Japanese Art & Culture Centre Utrecht

The Japan Fans community dreams of its own location for all their Japanese events in Utrecht, a dedicated Japanese Art & Culture Centre Utrecht. What could such venue look like?

Japan House London is a huge inspiration for the Japan Fans
Since her first visit in 2019, Japan Fans founder Martine was highly inspired by Japan House London. Picture via HomeGirlLondon.

Japanese Art & Culture Centre Utrecht

We dream of a cultural home of Japan in the centre of Utrecht. There we could start our library (we have sooooo many books!) and organise all of our Japanese events in the Netherland, such as exhibitions of Japanese art – for example by these artists – and artistic research project such as The Spirit of Kanji. The aim is to create a ‘Manga & Japanese Culture Week‘ basically every week!

Japanese Art & Culture in de Neude library in Utrecht
Another inspiration is the Neude bieb, where the Japanese Manga & Culture Week was held, this year.

Japanese Art & Culture Meetups in Utrecht

In a centre of our own, the people from our various Japanese meetup groups would have a stable place to study and connect. At this moment, we organise a weekly Japanese study group in Utrecht, and more ad hoc meetings for our Utrecht haiku group and our Japanese book club. We would like to expand this to include meetings for Japanese board games & video games, Japanese Arts & Crafts and the martial arts of Japanese Budo. Perhaps our space could even include a small dojo space for practice?

Of course, our Japanese Art & Culture Centre should have a piano…

Japan Fans Performances of Japanese Art & Culture

We would love to perform in a Japanese ambience. Demonstrations of Budo, but also concerts with live Japanese music, for example Japanese flute music, music from Ghibli films, and Japanese piano music. We would also like to organise haiku readings and storytelling events in our own Japanese cultural centre in Utrecht.

Stichting Japan Fans – Japanese Arts & Culture

We are working hard to realise our dreams. We are now an official foundation – the Stichting Japan Fans – and in negotiations with the municipality for a location of our own. If you’d like to support the idea of a Japan Centre in Utrecht, you can do so in various ways, such as sharing our link, signing up as a volunteer, liking the Japanese Cultural Center page on Facebook, and/or making a donation to our crowdfunding campaign. Let’s make this dream a reality together! Keep an eye on our website and socials for the latest news on a Japanese Art & Culture Centre in Utrecht!