Development of the Project
The project began in 2016 when Professor Simon Kaner, Executive Director of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, started building an international network of scholars (see People) to advise on a proposed exhibition on this theme to be held at the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich in 2020.
This informal network started researching and planning the exhibition, carrying out field and research trips to Japan and Korea (see Timeline). We shared our ideas with other scholars and curators, including the team planning for the British Museum and British Library exhibitions, held in 2024. However, the pandemic necessitated a change in plans and instead of a physical exhibition we concentrated on building our network, on research, workshops, publications and on developing an online exhibition.
The Online Exhibition
The online exhibition went live in stages from 2022 to 2024. It was curated by Susan Whitfield with the help of Andy Hutcheson and with input from the Nara to Norwich team of scholars, and with design by Naomi Hughes-White. The 142 exhibits from around the world are grouped into stories which illustrate the arrival of Buddhism in Japan and Korea and Christianity in Britain and Scandanavia.
Pilgrimage and the changes in the landscapes effected by the arrival of these religions—exemplified by Jelling —were both themes in the exhibition which we then decided to explore further. In 2024-25, we started new stages of the project, Sacred Landscapes and Maritime Routes.
The Forum Exhibition
The online exhibition was the inspiration for a panel exhibition at The Forum in Norwich in June 2024, also curated by Susan Whitfield with the help of Olivia Butler and input from the rest of the team. Design was by Colin Edwards. The centrepiece was a digital print from Hasedera (長谷寺)—a Buddhist monastery outside Nara in Japan—of their original 11th-century watercolour painting of Kannon (観音)—the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. We invited an associated group of chanting monks who participated in a workshop with plainchant singers from St Peter Mancroft Church in Norwich and carried out their rituals at the Forum and other places in Norwich.
The exhibition is now available in virtual reality (VR) form and you can download PDFs of the panels.
Collaborations
Nara to Norwich has been a collaborative project since its inception. Our exhibition advisory group included colleagues across Europe, Japan and Korea. From the start, we held our own and attended other workshops and conferences worldwide to discuss the project. We continue to make regular museum and field visits with partners to learn from their expertise, research artefacts, and to explore landscapes of conversion. In 2024 we edited a special issue of The Historian with articles by many of the colleagues.
Thanks
The project has only been possible because of the fantastic team of administrative and support staff at the Sainsbury Institute in Norwich, and we are grateful for their support throughout.
We are also grateful to our sponsors the Toshiba International Foundation, who have generously supported this project since its inception and have continued in this new phase of research.