Ken Tadashi Oshima, Lecturers
Ken Tadashi Oshima is Professor of Architecture at the University of Washington, Seattle, where he teaches in the areas of trans-national architectural history, theory and design.  He has also been a visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and UCLA. Dr. Oshima is a Fellow of the Society of Architectural Historians and served as President from 2016-18. He curated the exhibition The Wright Imperial Hotel at 100: Frank Lloyd Wright and the World (2023) and is author of Kiyonori Kikutake Between Land and Sea (2015), Global Ends—Towards the Beginning (2012), International Architecture in Interwar Japan: Constructing Kokusai Kenchiku (2009), and Arata Isozaki (2009).
https://arch.be.uw.edu/people/ken-oshima/
 

Alicia Volk, Lecturer
Alicia Volk is Professor of Japanese Art at the University of Maryland. She is the author of Made in Japan: The Postwar Creative Print Movement (2005) and curator of the exhibition of the same name. Her award-winning book In Pursuit of Universalism: Yorozu Tetsugorō and Japanese Modern Art (2010) received the Phillips Book Prize. Her latest book is In the Shadow of Empire: Art in Occupied Japan (University of Chicago Press, 2025). Through the analysis of charismatic artworks in a range of mediums and political commitments, it shows how the forgotten art of a country in the shadows of American empire variously accommodated and resisted the Cold War global realignment that followed on the heels of World War II. Volk has been a Japan Foundation-Ishibashi Foundation Fellow, a J. Paul Getty Postdoctoral Fellow, a Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow at the School of African and Asian Studies of the University of London, and a Fulbright Research Fellow at Waseda University. https://arthistory.umd.edu/directory/alicia-volk

Hitoshi Abe, Moderator
Hitoshi Abe, Professor and former Chair in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at the School of Arts and Architecture and Chair in the Study of Contemporary Japan and the Director of the UCLA Paul I. and Hisako Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies. Since 1992, when Dr. Hitoshi Abe won first prize in the Miyagi Stadium Competition and established Atelier Hitoshi Abe, he has maintained an active international design practice based in Sendai, Japan, as well as a schedule of lecturing and publishing, which place him among the leaders in his field. https://aha.design

1.「間」Ma: Time and Space in Japanese Architecture
Hiroshi Abe & Tezzo Nishizawa, Michael Osman
Oct. 29, 2024 (Recorded video will be available)

間 (MA) is a Japanese concept that defines the interval or space between two entities, encompassing both temporal and spatial dimensions, and serves as a foundational principle in various aspects of art, architecture, and life.

2.「矩」Kane: The Canon of Japanese Architecture
Don Choi & Takaharu Tezuka & Yui Tezuka
DEC. 10, 2024          

In Japanese architecture, the notion of 矩 (kane) serves as a guiding framework for practicing, norms and measurements are harmonized to create a unique aesthetic order. The speakers will talk about how this modular system affects the way they think and design.

4.「陰影」In/Ei: Images of Japanese Architecture
Toru Horiguchi & Liam Young
APR. 2025                 

陰影 (IN/EI) refers to the concept of shadows that highlights the importance of darkness as a vital element in representation, contrasting with the Western focus on light and clarity, and emphasizing the true essence of architecture and form.

5.「数寄」Suki: Microcosm of Tastes
Reijiro Izumi & Kunio Kirisako
JUN. 11, 2025

数寄 (SUKI) originally signified a love for poetry in the Heian period, but evolved to primarily denote the refined aesthetic and cultural appreciation associated with the tea ceremony, reflecting a nuanced relationship between art, architecture, and the appreciation of beauty.