Lectures on Japanese art and transcultural engagements at Heidelberg University

The Institute of East Asian Art History (IKO) at Heidelberg University is pleased to invite you to three lectures in the coming two weeks. They address transcultural engagements in modern Japanese ceramics, screen paintings created in Mexico, Spain and Portugal in response to Japanese byobu (“biombo”), and buddhist sculpture of the Southern Dynasties and its East-Asian impact.

The lectures take place at the Institute of East Asian Art History, Seminarstr. 4, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany, Seminar Room 311.

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MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2016, 6 PM

Gisela Jahn (Freie Universität, Berlin)

Japanische Keramik. Aufbruch im frühen 20. Jahrhundert

Der Niedergang der westorientierten japanischen Export-Keramik in der Meiji-Zeit nach 1900, Japans zunehmende Expansionspolitik und ein nationalbetontes Kulturverständnis schufen für die heranwachsende Keramikergeneration einen neuen Rahmen. Beflügelt von Geschichtsforschung, Kunstgeschichte und der Suche nach nationaler Identität und gelenkt von nationalistischen Strömungen richtete sie ihre Aufmerksamkeit auf die Keramikstile von Korea, China, sowie auf Japans Keramikkunst der Muromachi- und Momoyama-Zeit (1334-1573, 1573-1615). Im Spannungsfeld zwischen Tradition und Moderne übersetzten sie diese neuen Anregungen und Entdeckungen in ihre individuelle künstlerische Sprache. Die Keramiker reflektierten ihre Arbeit und ihre Position im Kunstbetrieb, es ist also auch die Geburtszeit des Keramikers als Künstler.

Gisela Jahn kuratierte Ausstellungen über zeitgenössische Keramik aus Japan an Museen. Zu ihren Publikationen zählen neben zahlreichen Ausstellungskatalogen und Aufsätzen das Standardwerk „Meiji-Ceramics the Art of Japanese Export Porcelain and Satsuma Ware 1868-1912“ (2004) sowie „Japanische Keramik: Aufbruch im 20. Jh.“ (2014).

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2016, 6 PM

Washizu Katsura (Kyushu National Museum)

Biombo of Birds and Flowers: A hybrid Art of Asian and European Paintings

From the middle of the 16th century to the first half of the 17th century, European missionaries and travelers came to Japan and brought a variety of Western objects and the scientific knowledge with them, which open the eyes of the Japanese people to the wider world. Meanwhile, there was a unique Japanese object that caught the foreigners’ interest and was shipped to cities around the globe, i.e. byobu (the folding screen) or biombos in Spanish and Portuguese idiom. It was not long before the production of biombos began in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and probably in Macau, the Portuguese center for its Eastern trade. In recent years, these biombos garnered more attention due to the stimulating exhibitions and researches, and the influence of Japanese art has been discussed frequently. This lecture aims to give an overview of the export of Japanese folding screens and then to look into several outstanding works of biombos such as the “Birds and Flowers” made in Macau, which blends subjects, iconography and painting techniques of both Asian and European origin in a surprising fashion.

Katsura Washizu is a curator of Japanese paintings at Kyushu National Museum. She received her M.A (Art History) in 2008 from the University of Tokyo. She curated the exhibition “Images of Prayer: Hachiman” (2016), the Kyushu venue of „Admired from Afar: Masterworks of Japanese Paintings from the Cleveland Museum of Art“ (2014), and is now preparing for the show that focuses on the cultural exchanges between Japan, Spain and Portugal in the 16th to 17th centuries.

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016, 6 PM

Yutaka FUJIOKA (Osaka University)

Buddhist Sculpture of the Southern Dynasties and its Dissemination

An important issue in the research of Buddhist sculpture of the Asuka Period and the Korean Three Kingdoms is its relation to sculpture from China’s Southern Dynasties, as well as that of the Sui and early Tang. Research based on historical records and archaeological findings has highlighted the connection to Buddhist images of the Southern Dynasties. However, not only is the number of extant Southern Dynasties Buddhist sculptures limited, but the study of the relationship between ancient Japanese and Korean Buddhist sculpture is difficult to assess.

The goal of the present lecture is first, to understand the image production of the Southern Dynasties and especially that of the Liang Dynasty, based on recent discoveries and research results. Second, by comparing sculptures from the Southern Dynasties with those from Shandong, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan, the forms of dissemination from the Southern Dynasties to other regions shall be investigated. Alternatively, examples from these regions may cast a light back on the few extant images of the Southern Dynasties.

Yutaka FUJIOKA is Professor at the Department of Art History of Osaka University since 1999, and was a curator at the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art beginning in 1990. He specializes in early Buddhist sculpture and has published numerous articles on the subject, among them "The Arts of the Worship of Prince Shotoku" (1996), and "Searching for the Origin of Amitabha Triad at Zenkoji Temple" (2009).