Sake (nihonshu) occupies a singular place among fermented beverages, both in its nature and in its social uses, making it, paradoxically, a “Japanese exception.” As an identity-bearing drink, it is inseparable from the territory of Japan, its rice-growing landscapes, and the cultural representations associated with them. The recent application of foreign concepts such as terroir to sake highlights its contemporary paradoxes and reveals the complex relationship between place, identity, and production within its cultural and territorial framework.

Nicolas Baumert is Professor at Dokkyo University and an affiliated researcher at the Institut français de recherche sur le Japon (UMIFRE 19, MFJ). His research focuses on cultural geography, gastronomy, Geographical Indications, and the cultures of wine and sake, from a comparative European–Japanese perspective. He is the author of Le saké, une exception japonaise, translated into Japanese in 2022.

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (registration required in advance from here) and via Zoom.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89157200438

Meeting ID: 891 5720 0438

The punk scene in Kyoto developed in the late 1970s as local musicians keyed into the liberating ideas of early punk’s DIY ethos. Building on Kyoto’s counter-culture, punk thrived and produced new sounds and styles. This talk will discuss the local punk scene and how it developed in relation to other music scenes and political movements in Kyoto, Kansai and beyond. Punk claimed to be anti-hippie, apolitical and anti-intellectual but it was also capitalized upon by a music industry eager to use its outsider chic. By rejecting the increasing commercialism of the genre, local punks developed extreme music that operated in the same spaces as extreme politics within Kyoto city.

Mahon Murphy is an associate professor of international history at the Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University. His main research focuses on the global impact of the First World War. Along with Ran Zwigenberg he has also published on the history of hardcore punk in Kyoto.

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (registration required in advance from here) and via Zoom.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89765186084

Meeting ID: 897 6518 6084

This lecture is related to the groundbreaking exhibition, City of Others: Asian Artists in Paris, 1920s–1940s, which was held at the National Gallery Singapore in 2025. The talk will focus on Japanese artists in relation to other Asians active in the French capital during the Art Déco period (1925) and the Exposition coloniale (1931). It will address questions such as: What challenges did they face to cope with the Parisian art market at the margins of the École de Paris? What was their destiny? How and why was Léonard Foujita, for example, singled out among his compatriots?

Inaga Shigemi is professor emeritus at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies and the Graduate University for Advanced studies. His main publications include Le Crépuscule de la peinture (1997), L’Orient de la peinture (1999), Painting on the Edge (2014), and In Search of the Haptic Plasticity (2024).

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (registration required in advance from here) and via Zoom.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84071262659

Meeting ID: 840 7126 2659

The lecture will critically outline the ideas and works of the Group Metabolism and their iconic projects in the context of the continuous transformation of the Japanese urban environment. Beyond the forms and the aesthetics of their propositions, the cultural relevance and the methodological approach proposed by Metabolism, rooted in the responsiveness of Japanese design and the adaptability of the traditional architectural construction systems, still retain some relevance.  Its importance is in the latent capability to address the great criticalities of our time in Japan and globally.

Raffaele Pernice is Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Urbanism at UNSW Sydney, and a 2026 JSPS BRIDGE Fellow at Kyushu University. Recipient of a Monbukagakushō Scholarship and a JSPS Postdoc Research Fellowship, he holds a PhD in Architecture from Waseda University and a MA in Architecture from IUAV University, Italy. He is editor of the book The Urbanism of Metabolism (Routledge, 2022).

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (registration required in advance from here) and via Zoom.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86047783858

Meeting ID: 860 4778 3858

This lecture will look into the dynamics of Japanese science fiction by tracing back the gradual emergence of the genre through various guises— from extraordinary journeys and war chronicles to political novels and detective fiction, examining how it evolved over time and contexts. It will highlight the pioneering role of postwar writers such as Abe Kōbō and reflect on science fiction’s slow but steady infiltration into mainstream literature at the turn of the 21st century.

Denis Taillandier is Professor at Ritsumeikan University’s College of International Relations. His research focuses on the interplay between science fiction and the scientific discourse in contemporary Japan. He has also published anthologies of Japanese SF in French translation.

This hybrid lecture will be held on site (registration required in advance from here) and via Zoom.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87819642692

Meeting ID: 878 1964 2692