FAH 10/110: JAPANESE ART & THE WEST
Instructor: Prof. Ikumi Kaminishi
Office: Department of Art & Art History, 11 Talbot Ave., 3rd floor
Contact: (617) 627-2424 or [email protected]
Office hours: Tuesdays 3:00-5:00 pm or by appointment
FALL 2013
Classroom: Tisch 314
Time: Mon/Wed 3:00-4:15 pm
Description of the Course:
The course examines the direct and indirect artistic exchange between Japan and the West
(western Europe and America) from the sixteenth century to the present. The sixteenth century
Japan is often referred to as Japan’s Christian-most Century, since Japan came into direct
contacts with Christianity through western European missionaries in the early first half of the
sixteenth century. Although the access and mobility of the Western traders (the Dutch, mostly)
were limited in Japan, the volume of trades steadily increased throughout the period. Japanese
artists not only tried to learn the Western methods of painting to intrigue their domestic clients,
but also to satisfy the curious Western customers. Outburst of Japonisme movement in the
nineteenth century Europe and America explains this. We will also look at how art functioned as
cultural symbols for the nationalists’ rebellious responses against the artistic invasion from the
West. Major artists include Hokusai, Degas, Kuroda Seiki, and van Gogh.
Learning Objectives:
• To familiarize with visual arts and cultures of Japan
• To develop an ability to analyze, interpret, and write on visual works of art
• To learn to contextualize cultural and historical significance of Japanese art
• To develop critical thinking ability in response to scholarly literature.
• To understand the issues of cultural exchange: Views on Orientalism and Occidentalism
Requirements and policies:
• The completion of all assignments: exams, papers, and group project
• Mandatory class attendance
• Late papers will be downgraded by a third of a full grade each day.
Distribution of Grading for FAH: 10
1. Mid-term examination (25%)
2. A short paper on film (4 pages) (15%)
3. Final examination (30%)
4. Group project: research paper and debate (4-5 pages) (30%)
Distribution of Grading for FAH: 110
1. Mid-term examination (25%)
2. A short paper on film (4 pages) (15%)
3. Final examination (20%)
4. Group project: debate (30%)
5. Either a research paper or a response paper on Okakura’s Ideals of the East (8-10 pages
for undergraduate; 12-15 pages for graduates) (10%)
Books on TISCH Library Reserve
N7354 .C45 2006
Conant, Ellen, ed.
DS821)V36 1984
Varley, Paul.
N6447.W5313
Wichmann, Siegfried
NE1322 .M44 1986 Meech-Pekarik, Julia
DS896.62)E34 1994 J. McClain, ed.
N7353)4 .O3513
Okamoto, Yoshotomo
N7352 .J362 2007
Seattle Art Museum
N7429 .L36 2005
Lambourne, Lionel
N6757 .C58 2001
Clark, John
N6510 .M44 1990
Julia Meech
N6447 .W5313
Wichmann, Siegfried
NC1766.J3 N38 2007 Napier, Susan
NX584)A1 R85 2008 Ruland, Patty J.
NC1766.J3 A4 2005b Murakami, Takashi
ND1055 .J36 2000 I. Schaarschmidt-Richter
DS822)4 .B45 2000 Elise Tipton et. al.
DS835 .O4
Okakura, Kakuzo
N7350 .O4c
Okakura, Kakuzo
DS821)B31713
Barthes, Roland
DS808 .C6
Cooper, Michael
Challenging Past and Present
Japanese Culture
Japonisme
The World of the Meiji Print
Edo & Paris
Namban art of Japan
Japan envisions the West
Japonisme: cultural crossings
Japanese exchanges in art
Japonisme comes to America
Japonisme: the Japanese influence
From Impressionism to anime
From painted scrolls to anime
Little boy: the arts of Japan's exploding subculture
Japanese modern art
Being modern in Japan
The Awakening of Japan
The Ideals of the East
Empire of Signs
They came to Japan
Online database and academic sources
1. TRUNK: Some selected images from the lectures are posted periodically.
2. Oxford Art Online: Extensive Art History encyclopedia
3. ARTSTORE: Digital image library
4. Chicago Manual of Style Online: Use it when writing an academic paper
2
SCHEDULE (Subject to change)
1.
