The Shogun’s Silver Telescope, published in 2020. Ieyasu died shortly after the English established their trading station (shōkan) in Hirado, and so my attention was caught by the matter of Ieyasu’s death, and his deification. My present project is on the nationwide network of shrines associated with the cult of the Tōshō Daigongen. I hope this will be a book in the next year or so.

As a side interest, I study the history of the Ryukyu Kingdom in the early-modern period. Before coming to Nichibunken, I was in a department of Art History, but I now consider myself a historian, though still with an interest in visual affairs.

Tōshōgū (Tōshōgū Shrine): From "Early Photographs" Database. Nichibunken Collection.