Digital Commons Network^™

The Coevolution Of The Six Ancient Kilns And Japanese Postwar Local Identity, Benjamin Lewis Rothstein

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

The arts have long been tools used to prop up political visions, and Japan’s traditional crafts are no exception to this trend. Japanese ceramics in particular have enjoyed, or perhaps endured, era after era of patronage by successive governments and movements over their more than a millennium of history. Appropriated by a wave of nationalism in the Meiji period, the rokkoyō (six ancient kilns), long famous for their rustic style and acclaimed tea wares, were converted along with many other traditional crafts into symbols of the Japanese national spirit. In the postwar period, however, without necessarily losing their national importance, …

Shōjo, Kawaii, And Yōkai Iconographies In Chiho Aoshima's Strawberry Fields And How They Relate To Contemporary Gender Dynamics In Japan, Neo Sim Yee

Theses

This paper analyzes the shōjo, kawaii, and yōkai iconographies in Chiho Aoshima’s digital painting Strawberry Fields and examines how they relate to contemporary gender dynamics and anxieties in Japan. The painting bears the artist’s distinctive, characteristic style, which includes elements that are childlike and monstrous, cute and dark. The work, rich in layered context, simultaneously reminisces about the innocence and freedom of adolescence, and critiques the prominent the unequal, rigid, and highly restrictive gender roles dictated by the Japanese patriarchal system. The distinct two halves of Strawberry Fields depict the dichotomous vision of Japanese women—innocent and girly versus defiant and …

Architecture In Anime: Miyazaki's Motifs, Jack Collins

Honors Projects

Internationally known, celebrated, and respected, director Hayao Miyazaki has become a household name by transforming an industry through his films. This research focuses on Miyazaki’s process and the similarities he shares with architects, both in and out of his works. By initially examining his background, the three motifs of architecture, inspiration, and sustainability are explored through works like Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke and more. The results of this research are to inform fans of both architecture and anime about the connection between someone who designs and builds the world, and one who designs and builds …

Living Between The Lines: How Japanese Crafts Taught Frank Lloyd Wright, Adolf Loos, And Eileen Gray To See Modern Domestic Space, Regina Nabil Emmer

Art & Art History ETDs

Histories of European and U.S. modernism conventionally accept that Enlightenment rational thought set modern architecture’s terms and criteria in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Rationalism privileges visual and material properties; distinguishes between art, architecture, and craft; and identifies space with the structure that frames it. It normalized the view that buildings stand fixed, independent of our interaction with them, and perpetuates assumptions about what physically defines domestic space. Consequently, Japan’s significance for modern domestic space in Europe and the U.S. has been interpreted as structurally evident. Simultaneously, the architecture of European and U.S. modernists who did not think like rationalists …

Butoh: From Wwii To The West, Caroline Conner

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Butoh is an underground dance movement in Japan that explores the human psyche in unconventional and sometimes grotesque ways. It originated out of the devastation of WWII Japan and rails against the rigidity of society as well as traditional theatre and dance forms. It has ties to Buddhism, in that both view suffering as a natural state of the world, and both may lead to depersonalisation (intentionally or otherwise), which is described as a loss of identity or sense of self. Gone unchecked, this detached exploration of the psyche can lead to personality dissolution, which can be especially problematic to …

Women In Post-War Japan: Bodies Of The Avant Garde, Cassidy P. Boulanger

Honors Undergraduate Theses

From 1945 onward, post-war artists in Japan encountered two interrelated challenges: to both adjust to the war’s aftermath, and also to create a new visual language which expressed new ideas and emotions. For women artists in Japan, this time of distinct culture change allowed for a re-defining of their role in the art community as well as society. However, there were strict boundaries surrounding the institutional and academic realm of art, one that was not inviting to women, or one that allowed opportunity or growth. Nevertheless, many women artists sought to explore gender roles, the idea of womanhood, sexuality, and …

