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(Japan Series) Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere – The Art of Manga
Online lecture via Zoom.
50 min lecture followed by Q&A.
Free and open to all, booking essential.
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If you have limited access to the internet but would still like to view the lecture, please email sisjac@sainsbury-institute.org or call us on +44 (0) 1603 597507 to book to attend our livestream from 64 The Close.
This lecture forms part of the Japan Studies: Past, Present and Future series in collaborations with the Royal Asiatic Society, and the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Speaker
Professor Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere (Research Director, Sainsbury Institute)
About the Talk
International enthusiasm for manga and anime is at an all-time high. Manga has finally established itself as part of the mainstream culture in the United States, with sales of print manga titles in the U.S. increasing 27 times faster than those in the conventional book industry in the USA. In Europe, manga has long been recognised as a powerful form of visual graphic expression. Britain, however, has traditionally been a bit slower in its embrace of manga. Bucking this trend in 2019, the British Museum held one of the most ambitious exhibitions on manga, focusing on its history, range, and impact. Featuring over 50 artists from past to present, the Citi Manga exhibition attempted to contextualise and as well as capture the power of manga. Happily, the exhibition was a confirmed success with record visitor numbers, attracting new diverse audiences to the museum.
Six years later, the de Young Museum, part of the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco in the United States is currently hosting a very different manga exhibition featuring the art of manga drawings (genga) highlighting 10 manga artists (mangaka). With a total of 689 individual works on display, this exhibition is one of the most ambitious one to showcase this important art form. Working with the artists, multiple Japanese publishers, and various stakeholders to create this exhibition was instructive. This lecture will introduce the Art of Manga and explore the lessons learned and possibilities for the future.
About the Speaker
Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, Ph.D., is the founding Director and currently the Research Director of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures and Professor of Japanese Art and Culture at the University of East Anglia, Norwich UK. She wrote Vessels of Influence: China and the Birth of Porcelain in Medieval and Modern Japan with Bloomsbury Academic in 2012 and translated Professor Tsuji Nobuo’s A History of Art in Japan with Tokyo University Press in 2018, re-issued by Columbia University Press in 2020, among numerous other publications. She was the lead curator for the Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan exhibition in 2007 featuring Moriguchi Kunihiko and his father’s yuzen kimono, and the Citi Exhibition Manga マンガ in 2019, both held at the British Museum where she was curator from 2008-2019. She is currently curator of a large art of manga exhibition, The Art of Manga, on display at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, from 27 September 2025 to 25 January 2026. She was made the Tottori Prefecture furusato ambassador in 2021.
Image: ©︎ Rumiko Takahashi/Shogakukan; ©︎ PAPIER/Jirō Taniguchi, Masayuki Qusumi, FUSOSHA; ©︎ Mari Yamazaki, Tori Miki/Shinchosha; ©︎ Hirohiko Araki & LUCKY LAND COMMUNICATIONS/Shueisha; ©︎ Kazumi Yamashita/KODANSHA LTD.; ©︎ Fujio Akatsuka; ©︎ Gengoroh Tagame/Futabasha Publishers Ltd.; ©︎ Fumi Yoshinaga/HAKUSENSHA, Inc.; “Hinemosu notari nikki” ©︎ Tetsuya Chiba/Big Comic (Shogakukan); ©︎ Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha