Art of the Silk Road & Japan

My Upcoming Lecture in Cleveland 4/12/2016

JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2015 LECTURES

I'm going to be very busy in January and February, giving a variety of lectures. Here's my lecture schedule:

3 PM January 11, 2015, at the Lawrence, KS, Public Library. 
MIDCENTURY MODERN & JAPANESE DESIGN
A lecture based on research for my new book, Japanese Design: Art, Aesthetics, & Culture; sponsored by the Lawrence Modern group, in conjunction with the Lawrence Public Library and the Center for East Asian Studies, University of Kansas, with a book signing arranged by the Raven Bookstore.


 7:30 PM January 20, 2015, The Huntington Library, Pasadena, CA
SEARCHING FOR THE SPIRIT OF THE SAGES:  THE JAPANESE TEA CEREMONY FOR SENCHA
A lecture derived from my earlier book, Tea of the Sages: The Art of Sencha and subsequent research. The lecture is part of an ongoing series in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Huntington's Japanese garden and its new teahouse.

January 23, 2015, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (time & place not yet announced)
LANGDON WARNER'S VISION FOR THE JAPANESE COLLECTION AT THE NELSON-ATKINS MUSEUM OF ART, 1930-1935
My presentation is part of a two-day conference on "Ideas of Asia in the Museum," January 23-24 (the talks on the 24th will take place at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art).

January 26  (evening), Scripps College, Claremont, CA
 January 29, 1 PM, at the San Diego Museum of Art
February 18, Phoenix Art Museum
JAPANESE DESIGN: AESTHETIC COMPONENTS, CULTURAL SOURCES, WORLDWIDE PROMOTERS

A public presentation based on my new book. The talk in San Diego is sponsored by the museum's Asian Arts Council. The talk will explore the varied formal characteristics of Japanese design, the religious and cultural factors that contributed to its creation, and the writers, both foreign and Japanese, some famous and others nearly forgotten, responsible for creating worldwide awareness of and sustaining interest in Japanese design from the 19^th century to the present.

Lecture in NY September 12, 2012

Public Lecture in Kyoto May 28

--Celebrating Design and Craftsmanship: Early Acquisitions of Japanese Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art-- Lecture will be from 6:30-8:30 in Room 213 of the Fusokan on the Doshisha University Campus Sponsored by the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies.

ABSTRACT: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is recognized for its superb holdings of Chinese art. Yet in its formative period, 1930-35, the museum also began amassing an extraordinary collection of Japanese art under the oversight of Harvard University Art Museum curator and lecturer Langdon Warner (1881-1955), one of the earliest specialists on Asian art in the USA,who also led excavations in China and Central Asia, and advised the Cleveland and Philadelphia Art Museums on acquisitions during the course of his long career. For the Nelson, Warner bought large and diverse groups of textiles, arms and armor, ukiyoe prints and paintings, lacquer, ceramics, and Buddhist art that represented his personal feelings for Japan's defining spiritual, aesthetic, and cultural characteristics, and above all highlighted the Japanese as among the world's greatest designers and craftsmen. When the Japanese collection came under the jurisdiction of Chinese art historian Laurence Sickman in 1935, much of this collection fell into obscurity because of his emphasis on Chinese art. After Sickman became Director in 1953 he began a renewed effort to collect Japanese art, but then emphasized the acquisitions of masterpieces by famous artists and other arts such as porcelains, large-scale folding screens, early Buddhist sculptures, and lacquers, that could be described as refined products of Japanese elite culture, all reflective of the aesthetic taste of post-war Japanese art enthusiasts. Recently, as art museums re-evaluate their collections, they are becoming interested once again in the types of formerly ignored objects that Warner collected, recognizing that the aesthetic achievements of diverse cultures may encompass art forms that fall outside the parameters of artworks deemed "masterpieces" or "fine arts" by Western criteria. Scrutinizing the early Japanese collection at the Nelson with these issues in mind illuminates more than changing attitudes towards appreciation of Japanese art. It raises questions about the presentation,collection, and interpretation of world art in art museums today.

 

May 5 Presentation in Washington, DC

I will be a speaker on May 5 at 2 PM, the Freer Gallery (Smithsonian Institution) in a program entitled -- CONVERSATION: VISUAL CULTURE AND SOCIAL UPHEAVAL: IMAGING CHANGE IN LATE EDO PERIOD JAPAN. 

The program is held in conjunction with two special exhibitions at the Sackler Museum, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in Japanese painting and prints.  

