Postcard. Nara Yoshitomo(2001).


The study of visual culture brings together the high and the low, Art and popular culture, museums and everyday life. This webpage is designed to help us examine the context and content, the lived practice and historical memory of Japanese visual culture, complimenting the five themes this class is framed around--geisha, samurai, theater, martial arts, contemporary popular culture and art.

Japanese art and culture have a long and illustrious history ranging from both aristocratic and popular roots. From caricature by monks, golden screens depicting ancient court life, woodblock prints of the floating world in medieval urban Japan, theater styles past and present, Japanese visual culture has always involved history, memory, and engagement with other cultures. It is these engagements that we are concerned with in this class.

The West has long been fascinated with the East as an exotic other. And today the global ascendancy of Japanese popular culture is of particular note. In each of the five segments of this class we will look at the ways that the West has historically engaged with representations of Japan through fantasies about geisha, respect for samurai, the practice and aesthetics of martial arts, and finally captivation by contemporary Japanese popular culture. The galleries on this webpage are designed to provide exhibits of Japanese visual culture to compliment and enhance our class discussions.

The galleries are password protected and available for educational purposes only. Please email Jennifer Prough using the link at the bottom of this page for access.

Geisha and samurai, woodblock prints and animated films: we are all familiar with certain aspects of Japanese visual culture. This seminar aims at developing a visual literacy and historical understanding of several key elements of Japanese visual culture. We will examine the articulation and rearticulation of these themes across contemporary Japanese history and then turn to the ways that they have been (re)presented here in the US. Examining both Japanese and American depictions of geisha and samurai (in art, print, and film); the form and practice of theater and martial arts; the aesthetics of comics and animated films in relation to traditional media; Hello Kitty and the commercialization of cute; and the global popularity of contemporary Japanese art, we will ask questions about the relationship between representation and culture on both sides of the Pacific.

Web links:
CourseVU

Japan-in-America Exhibit (Indiana University Museum)

The Floating worlds of Ukiyoe Exhibit (The Library of Congress)

MIT Visualizing Cultures project