The Japan: Kingdom of Characters Exhibit will be holding a series of lectures on Japanese pop culture at the Tall Galleries, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Complex, Roxas Boulevard, Manila (MAP).

29 July 2011
Monuments & Mascots: The Aesthetics of Kawaiisa (Cuteness) in Japanese Culture

This lecture will touch on the cultural, economic and political roots of the Japanese obsession with “cute”. The talk will be presented by Prof. Tito Genova Valiente of the Ateneo de Manila University .

He was the recipient of the Sumitomo Foundation Research Grant, and is presently working with Japanese anthropologist Dr. Hiroko Nagai as co-editor for the book Memories, Monuments and Media: Representations of Conflicts and Creation of Histories in Asia.

12 August 2011
Visual Syntagma of Japan’s Manga

This lecture will discuss the visual and narrative structure of manga through its history, characters, themes and tropes. This lecture will be given by Prof. Romanlito S. Austria of the University of the Philippines.

Prof. Austria received scholarship grants from the Japanese Government as a research student at the Faculty of Visual Communication and Design in 1996. He was also a participant of TENRANKAI, an art exhibition of former Filipino Japanese Monbusho scholars held at the GSIS museum.

Japan: Kingdom of Characters will run until the 20th of August 2011, at the Catwalk Galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. The exhibit will be open Mondays to Saturdays from 9:00 AM to 18:00 PM.