Azuchi-Momoyama Period: Japan’s First Contact with the West
9/4
Introduction to the course
• Class attendance is mandatory
• Read the assigned readings before class
• [JSTOR]: Available online through Tisch Catalogue, Electronic Access
• [PDF]: Available on the course Trunk: “Resources” folder, “Readings”
• Lecture powerpoints will be posted on Trunk: “Resources” folder, “Powerpoints”
9/9
Topic:
Read:
Japan’s Azuchi-Momoyama Period
1) Mason, Penelope. History of Japanese Art, Chapter 5. [Tisch Reserve]
2) Paul Varley, selected pages from Japanese Culture [PDF]
3) Michael Sullivan, “Introduction” and “Japan: The First Phase, 15501850” Meeting of Eastern and Western Art [PDF]
Recommended further reading: Guth, Christine. Art of Edo Japan, 9-87
9/11, 16
Topic:
9/18
Topic:
Read:
•
Nanban-jin (“Southern barbarians”)
1) Hioki, Naoko. “Visual Bilingualism and Mission Art.” Japan Review.
[JSTOR]
2) Curvelo, Alexandra. “The Disruptive Presence of the Namban-jin in
Early Modern Japan,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the
Orient. [JSTOR]
3) Narusawa, Katsushi. “Two Streams of Namban Painting,” Japan
Envisions the West: 16th-19th century Japanese Art from Kobe City Mus.
[PDF]
Orientalism and Occidentalism
1) Nishimura, Daisuke. “Said, Orientalism, and Japan.” Alif: Journal of
Comparative Poetics. [JSTOR]
2) Said, Edward. “Introduction,” Orientalism. [PDF]
3) Brown, Judith. “Courtiers and Christians” Renaissance Quarterly
[JSTOR]
4) Carrier, James. “World Turned Upside-down,” American Ethnologist
[JSTOR]
Discussion in class: Orientalism and Occidentalism; what did European missionaries
notice in Japan?; What did Christianity represent in Japan?
Watch film: Tampopo, Directed by Juzo Itami [View it before the class on Sept. 23]
3
2.
Edo Period: Tokugawa Regime’s Foreign Policies and Artistic Movements
9/23
Film discussion: Tampopo
 Discussion topics: Tampopo and “Orientalism”: What kind of Western paintings
and techniques do we find in Edo-period Japan?
 Paper assignment on Tanpopo is due on Oct. 2.
 Paper draft submission (optional but recommended) by Sept. 28 (email it to me)
9/23, 25
Topic:
Read:
10/2
Tampopo paper due by 6:00pm on Oct. 2 (Electronic submission permitted)
Edo Period: Tokugawa policy on religions and Western technologies
1) Mason, Penelope. History of Japanese Art, Chapter 6 [Tisch Reserve}
2) Proust, Jacques. “The Theater of Faith, Civility, and Glory,” Europe
through the Prism of Japan: Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries, tr. by
Elizabeth Bell (Notre Dame, Indiana: Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 2002):
83-112. [PDF]
3) McCall, John. “Early Jesuit Art in the Far East III: The Japanese
Christian Painters.” Artibus Asiae (1947). [JSTOR]
43) Screech, Timon. “‘Pictures (The Most Part Bawdy)’: the AngloJapanese Painting Trade.” The Art Bulletin. [JSTOR]
5) Toby, Ronald. “Reopening the Question of Sakoku: Diplomacy in the
Legitimation of the Tokugawa Bakufu.” Journal of Japanese Studies.
[JSTOR]
9/30, 10/2 Topic:
Read:
Ukiyo-e Woodblock prints
1) Sarah Thompson, “The World of Japanese Prints,” Philadelphia Mus. Of
Bulletin. [JSTOR]
2) Screech, Timon. “The Meaning of Western Perspective in Edo Popular
Culture." Archives of Asian Art. [JSTOR]
3) Little, Stephen. “The Lure of the West: European Elements in the Art of
the Floating World.” Art Institute of Chicago Mus. Studies. [JSTOR]
Suggested: Tsurumi, Shunsuke. “Edo Period in Contemporary Popular Culture”
Modern Asian Studies. [JSTOR]
Discussion: What is “ukiyo-e”? What aspects of Western artistic techniques did
Japanese woodblock printers use?
