On 2 February 2024, the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at UCLA will be hosting the conference “Eco Edo: Ecological Perspectives on Early Modern Japanese Art.” This is the second of three conferences at UCLA this year on the theme of early modern Japanese art.

The art of Japan’s Edo period (1603–1868) presents a paradox. On the one hand, the nineteenth-century proliferation of ukiyo-e—polychrome woodblock prints of the “floating words” of theater and sex work—made the popular visual culture of this city a familiar component of modern art in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Yet the outsize fascination with ukiyo-e outside Japan has sorely obscured Edo’s far more diverse social, material, and artistic landscapes. In an effort to countervail the enduring stereotypes of early modern Japanese art, Open Edo will present a suite of conferences addressing three interlinked themes: the representation and agency of marginalized groups, the ecological horizons of artistic production, and the ongoing need to counter the myth that Japan in early modernity was somehow disconnected from the rest of the world. Throughout the year-long series, the focus will be both historical and historiographical inasmuch as Open Edo asks how Japanese art history might challenge the discourse of early modernity writ large.

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PROGRAM:

9:30 a.m. Morning Coffee and Registration

10:00 a.m. Director’s Welcome: Bronwen Wilson, University of California, Los Angeles
Opening Remarks: Kristopher W. Kersey, University of California, Los Angeles

10:15 a.m. Panel 1
Moderator: Kristopher W. Kersey, University of California, Los Angeles
Greg Levine, University of California, Berkeley: “‘Close Looking,’ but at What? Hasegawa Tōhaku’s Pine Grove and ‘Attentional Deviance’”

10:45 a.m. Rachel Saunders, Harvard Art Museums: “The Birds, Flowers, and Botany of Edo Rinpa”

11:15 a.m. Discussion

11:45 a.m. Lunch, Display of Clark Library materials in the North Book Room

1:00 p.m. Panel 2
Moderator: William Marotti, University of California, Los Angeles
Chelsea Foxwell, University of Chicago: “What Are Bugs Doing in Edo-Period Paintings?”

1:30 p.m. Kit Brooks, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution: “Morphing into Madness: Shifting Perceptions of the Japanese Wolf”

2:00 p.m. Discussion

2:30 p.m. Coffee break

3:00 p.m. Panel 3
Moderator: Kendall Brown, California State University Long Beach
Christian Tagsold, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf: “The Thousand Gardens of Edo: Exploring the Nature of the Cultivated Environment”

3:30 p.m. Nobuko Toyosawa, Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences: “The Place of Ecology in Matsudaira Sadanobu’s Gardens”

4:00 p.m. Discussion

4:30 p.m. Break

4:40 p.m. Plenary Discussion (all speakers)

5:30 p.m. Reception

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If interested in attending, please do register, as space is limited in the Clark Library (also, note that the Clark is housed in a villa in West Adams, about 8 miles east of the main UCLA campus in Westwood).

The conference is free and open to the public. Parking is free, and lunch is provided.

To register, follow this link: https://www.1718.ucla.edu/events/open-edo2/

There is no livestream or recording, but an edited volume should follow.

Should you have any questions, please let me know: kerseyhumnet.ucla.edu

Organized by Kristopher W. KERSEY (Assistant Professor, UCLA)