IN 1998, SIR Robert and Lady Sainsbury, long devotes of Japanese art, decided to sell Amadeo Modigliani's ‘Portrait of Baranowski’, the commemorative wedding present they had given each other, in order to create an institute dedicated to Japanese art studies in Norwich. This visionary gift was meant to build on their earlier gift to the Norwich community, the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, which they had previously endowed at the University of East Anglia. The Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (SISJAC) was registered as a charity in 1999. In endowing this institute the Sainsburys particularly wished to promote the wider dissemination of knowledge and understanding of Japanese art and culture, and to this end they appointed Dr Nicole Rousmaniere to be the founding director. Nicole Rousmaniere is now also Professor of Japanese Art and Culture at the University of East Anglia but when she was a lecturer at the University she developed a close relationship with the Sainsburys based on their mutual love of early Japanese art. With her appointment and with the guidance as a Trustee of Dame Elizabeth Esteve-Coll, former Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum and Vice-Chancellor of the University of East Anglia, the Institute was launched in 1999.

Since its inception, the Institute has expanded both its base of trustees and its affiliations with its main institutional partners, the University of East Anglia (UEA), the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and the British Museum in London. At present, the Sainsbury Institute has become a vital part of a much larger scholarly network and its activities have flourished as well. The Sainsbury Institute organises an extensive programme of research activities, fellowships, public lectures and international workshops.

Recent activities of the Institute include a workshop on ‘Radio Carbon Dating in Japanese Archaeology’, a symposium on ‘Deconstructing Boundaries: Is “East Asian Art History” possible?’ and the lecture series ‘Tokyo Futures, 1868–2020’. The Institute disseminates the results of these research activities in a variety of ways, including through its website (www.sainsbury-institute.org), an annual report and an e-magazine available on line.