10/7
Topic:
Read:
Ukiyo-e and Japonisme in the West
1) Mayor, A Hyatt, and Yasuko Betchaku. “Hokusai.” The Met. Museum of
Art Bulletin. [JSTOR]
2) Standen, Edith. “English Tapestries ‘after the Indian Manner’.”
Metropolitan Mueusm Journal. [JSTOR]
3) Lehmann, Jean-Pierre. “Old and New Japonisme: The Tokugawa Legacy
and Modern European Images of Japan.” Modern Asian Studies. [JSTOR]
4) Bush, Christopher. “The Other of the Other?: Cultural Studies, Theory,
and the Location of the Modernist Signifier.” Comparative Literature
Studie. [JSTOR]
4
10/9
Discussion: Chinoiserie and Japonisme movements; their influence on European arts.
No lecture, but the group meetings in class
10/14
No class (Columbus Day)
3.
Meiji Period: Making the Image of Modern Monarch
10/15, 16 Topic:
Tue.
Read:
Meiji Period: Japan’s Official Opening to the West
1) Mason, Penelope. History of Japanese Art, Chapter 7. [Tisch Reserve]
2) Donald Keen, “The First Emperor of Modern Japan,” Births and Rebirths
in Japanese Art, ed. by Nicole Rousmaniere (Leiden: Hotei Publishing,
2001): 141-161. [PDF]
3) Watanabe, Toshio. “Josiah Conder’s Rokumaikan: Architecture and
National Representation in Meiji Japan.” Art Journal. [JSTOR]
4) Kitazawa, Noriaki. “The Formation of the Concept of ‘Art’ and the
Displacement of Realism.” Art in Translation. [PDF]
Suggested: Meech, Julia. “Collecting Japanese Art in America” and Gabriel
Weisberg, “Sowing Japonisme on American Soil,” Japonisme Comes to
America [TISCH RESERVE]; also Julia Meech-Pekarik, The World of the
Meiji Print [TISCH RESERVE]; MIT Visualizing Cultures online site
<http://www.visualizingcultures.com/menu/index.html> Visualizing Japan,
Yokohama Boomtown, and Throwing off Asia
Topics of interest: How are the nineteenth-century Westerners different or similar to
the sixteenth-century Westerners?; What did the Meiji Government do to
modernize Japan?
•
Review for the Mid-term exam on Oct. 16
10/21
MID-TERM EXAMINATION: (From 16th to the 19th century)
4.
Japanese Imperialism and art
10/23
Topic:
Read:
Awakening of Japan
1) Okakura, Kakuzo. The Ideals of the East. [TISCH RESERVE]
2) Sand, Jordan. “Was Meiji Taste in Interiors ‘Orientalist?’” Positions:
East Asia Cultures Critique. [JSTOR]
3) Tseng, Alice. “Kuroda Seiki’s ‘Morning Toilette’ on Exhibition in
Modern Kyoto.” The Art Bulletin. [JSTOR]
Recommended: 1) Tanaka, Stephan. “Imaging History: Inscribing Belief in the
Nation.” Journal of Asian Studies. [JSTOR]
2) Ellen Conant, Challenging Past and Present; also Conant, Nihonga
Topics of interest: Who collected Japanese arts in America?; What do the distinctions
of yōga and nihonga signify?
5
10/28
4.
DEBATE (group debates with group research paper)
Taisho Democracy and World Wars
10/30,11/4 Topic:
Read:
Taisho Period: Japan in the early 20th century
1) Bryson, Norman. “Westernizing Bodies: Women, Art, and Power in
Meiji Yōga.” Gender and Power in the Japanese Visual Field, eds. by
Joshua Mostow, Norman Bryson, and Maribeth Graybill. Honolulu:
University of Hawai’i Press, 2003: 89-118. [PDF]
2) Rosenfield, John. “Nihonga and Its Resistance to ‘the Scorching Drought
of Modern Vulgarity’,” Births and Rebirths in Japanese Art, ed. by Nicole
Rousmaniere (Leiden:Hotei Publishing, 2001): 163-197. [PDF]
3) Sapin, Julia. “Merchandising Art and Identity in Meiji Japan:…,” Journal
of Design History. [JSTOR]
4) MIT Visualizing Cultures online: “Asia Rising, Yellow Promise/Yellow
Peril” <http://www.visualizingcultures.com/menu/index.html>
Recommended: Sullivan, 133-149
Topics of interest: How do art and advertisement relate to each other?