October 27, 2011 Lecture in Chicago

I'll be presenting a lecture to the Japan-America Society of Chicago on Thursday Oct. 27, 2011.

A VEXING PROBLEM:  THE LONG TRADITION OF COPIES AND FORGERIES IN JAPANESE AND EAST ASIAN ART

6-6:30 pm REGISTRATION
6:30-7:15 pm PRESENTATION
7:15-7:30 Q and A

Masuda Funai Eifert & Mitchell, Ltd.
203 N. LaSalle Street, 25th Floor Conference Room
Chicago, IL 60603
$15 JASC Members/$20 Non-Members

The production of copies is part of the tradition of East Asian visual culture. Not all copies are fakes and many have monetary value, sometimes more than the original. Artists from Korea and Japan were often inspired by Chinese art, and Japanese artists also copied certain types of Korean arts, such as Buddhist painting. Consequently, distinguishing the original from the copy is often challenging. Understanding the different contexts in which copies were produced helps understand how to evaluate them. Emphasizing the tradition of copying in Japanese arts, this presentation also addresses copies in Chinese and Korean arts, showing how some are copied for legitimate reasons, and others for deception.

The talk draws on Graham's experience as both a scholar and appraiser of Asian art, using examples of objects she has seen and studied over the years, including Japanese secular paintings, Chinese, Korean and Japanese Buddhist painting and sculpture, Japanese prints, ceramics, cloisonné, Peking glass, jade, and netsuke. She will compare different sorts of copies and fakes, and discuss their relative values in the marketplace. Currently, the issue of forgeries is particularly pertinent and vexing because these have increased substantially in recent years, especially in China, although the use of scientific examination techniques is often used effectively to discern them.

The Diaspora of Kyoto's Buddhist Sculptors in Edo Period Japan: To Osaka, Edo, and Beyond

Presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, April 5, 2008, on the panel: Centers/Peripheries in Medieval and Early Modern Japan

This paper examines the fate of Japan's preeminent Buddhist sculpture making workshops of Kyoto in the Edo period, whose hierarchy, patronage base, and market reach changed dramatically during this time. These developments occurred due to political and social changes instigated by the Tokugawa shogunate. Kyoto workshops specialized in the production of religious images, whose manufacture required high levels of technical skill that fostered the development of guild-like lineages. At their apex was the Seventh Avenue Atelier, which for centuries garnered commissions in the Kansai region from the highest echelons of the court and samurai and the important temples they supported.

Following Tokugawa Ieyasu's establishment of Edo as his capital, the Seventh Avenue Atelier began to produce imagery for Tokugawa temples there. By the late 17th century, the shogunate fortunes had declined so significantly that work dwindled. Many sculptors left this prestigious workshop to found new ateliers serving different groups of patrons, both commoners and daimyo, in Edo, Osaka, and elsewhere. Although scholars have long dismissed Kyoto's Edo period Buddhist sculpture as derivative, my paper refutes this bias using case studies that draw on recent research into the holdings of provincial temples in Takamatsu City and Aomori Prefecture. The permeation of the work of Kyoto Buddhist sculptors into the nation's periphery reflects their resilience and creativity. It also reveals changing patterns of wealth distribution and the desire of nationwide patrons of Buddhism to increase their cultural status through association with art styles of the imperial capital.

Buddhist-Inspired Spirituality in Contemporary Japanese Art

Paper Presented at the Annual Midwest Art History Society Conference in Kansas City, April 2, 2009, on the panel:

THE SPIRITUAL IN CONTEMPORARY ART: 1980S TO THE PRESENT

This talk addresses a subject absent from discussions about contemporary Japanese art amid the mania for contemporary Japanese artists inspired by pop art forms of anime and manga: the power of Buddhist spirituality to inspire artists both within and apart from Buddhist organizations. The existence of these artists refutes widespread misconceptions about the faith's intellectual demise in Japan today, stemming largely from Buddhism's lack of clear visual identity and the alienation of many of its followers from its institutions. My talk presents case studies of three contemporary Japanese artists inspired by Buddhist spirituality in very different ways. Only one, Mukoyoshi Yuboku (born 1961) is formally acknowledged as a Buddhist artist because he mainly creates icons, although his recent collaboration with American artist Charles Ray reveals his openness to new modes of spiritual expression. One of the others, Turner-Yamamoto Shinji (born 1965) lives in the USA, but creates site-specific art installations worldwide using found organic materials to express his search for universal connections between humankind and nature. The third, Mukaiyama Kisho (born 1968), created his own hybrid painting/sculpture medium to give visual form to the diffuse colors of light he envisions in his prayers to the Buddha worlds of the esoteric Shingon sect. In examining the relationship between personal religious practice and artistic inspiration, this talk aims to refute assertions that faith-based spirituality is restrictive rather than conducive to artistic creativity. It also shows how artists can use unorthodox visual expressions of faith to express universal spiritual values that appeal to diverse audiences.