Savoring The Moon: Japanese Prints Of The Floating World, Madison B. Dalton

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

Guided by the Director of the Madison Art Collection and Lisanby Museum, Virginia Soenksen,I served as the Curatorial Assistant for the Lisanby Museum’s forthcoming exhibition Savoring the Moon: Japanese Prints of the Floating World. The exhibition will highlight the Madison ArtCollection’s impressive Japanese woodblock prints in the ukiyo-e style. Ukiyo-e translates to“pictures of the floating world.” This style proliferated in Japan during the Edo period (1603 - 1868) and Meiji period (1868 - 1912), with visual themes that ranged from flora and fauna, Japanese ceremonies, kabuki actors, mythology, courtesans, and cultural pastimes. The estate of Charles Alvin Lisanby gifted over …

The Transition Of Guanyin: Reinterpreting Queerness And Buddha Nature In Medieval East Asia, Robert Wilf

Religious Studies Honors Papers

Avalokitesvara, better known by the Chinese name of Guanyin, is perhaps the second most pervasive figure in all of Buddhism after the historical Buddha himself. Part of this popularity comes from his adaptability and willingness to change to order to save everyone, no matter what part of society they might be from. It is thanks to this adaptability that Guanyin’s iconography varies wildly by region, with much of Theravada and tantric Buddhism depicting him as a man, while Mahayana Buddhism tends to revere her as the patron of women. From their earliest description, Guanyin was known to transcend boundaries to …

The Tale Of The Tokugawa Artifacts: Japanese Funerary Lanterns At The Penn Museum, Yoko Nishimura

East Asian Studies Faculty Publications

That previously stood at the back of the quiet inner courtyard of the Penn Museum waited many years for its significance to be rediscovered. It is one of the Tokugawa lanterns that long illuminated the shogunate family’s grand mausoleums during the Edo period (1603–1868 CE) in the Zōjōji temple in Tokyo, Japan. Photographs taken around 1930 show the lanterns flanking the Museum entrance in the Stoner Courtyard. The prominent placement of these objects suggests that, in those days, the Museum acknowledged the significance of the lanterns. One of the lanterns was subsequently moved to Museum storage after suffering damage from …

Building An Image: Japanese Influence On The Perception Of Western Countries, A Study Of The 1904 St. Louis World’S Fair, Andrea M. Fowler

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In this thesis, I argue that the Japanese government has utilized art and artistic expression to influence the perception that Western countries had of its nation and culture. This phenomenon is examined through a case study of Japanese participation at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and the exhibits that they presented. These exhibits are examined utilizing both reception and post-colonial theory, and then applying these theories to primary source material from the 1904 World’s Fair. These materials include guidebooks and photographs from both the United States and Japanese authors, to showcase differences between how the East and West interpreted …

Chiyo-Ni And Yukinobu: History And Recognition Of Japanese Women Artists, Kara N. Medema

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fukuda Chiyo-ni and Kiyohara Yukinobu were 17th-18th century (Edo period) Japanese women artists well known during their lifetime but are relatively unknown today. This thesis establishes their contributions and recognition during their lifespans. Further, it examines the precedence for professional women artists’ recognition within Japanese art history. Then, it proceeds to explain the complexities of Meiji-era changes to art history and aesthetics heavily influenced by European and American (Western) traditions. Using aesthetic and art historical analysis of artworks, this thesis establishes a pattern of art canon formation that favored specific styles of art/artists while excluding others in ways sometimes inauthentic …

From Beyond The Stars: Innovation And Inspiration In Meiji Japanese Art, 1868-1912, Charles Mason, Madeleine Zimmerman, Joe Earle, Tom Wagner

Kruizenga Art Museum Exhibition Catalogs

Design by Tom Wagner. Photography by the Kruizenga Art Museum, Tom Wagner, and Curatorial Assistance/WorldBridge Art, Inc. Produced by Storming the Castle Pictures (StCP) for the Kruizenga Art Museum as a catalogue for the exhibition, "From Beyond the Stars," August 29 - December 16, 2017.

