Call for papers for the 7th Hatakeyama Symposium
“Japonisme in the 20th Century”

Date: Saturday, November 25 and Sunday, November 26, 2017
Place: Teikyo University, Kasumigaseki Campus, Tokyo

The Society for the Study of Japonisme, co-hosted by the Hatakeyama Foundation of Culture, is pleased to announce the 7th annual Hatakeyama Symposium entitled “Japonisme in the 20th Century.”

Japonisme with the capital “J” is known to have come to an end in the early 20th century in the field of British and French paintings, which is considered to be the historical Japonisme’s most representative media. Recent research has revealed, however, that Japonisme continued to be a productive force until the Second World War in other fields such as fashion, literature and music. Furthermore, an increasing number of recent exhibitions on “Japonisme” in Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe and North America have shown that Japonisme took place much later in these regions than in Western Europe. The image of Japan was also influenced by political events such as the Russo-Japanese War, which led to the boom in Japonisme in parts of Eastern Europe that were under the control of the Russian Empire.

The upcoming symposium focuses on Japonisme in the 20th century, which has been marginalized within the scholarship on Japonisme until recently. For this symposium, we define Japonisme broadly and invite papers that consider the postwar period as well as the more recent phenomena of manga and animations. It is an attempt to expand the idea of “Japonisme,” an expanded notion of which can perhaps be rendered in the lower case as “japonisme.” This move to broaden the horizon of scholarly inquiry beyond the historical Japonisme might result in a substantial re-definition of “Japonisme.”

Eligibility to present a paper is limited to members of the Society for the Study of Japonisme (please consult the Society’s website). If you are interested in presenting a paper, please send a proposal (500 English words max, as Word document) as attachment to the following email address by June 30, 2017: japonisme@ world-meeting.co.jp. The result will be announced by the end of July.

After the symposium you should send your draft for the Journal of the Society by January 10, 2018, Japan time. The detail will be announced at the symposium. Should the draft not arrive by the expiring date, your draft for the Journal would be replaced with the summery presented for the symposium.