Dr. Akiko Yano is the Mitsubishi Corporation Curator (Japanese Collections) in the Department of Asia of the British Museum. Born and educated in Japan, she completed her Bachelor’s degree in international relations at Tsuda College, Tokyo, followed by a master’s and a PhD in Japanese art history at Keio University, Tokyo, with a thesis on 16th-century Kano school screen paintings. 

As a PhD candidate, she received a Handa Fellowship for one year at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, which was followed by an AHRB research assistant position at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London in the SOAS-BM co-project for the special exhibition at the British Museum titled Kabuki Heroes on the Osaka Stage: 1780-1830 (2005).  

Having joined the British Museum in 2015, she was a member of the curatorial team for the special exhibition titled Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave (2017), the renewal of the Mitsubishi Corporation Japanese Galleries (2018) and a display called Nara: Sacred Images from Early Japan (2019). She is leading a major three-year international research project between the UK and Japan, co-funded by UKRI and JSPS, about ‘salon culture’ in Kyoto and Osaka in the 19th century. The project so far has produced a special display City Life and Salon Culture in Kyoto and Osaka, 1770-1900 (2024-25) at the British Museum and an accompanying book (editor and co-author) Salon Culture in Japan: Making Art, 1750-1900 (British Museum Press, 2024). 

She has published articles in academic journals and co-authored books and catalogs as part of the exhibition projects named above. She writes a bi-monthly column in a Japanese abject and has produced a special display titled City Life and Salon Culture in Kyoto and Osaka, 1770-1900 (2024-25), with an accompanying book (for which she served as editor and co-author) called Salon Culture in Japan: Making Art, 1750-1900 (British Museum Press, 2024). She also writes another bi-monthly column in a Japanese antique magazine, Me no me (Me no me Co. Ltd.), and gives lectures in the SOAS Asian Art diploma course.