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JFNY & CGP NEWSLETTER | June 30, 2020
News
As in-person gatherings are limited due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, various activities related to Japanese Studies in the United States have been suspended. In response, online activities have increased as various efforts are being made under these restrictions. The Japan Foundation, New York is introducing a new grant program to provide intensive support for initiatives that focus on exchanges via the Internet.

JFNY Grant for Arts & Culture expands the scope to online content programs. We support online projects related to Arts & Cultural Exchange that incorporate issues pertaining to the COVID-19 global pandemic, such as virtual exhibitions and performances, film streaming, online conferences as well as webinars. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. For online projects, they must be received by JFNY at least 1 month prior to the project start date.

Cultural Event
Join our free online event with special guest speakers Stéphanie Crohin , Author and Sento Ambassador, and Hayasaka Shinya MD PhD , Bath & Hot Spring Medical Researcher, as they discuss Japan’s long history of bath culture, the art of public bath houses, the science behind Japanese bathing habits, and how everyone can try these practices in the comfort of their own home. Presentations will be followed by a live Q&A. This event is supported by CGP.

Performance
July 2 & 3, 7:30pm EDT
Online (Zoom)
Pig Iron Theatre Company livestreams the play Zero Cost House (for Zoom) , which is about disaster, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden , and the conscience of the artist. The piece was created as a collaboration between Pig Iron Theatre Company and Japanese playwright Okada Toshiki , supported through the Performing Arts Japan (PAJ) program. It premiered in the U.S. in 2012 at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, and in Japan in 2013 at the Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama (TPAM). This online event is supported through the JFNY Grant for Arts and Culture.

Japanese Studies
In 2018, the JFNY Grant for Japanese Studies program supported an interdisciplinary conference at the University of Chicago on the topic of Russo-Japanese cultural relations. It shifted the narrative and challenged the traditional binary views between East and West as “colonizer” and “colonized,” as seen exclusively through the prism of political and ideological hierarchies and power relations.
This conference resulted in the recent publication of a book titled Japan’s Russia: Challenging the East-West Paradigm .
For inquiries, please contact: info@jfny.org
Image credits (from top to bottom):

Photo: Stéphanie Crohin.

Zero Cost House image courtesy of Pig Iron Theatre Company.

Cover image of Japan’s Russia: Challenging the East-West Paradigm .
CGP