Eri Sayoko and Nakamura Kokei: Transforming the Art of Ancient Japanese Buddhist Painting into a Modern Art-Craft

Paper presented at the conference: Places at the Table: Asian Women Artists and Gender Dynamics, University of California, Berkeley, September 13, 2008


Kirikane, the graphic technique consisting of luminous, minute patterns in cut-gold leaf, often applied in conjunction with mineral colors, is a distinguishing feature of many of the finest Japanese Buddhist paintings and sculpture. This technically challenging art dates back to the seventh century C.E, when it was introduced from China. How two talented and dedicated women – Eri Sayoko (1945-2007) and Nakamura Keiboku (active professionally since 1980) – have been working to preserve and revitalize this tradition in Japan today is the subject of this talk. Their achievements are significant because the art form in which they specialize was formerly dominated by men. Their ability to achieve success in this art hints at monumental changes to Japanese society in the post World War II era. Most well-known contemporary Japanese women artists work in non-traditional art forms and seek international recognition. But, as these two women reveal, women have also made inroads and assumed leadership roles in endangered, conservative craft traditions such as kirikane, from which they were formerly, publicly excluded. Tragically, Eri Sayoko passed away suddenly last year at the peak of her career, five years after being designated as a Living National Treasure.

Discussion of contemporary Japanese women artists rarely mentions women like Eri and Nakamura because of the structure of artists' organizations in Japan. Although old Japanese Buddhist paintings are considered fine art, the work of makers of Buddhist sculpture and painting today are designated by the Japanese art establishment as "art crafts" (bijutsu kōgei). As such, artists who specialize in these art forms gain recognition for showing their work in domestic craft, rather than fine art, exhibitions. Rarely are these arts shown abroad. Furthermore, both Nakamura and Eri work closely together with their husbands (Mukoyoshi Yuboku and Eri Kokei respectively), both Buddhist sculptors, in their own small ateliers (of the sort traditionally headed by men), to create imagery for use by Buddhist institutions and their lay followers as sacred religious icons.

Yet Eri and Nakamura have themselves been quietly working to reinvigorate this conservative Buddhist painting tradition through their deep study and original conceptualizations of kirikane and Buddhist painting. Eri applied inventive variants of traditional Buddhist kirikane patterns on elegant, secular functional objects that harmonized with modern aesthetic sensibilities, including screens, wall hangings, and small boxes. Her original designs were highly acclaimed. Nakamura is now engaged in an approximately four year project to create a replica of a set of two large, rare, thirteenth century mandala paintings long ago removed from their home temple, which has requested the copy. Collaborating with religious studies scholars, temple priests, and conservators, she is recreating the original appearance of the much-damaged original through meticulous study of historical design motifs and technical analysis of pigments. Her completed mandala and the data she gathered to create it will prove an invaluable source for the understanding of the original appearance of the colors and designs on early Buddhist painting. The work of these two artists reveals a rarely addressed aspect of the contemporary Japanese art scene, namely that following a conservative artistic tradition can foster artistic creativity, offering both a window into the past and a path towards a future that still embraces tradition.

Devotional Icons as Spectacle: Buddha Buildings in Modern and Contemporary Japan

Presented at: the annual meeting of the Midwest Art History Society
Omaha, NE, April 9, 2010
on the panel: MONUMENTALITY IN MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ASIAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE



