International Symposium: Katagami in the West

March 18-19, 2016

Organizer
Prof. Hans B. Thomsen, Section for East Asian Art History, University of Zurich

The purpose of the symposium is to look at the phenomenon of Japanese katagami textile stencils from various angles. Through discoveries in the last decade, thanks to the pioneering work of Akiko Mabuchi, Yuki Ikuta, and others, we have come to understand that the historical relationship between katagami and the western world has been profound, both in number and in the intensity of their receptions. Nonetheless, during much of the 20th century katagami have been almost entirely neglected by western curators and scholars, as hundreds of thousands continue their sleep in museum storages. One of our purposes is to resurrect this forgotten relationship and to understand the extent of katagami collections in the West and their receptions by western artists and designers.

Website
http://www.khist.uzh.ch/de/chairs/ostasien/Aktuelles/Katagami.html

Symposium program

Friday 18th March

9:00 – 9:20 Registration

9:20 – 9:30 Welcome from the Organizer
Prof. Dr. Hans Bjarne Thomsen (Section for East Asian Art,
University of Zurich)
with Natasha Fischer-Vaidya, lic. phil. (Section for East Asian Art, UZH)

9:30 – 11:15 Panel 1: Katagami and European Art Currents
Chair: Marie Kakinuma, lic. phil. (Institute of Art History,
University of Zurich)

11:15 – 11:30 Coffee break

11:30 – 13:00 Panel 2: Ryūkyū Bingata and Basel Katagami
Chair: Brigitte Huber, lic. phil. (Section for East Asian Art,
University of Zurich)

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 15:45 Panel 3: Research Topics in European Katagami Studies
Chair: Xenia Piëch, M.A. (Section for East Asian Art,
University of Zurich)

15:45 – 16:15 Coffee break

16:15 – 18:15 Panel 4: Katagami and Textile Research in Japan
Chair: Dr. Khanh Trinh (Curator, Museum Rietberg, Zurich)

18:15 – 18:30 Short break

18:30 – 18:45 Welcoming Speeches

Masaki Shiga, Charge d'ʹAffaires, Embassy of Japan in Switzerland

Prof. Dr. Thomas Hengartner (Vice-Dean for Research,
Humanities Division, University of Zurich)

Thomas Isler, President, Zürchersche Seidenindustrie Gesellschaft

18:45 – 19:30 Keynote speaker
Yuki Ikuta (Mie Prefectual Art Museum)
Katagami: Beyond Rationality and Anonymity

19:30 ~ Reception (Foyer West)

Saturday, 19th March

9:00 – 10:30 Panel 5: Katagami Collections and Receptions in Switzerland I
Chair: Natasha Fischer-­Vaidya, lic. phil. (Section for East Asian Art,
University of Zurich)

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break

10:30 – 11:00 Panel 6: Katagami Collections and Receptions in Switzerland II
Chair: Anna Hagdorn, M.A. (Section for East Asian Art,
University of Zurich)

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch

13:30 – 15:00 Panel 7: European and Japanese Connections in
Katagami Research
Chair: Prof. Dr. Birgitt Borkopp-­‐‑Restle (The Werner and Margaret
Abegg-­‐‑Chair for the History of Textile Arts, University of Bern)

15:15 – 16:00 Workshop and coffee break
Moderator: Prof. Dr. Hans Bjarne Thomsen (Section for East Asian Art,
University of Zurich)
Workshop on the Topic of Archiving Katagami: Problems with
Cataloguing, Describing, and Storing Large Katagami Collections

16:00 – 17:30 Panel 8: An European Case Study: The German Textile Museum,
Krefeld
Chair: Prof. Dr. Bettina Gockel (Institute of Art History,
University of Zurich)

17:30 – 18:30 Panel 9: European Collections and Receptions
Chair: Alina Martimyanova, M.A. (Section for East Asian Art,
University of Zurich)

General information

Friday, 18th March 2016, KOL-F-118, Rämistrasse 71, 8006 Zürich
Saturday, 19th March 2016, KO2-F-152, Karl Schmid-Strasse 4, 8006 Zürich

Contact email
kgoakhist.uzh.ch

Website
http://www.khist.uzh.ch/de/chairs/ostasien/Aktuelles/Katagami.html

The symposium will take place at the University of Zurich main building (Zentrum) on

The symposium is free and open to the public, no registration is necessary.

Sponsors
The symposium is made possible by the generous support of

Zürcherische Seidenindustrie Gesellschaft (Zurich Silk Association)
Toshiba International Foundation
National Museum of Japanese History (Rekihaku)
National Institutes for the Humanities
University of Zurich, URPP Asia and Europe