The following is an archive of past Japanese Art Society of America lectures and special events. For our most current schedule, click on JASA Programs.
December 2007
Monday, December 10, 6 p.m.
Japan Society
Murase Room
333 East 47th St.
New York, New York
Copy and Copying in Japanese Art
Yoshiaki Shimizu, Frederick Marquand Professor of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University
Copies and copying activities have been essential in traditional Japan in order to maintain the canon of “masterpieces” in various creative endeavors. Kana calligraphy, painting by the painters of the house of Kano, and the building practice at the Ise Grand Shrine will be examined.
November
Saturday, November 3, 2-4 p.m.
Saturday, November 10, 2-4 p.m.
New York, New York
Private showing
Visit to the collection of Dr. Martin Levitz in New York City to view Paul Jacoulet woodblocks and a selection of special Osaka prints.
November 2, 2007-January 6, 2008
Chazen Museum of Art
University of Wisconsin-Madison
800 University Avenue
Madison, Wisconsin
Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School
Exhibition will consist of approximately 150 works from the Chazen Museum of Art’s Van Vleck collection of Japanese woodblock prints. Competition and Collaboration will explore the collaborative efforts between specialized designers, the development of stylistic conventions used to achieve a distinctive school identity, and the competitive environment of the Edo publishing industry. The exhibition will be accompanied by a full-color catalogue with explicated entries and five thematic with contributions by Kobayashi Tadashi, Ellis Tinios and Fujisawa Akane.
Friday, November 2, 12 p.m.-4 p.m.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin East
Highway 23 and County Road C
Spring Green, Wisconsin
Private tour and lunch for JASA members
Wright’s home in Wisconsin, Taliesin, was the longest ongoing architectural work of Wright’s career. From the time he started building Taliesin in 1911 until his death in 1959, he never stopped changing it or adding to it. Located on 600 acres, the 37,000-square-foot country estate includes living quarters, an office, drafting studio, farm buildings, and other structures. Everything from the landscaped grounds, roads and ponds, lighting, furnishings, and collected objects is a product of Wright’s genius.
Saturday, November 3, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Chazen Museum of Art
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Symposium
In conjunction with the opening weekend of the exhibition Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School, the Chazen Museum will host an international symposium.
By Appointment
Chazen Museum of Art
Print Viewing Room
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Private viewings at E.B. Van Vleck Collection for JASA Members
During the 1980s, John Hasbrouk Van Vleck and his wife Abigail donated more than 4,000 Japanese woodblock prints to the Chazen in memory of his father Edward Burr Van Vleck, mathematics professor at the University of Wisconsin from 1906 to 1929. The collection, with works by approximately 137 artists, records the history of Japanese printmaking from the late 18th into the 20th century. It is particularly strong in the works of the 19th-century artist Utagawa Hiroshige. In fact, with works numbering some 2,200, the Hiroshige collection is among the most significant in the world. The Van Vleck collection also has fine examples by Hokusai, Harunobu, Shunsho, Toyonobu, and many of the shin-hanga artists of the 20th century including Hasui and Yoshida.
Friday, November 30, and Saturday, December 1
Seattle Art Museum
100 University Street
Seattle, WA 98101-2902
(206) 654-3100
www.seattleartmuseum.org
Japan Envisions the West: 16th to 19th Century Japanese Art from Kobe City Museum
Ronald P. Toby, University of Illinois (keynote lecture on November 30); Mia Mochizuki, Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley; Katsushi Narusawa, Kobe City Koiso Memorial Museum of Art; Yasumasa Oka, Kobe City Museum; Yoriko Kobayashi, Mejiro University; Christiaan Jörg, Leiden University
In conjunction with its exhibit, focusing on 142 works of namban and kōmō art from Kobe City Museum (plus 20 objects from SAM), the museum will present an international symposium. Additionally, the 9th Japan Art History Workshop (JAWS) will have a welcome party for JAWS students inviting the symposium speakers, the evening of December 1.
