John Carpenter is Curator of Japanese Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he has worked since the summer of 2011. From 1999 to 2009 he taught the history of Japanese art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and served as Head of the London Office of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures. He has also taught courses at the University of Heidelberg. From 2009 to 2011 he was Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo. He has published widely on Japanese art, especially in the areas of calligraphy, painting, and woodblock prints. Among his recent publications is a catalogue of an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, Designing Nature: The Rinpa Aesthetic in Japanese Art (2012).