My recent book, Faith and Power in Japanese Buddhist Art, 1600-2005, highlighted a wide body of Buddhist icons and structures neglected by most art historians who only consider Buddhist materials of much earlier eras as worthy of study and the core of Japan's traditional artistic canon. This paper considers one of the most ubiquitous types of recent Buddhist icons in Japan, monumental Buddhist statuary, that are universally derided by scholars as Japanese kitsch and not worthy of consideration. My paper charts the history of these large Buddha-buildings and argues for why they should be taken more seriously. Makers of giant statues in the modern period have become increasingly preoccupied with testing the limits of new technologies to create images of unprecedented height and many of these can be entered. Disregard of them, and virtually all of Japan's formal Buddhist art, on the part of scholars has occurred for a number of reason. First, when the Japanese artistic canon was created in the late 19th century, scholars focused on ancient and medieval Buddhist statuary because of its association with Japan's elite rulers—courtiers and powerful samurai --who demonstrated to the world that Japan possessed an elite culture like that of the European nations with whom they sought parity. As they strove to position modern Japan as superior to the backward culture of the nation's immediate past, where Buddhism and its art featured prominently, these men also disregarded modern Buddhist art because it did not emphasize Western concepts that valued originality and individual artistic creativity but instead stressed adherence to strict iconographic models to assure religious efficacy. Also, they and later scholars have ignored modern Japanese Buddhist art because of their widespread disdain for the formal practice of Buddhism in modern and contemporary Japan, considered no more than a business that makes money from masses of devotees who fork out large sums for funerary services for loved ones. Finally, because these new monuments incorporate new technology and contemporary religious values which to some seem more like entertainment than solemn devotional rituals, their cultural authenticity and religiosity are questioned. I believe this is a mistake, that these monuments deserve greater recognition—not only as technological achievements but as reflections of new ways practitioners engage with their faith. They are potent symbols of a modern, transnational Buddhist art.

NY Appraisers Association of America lecture on Copies and Forgeries in Chinese and Japanese Art

New York, NY, October 6, 2008, 6PM
Chinese and Japanese Arts: Antique or Not, Authentic or Fake?
Lecture sponsored by the Appraisers Association of America at the National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South, New York City (20th Street between Irving Place and Park Avenue South). Lecture from 6:00p.m. to 7:00p.m. Receptions follow lectures from 7:00p.m. to 8:00p.m. Jacket and tie required. For reservations call 212.889.5404 ext. 11. AAA/ISA/ASA Members free; General Admission $15

Lecture description: The production of copies is part of the tradition of East Asian visual culture. Not all copies are fakes and many have monetary value, sometimes more than the original. Understanding the different contexts in which copies were produced helps understand how to evaluate them. This presentation introduces the wide variety of Chinese and Japanese arts that are commonly copied, showing how some are copied for legitimate reasons, and others for deception. I draw on my experience as both a scholar and appraiser of Asian art, using examples of objects I have seen and studied over the years. Discussion will focus on some of the most popular types of Chinese and Japanese arts collected in the USA since the late 19th century, including secular paintings, Buddhist painting and sculpture, Japanese prints, ceramics, cloisonné, Peking glass, jade, and netsuke, and show comparisons of real and fake examples. Currently, the issue of forgeries is particularly pertinent and vexing because these have increased substantially and become more difficult to discern in recent years, due to technological advances.

Lecture in Naples, FL on Obaku Monks and their Artistic Legacy

Florida Gulf Coast University, Renaissance Academy, Chinese Art and Culture Study Group, 10 AM to Noon

Chinese Chan Monks in Edo Period Japan: The Ôbaku Zen Sect and Its Artistic Legacy.

Lecture for the Chinese Study Group at the Renaissance Academy Florida Gulf Coast University.

Lecture description: The Ôbaku Zen sect in Japan, founded by emigrant Chinese Chan monks in the mid-seventeenth century, had a remarkably broad appeal. Its dignified, charismatic, and learned monks converted large numbers of followers of diverse social status and deeply impacted Japanese religious and artistic traditions. The dramatic images of Buddhist saints, created by Chinese Buddhist sculptors who emigrated to Japan with the monks, enabled Ôbaku monks to spread devotion to those heroic personages from the Buddhist pantheon to followers of other sects. The Chinese appearance of their temple buildings were a novelty in Japan that helped their temples attract numerous visitors. But beyond that and the persuasiveness of their religious doctrine, Japanese flocked to Ôbaku temples because they functioned as repositories of knowledge concerning broader aspects of Chinese intellectual culture at a time when overseas travel by Japanese citizens was forbidden. Ôbaku monks were well-educated intelligentsia, literati, and as such were authorities on classical Chinese literature, philosophy, painting, and calligraphy traditions, that they transmitted to Japanese followers. The monks' participation in literati activities became a conduit for introducing Japanese admirers to literati lifestyles, which revolved around the drinking of steeped tea. This custom spread throughout Japan as the sencha (steeped tea) ceremony, which for a time surpassed the traditional chanoyu tea ceremony in popularity.