The Brush Is Mightier Than The Bayonet: The Role Of Cooperation With The Art And Media Communities Of Japan During The American Occupation, William B. Carpenter

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Japan On The Medieval Globe: The Wakan Rōeishū And Imagined Landscapes In Early Medieval Texts, Elizabeth Oyler

The Medieval Globe

This essay explores how the poetry collection Wakan rōeishū becomes an important allusive referent for two medieval Japanese works, the travelogue Kaidōki and the nō play Tsunemasa. In particular, it focuses on how Chinese poems from the collection become the means for describing Japanese spaces and their links to power, in the context of a changing political landscape.

Torii And Water: A Gateway To Shinto, Hannah Imson, Amy Kahng, Victoria Lekson

Featured Research

Water symbolizes purity in the Shinto religion and thus holds utmost importance as a method of religious purification. Additionally, scholars and worshippers recognize the role of torii as gateways to the kami, or deities of nature. However, there has not been a documented survey of the relationship between torii and their placement in water, a relationship we feel is significant in understanding Shintoism. We intend to bridge this gap in scholarship by displaying the prevalence of torii placed in or right next to water. We will explore torii from various parts of the world as well as different time periods …

Mapping Shikoku: Picturing Buddhist Pilgrimage In Contemporary Japan, Anna Maria Ortiz, Chloe Walton, Cody Mcmanus

Featured Research

In this research, we will address this question: Do the modern methods of practicing the Shikoku Pilgrimage stay true to the ancient intent of the pilgrimage? People who embark on the journey to each of the 88 Shikoku temple sites do so to escape to another world of peace and tranquility that they cannot obtain in their regular daily lives. Unfortunately, there is a large gap in scholarship on the topic of the Shikoku Buddhist Pilgrimage: little is written about how the shift from ancient to modern practices of the pilgrimage has changed pilgrims’ experiences. Little is known by Westerners …

Redefining The Multiple: Thirteen Japanese Printmakers (Exhibition Catalogue), Sam Yates, Yoshihiro Nakatani

Ewing Gallery of Art & Architecture

Curated by Sam Yates and Hideki Kimura, professor of art at Kyoto City University of Arts, Redefining the Multiple unites 13 printmakers from Japan who bring the techniques and concepts of printmaking to a wide range of contemporary and traditional media.

Of the selected participants, four make three-dimensional objects and installations, two paint with printmaking tools and techniques, three use digital photography and technology, while others utilize traditional and recognizable printmaking methods.

The featured artists are: Hideki Kimura, Junji Amano, Kouseki Ono, Koichi Kiyono, Shuji Chiaki, Toshinao Yoshioka, Shunsuke Kano, Naruki Oshima, Marie Yoshiki, Nobauki Onishi, Shoji Miyamoto, Arata Nojima, …

Japan's Haunting War Art: Contested War Memories And Art Museums, Asato Ikeda

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

No abstract provided.

Review Essay: National Traditions And Foreign Influences In The Architecture And Urban Form Of China And Japan, Carola Hein

Growth and Structure of Cities Faculty Research and Scholarship

Review of JEFFREY E. HANES, The City As Subject: Seki Hajime and the Reinvention of Modern Osaka. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. pp. xii, 348, bibliography, index; JONATHAN M. REYNOLDS, Maekawa Kunio and the Emergence of Japanese Modernist Architecture. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. pp. xviii, 318, bibliography, index; JEFFREY W. CODY, Building in China: Henry K. Murphy’s “Adaptive Architecture” 1914-1935. Seattle: University of Washington Press/The Chinese University Press, 2001. pp. xxiv, 264, bibliography, index; GIDEON S. GOLANY, Urban Design Ethics in Ancient China. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2001. pp. xvi, 312, bibliography, index.

9. Cultural Exchange In Japanese, Friends Of The National Museum Singapore

Friends of the Museum Collection

No abstract provided.

Japanese Art, Sadakichi Hartmann, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Art History

288 pages, [22] leaves of plates : color frontispiece, illustrations. Curated title for Fleet Library Special Collections book cover exhibition Bound to Please, fall 2022. Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-281) and index. Decorated cloth binding in green, light green and gold, signed "FR"? Gold leaf on top of text block. Gift of the Estate of William E. Brigham