Join the Embassy of Japan for a livestream of a lecture and discussion on the theme of wagashi: Japanese confectionery. The event will begin with a lecture by MORISAKI Mihoko, visiting researcher at Osaka City University and Lumière University Lyon. She will introduce the history and development of wagashi in connection with lifestyle and annual events. Traditional Kyoto-style wagashi and regional wagashi will be introduced and compared, and the role of wagashi, local food production, and consumption will be explored in the context of regional development. She will be joined by Dr Christopher Hood to discuss how wagashi could be seen as a potential source of tourism in areas around Japan.

Members of the audience joining the livestream are invited to pose questions to the speakers via the YouTube chat function.

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About the speakers:

MORISAKI Mihoko
MORISAKI Mihoko is a visiting researcher at Osaka City University and Lumière University Lyon. She has been researching how traditional wagashi has adapted to the needs of modern society whilst maintaining an element of tradition. She has been conducting a comparative study between Japan and France on how food culture can galvanize tourism and regional development.

Dr Christopher Hood
Christopher Hood is a Reader in Japanese Studies at Cardiff University and President of the British Association for Japanese Studies. He is the author of five academic books and focuses in part on themes relating to memorialisation, identity and symbolism, and how these relate to content tourism: the phenomenon of tourism motivated by exposure to content via film, media or other cultural form. Twitter: @HoodCP