Environmental artist Trudi Entwistle from Leeds was awarded £1,000 to complete a one-month residency in Kamakura. She produced an installation entitled 'Translating Place' in the grounds of Kezoin, a disused Buddhist temple.

"As a result of my residency, I was invited to lecture at Leeds Metropolitan University and was also invited back to Japan for the Mogami Art Festival."

"Re Design", a project of the Hara Design Institute in Japan, exhibited works by 32 Japanese artists from the worlds of architecture, graphic design, product design, lighting design, photography, fashion and writing. They were asked to re-think 30 commonplace objects from the world around them. The objects included an immigration stamp, a cockroach trap, a tea bag and tissue paper among others.

"The exhibition cleverly illustrated the small cultural differences between Japan and the UK which are embodied in the objects we use and the way we use them. The exhibition was also a success in forging a strong relationship between The Lighthouse in Glasgow and Nippon Design Centre in Tokyo."

The art of Manga has become one of the most popular elements of Japanese culture, but access to authentic original material is difficult for people in other countries who do not read Japanese. Boychild Productions of London were given a grant to help launch the first edition of a new magazine, Manga Mover, which features stories from Japanese creators translated into English.

As a result of an initial visit made with assistance from the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, the Gardener’s Exchange Trust were then able to arrange for a British gardener from Tatton Park, which has one of the UK’s best-known Japanese gardens, to work in Kyoto with the Tsuji Landscape Company. The Foundation was also very proud to have contributed to the explanatory materials for Shizen, the Japanese Garden Society’s entry at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show 2004. The garden, designed by Maureen Busby, received a gold medal and attracted large numbers of visitors and press coverage.

 

A project combining the UK's most outstanding "physical theatre" with one of Japan's few bases for collaborative works with the UK. The performance was an opportunity for true cross-cultural collaboration - the exchange of theatrical expertise as well as life experiences. The presentation of "The Elephant Vanishes" introduced British audiences to Haruki Murakami's extraordinary fiction and offered them an encounter with modern Japan, through the author's imagination and Simon McBurney's visionary staging.

Bill Tingey, a photographer and designer who has been recording Japanese crafts and organising exchanges for some years, took a British professional woodturner, David Woodward, to visit Yasuhiro Satake in Yamagata and study every stage of his work. Thanks to Mr Satake’s cooperation, this has produced a unique record of the timber, tools and techniques which give Japanese turned objects their special qualities. As a sequel to this visit, a grant from the Tokyo office of the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation enabled Mr Satake to demonstrate his skills at workshops in the UK.

The books published with assistance from The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation include: A Guide to Japanese Art Collections in the UK, edited by Gregory Irvine and published by Hotei Press for the Japan Society; Creators in British Art by Takeshi Sakurai, published by Keibunsha; and The Tower of London and other stories by Natsume Soseki, translated by Damian Flanagan and published by Peter Owen. The Foundation’s support for publications is an important element in achieving its aim of spreading wider mutual knowledge of Japanese and British cultures.