■Events　Nichibunken-IHJ Forum

2015-2-12  The 3rd Nichibunken-IHJ Forum

Outline

Humor, Parody, Taboo in Edo Art—The Social and Cultural Context of Ukiyo-e and Shunga Past and Present

Speaker

"Humor, Parody, Taboo in Edo Art----The Social and Cultural Context of Ukiyo-e and Shunga Past and Present"
C. Andrew Gerstle   Professor
Visiting Research Scholar, International Research Center for Japanese Studies Ukiyo-e, which includes erotic shunga prints (“spring pictures”), developed from the 17th century and is well known in the world as a dynamic art of the common people. Although it had a tremendous impact on Western art from the late 19th century, its standing in the art history world in Japan remained relatively low until recent times. When postwar Japanese scholars worked hard to raise the status of ukiyo-e, shunga was essentially banished from the academy and forgotten about until a revival of interest in recent years. As a consequence, shunga has been a difficult subject to research because of the taboo cast over it in Japan during the 20th century. Although thousands of shunga paintings, prints and illustrated books were produced during the Tokugawa era, this corpus is still relatively unknown today in Japan or abroad, because until recently public museums and libraries did not collect this material, or deflected access. This talk will discuss shunga in relation to the larger world of ukiyo-e and present a case that shunga is undoubtedly an important part of the Japanese cultural heritage, and that research into its nature and role in society is essential if we are to have a more accurate understanding both of ukiyo-e as a genre and of early modern Japanese culture and society. The focus of the talk will be the four-year International Shunga Project (by SOAS University of London, the British Museum, Ritsumeikan University and Nichibunken) that culminated in the exhibition at the British Museum in 2013.
English (without interpretation)
, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Commentator

Yano Akiko  

Place:

Lecture Hall, International House of Japan
(Address: 5-11-16 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032)

Start time:

18:30

End time:

20:00

Fee ：

Free

Maximum Capacity:

120

Host:

International House of Japan

Co-host:

International Research Center for Japanese Studies