11/6, 13
Topic:
Read:
Showa period: Japan in the WWII
1) Winther-Tamaki, Bert. “Embodiment/Disembodiment: Japanese
Painting.” Monumenta Nipponica [JSTOR]
2) Napier, Susan. “World War II as Trauma, Momory and Fantasy in
Japanese Animation.” Japan Focus. [JSTOR]
3) LaMarre, Thomas. “Born of Trauma: Akira and Capitalist Modes of
Destruction.” Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique [JSTOR]
Watch animated film: Akira [View it before class on 3/26]
Suggested: John Dower, War without mercy [Available on-line via ACLS History Ebook Project]; Ruland, Patty J. From painted scrolls to anime
Topic of interest: How did the Japanese portray enemies? What do war and atomic
bomb symbolize?
11/18, 20 Topic: Japan after the WWII
Read: 1) Barthes, Roland. The Empire of Signs
2) Aso, Noriko. “Sumptuous Re-past: the 1964 Tokyo Olympics Arts
Festival.” Position: East Asia Cultures Critique. [JSTOR]
3) Croissant, Doris. “Icons of Femininity” Gender and Power in the
Japanese Visual Field, eds. by J. Mostow, Norman Bryson, and Maribeth
Graybill. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003: 119-139. [PDF]
3) Thomas, Julia. “Photography, National Identity, and the ‘Cataract of
Times’.” The American Historical Review [JSTOR]
Topic of interest: How did the Japanese gain power after the defeat in WWII? How
does semiotic reading work when studying cultures?
6
5.
[Those who wish me to look at a draft, turn it in by the end of the week.]
Pop Art and Japan
11/25
Postmodern: Yasumasa Morimura and Mari Mori
Read: 1) Kasahara, Michiko. “Morimura Yasumasa—Portrait (Futago).” Art in
Translation. [PDF]
2) Tomii, Reiko. “Historicizing ‘Contemporary Art’…,” Position: East Asia
Cultures Critique [JSTOR]
3) Wallis, Jonathan. “The Paradox of Mariko Mori’s Women in Post-Bubble
Japan: Office Ladies, Schoolgirls, and Video-Vixens.” Woman’s Art
Journal. [JSTOR]
4) Morimura, Yasumasa, Self-portrait as Art History [Tisch Reserve]
Topic of interest: What does American pop mean in contemporary Japanese art?
12/2
Research paper due
Topic: Superflat: Takashi Murakami
Read: 1) McGray, Douglas. “Japan’s Gross National Cool,” Foreign Policy
[JSTOR]
2) Darling, Michael. “Plumbing the Depths of Superflatness,” Art Journal
[JSTOR]
3) Looser, Thomas. “Superflat and the Layers of Image and History in
1990s Japan.” Mechamedia [PDF]
4) Benzon, William. “Godzilla’s Children: Murakami Takes Manhattan.”
Mechademia [PDF]
Suggested: Murakami, Takashi, ed. Little Boy
12/4
Review
12/9
FINAL EXAMINATION
APPENDIX: Chronology of Japan
10,500-300 B.C.E. Jōmon Period
300 B.C.E.-300 C.E. Yayoi Period
300 - 710 C.E.
Kofun Period
552 - 645
Asuka Period (Imperial capital in Asuka; Buddhist introduction)
645 - 794
Nara Period (Imperial capital in Nara)
794 - 1185
Heian Period (Imperial capital in Heian, present Kyoto)
1185 - 1333
Kamakura Period (Minamoto Shogunate in Kamakura)
1333 - 1573
Muromachi Period (Ashikaga Shogunate in Muromachi)
1573 - 1615
Azuchi-Momoyama Period (Warring-states)
1615 - 1868
Edo Period (Tokugawa Shogunate in Edo, present Tokyo)
1868 - 1912
Meiji Period (Emperor Meiji’s reign; capital from Kyoto to Tokyo)
1912 - 1926
Taishō Period
1926 - 1989
Shōwa Period
1989 - present
Heisei Period
7