October
Wednesday, October 24, 6 p.m.
Japan Society
Murase Room
333 East 47th St.
New York, New York
An Ukiyo-e Journey through the Life, Art and Death of Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII, Kabuki’s Tragic Heart-Throb
Lawrence Kominz, Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, and Director of the Institute for Asian Studies, Portland State University
Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII (1823-1854) had a larger and more devout following among women fans than any other actor of romantic leads in the history of kabuki. The slide presentation will examine a great actor’s mysterious career illustrated through some of the most striking kabuki ukiyo-e of the 19th century. Members are encouraged to bring prints depicting this celebrated actor.
Saturday, October 27, 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Remis Auditorium
Museum of Fine Arts
465 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115-5523
(617) 369-3222
www.mfa.org
Symposium: A Day Considering the Arts of Japan
10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
From the Real World to the Floating World: Hishikawa Moronobu Genre Scenes of the Pleasure Districts
Kobayashi Tadashi, professor, Gakushuin University, director, Chiba City Museum of ArtPretty as a Picture: Kimono Fashion in Ukiyo-e Paintings
Iwao Nagasaki, professor, Kyitsu Women’s University
Behind the Scenes of Drama and Desire: An Intimate Look at Ukiyo-e Paintings
Tanya Uyeda, assistant conservator, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
12:30-2:30 p.m.
LUNCH AND EXHIBITION VIEWING
2:30-4:30 p.m.
Sekishitsu Zenkyu: Brush Traces in American Collections
Yukio Lippit, assistant professor, History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University
Visions of Violence in Screens and Scrolls
Edward Kamens, Sumitomo professor of Japanese Studies, Yale University
Famous Places and Secret Pleasures: Genre Painting in 17th-Century Japan
Matthew McKelway, Atsumi associate professor of Japanese Art and Archaeology, Columbia University
September
Monday, September 10, 6 p.m.
Japan Society
Murase Room
333 East 47th St.
New York, New York
An Introduction to Japanese Cloisonné, its History and Techniques
Fredric T. Schneider, Independent Scholar
The lecture will focus on the late-19th and early-20th centuries, the period that has been of most interest to historians and collectors. Various cloisonné techniques will be explained. The presentation will feature several artists and trace the development of artistic styles. Members are welcome to bring pieces of cloisonné for discussion after the program.
Thursday, September 27, 6-7:30 p.m.
Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture
Columbia University
403 Kent Hall, 116th and Broadway
New York, New York
www.donaldkeenecenter.org
Kano Motonobu’s Shuten Dōji Scrolls and Aspects of the Monstrous in Medieval Japan
Quitman E. Phillips University of Wisconsin-Madison
Shuten Dōji was one of the best known monsters in late medieval and early modern Japan, the story of his downfall appearing frequently in texts, paintings, and prints. While the earliest extant version of the tale appeared in the 14th century, it became a staple of Japanese visual culture with its adoption by the Kanō School starting in the 16th century. Was there more to its popularity than the simple fact that it was a rousing good tale? Modern commentators have suggested that the tale draws upon anxieties about threats ranging from plagues to foreigners. This talk will present a synopsis of the Shuten Dōji story illustrated with slides from Kanō Motonobu’s 1522 handscroll version and discuss modes of interpreting the story drawing on particular Shuten Dōji scholarship and recent trends in “monster theory.”
This event is free and open to the public. Take the No. 1 train to 116th Street.
June
Saturday, June 9
2-5 p.m.
Warwick Hotel
The Warwick Room
65 West 54th St.
New York, New York
Annual Meeting
May
Friday-Sunday, May 4-6
Chicago, Illinois
Special Japanese Art Society event in Chicago
Visits to the Art Institute of Chicago print collection and to George Mann’s collection are planned. Registration limited to 30 members. Further description of the weekend’s events will be mailed to members.
Wednesday, May 9
New York, New York
Visit to a private Japanese art collection
Registration form will be mailed to members. (Limited number of participants.)
March
Friday, March 16
11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.; 2-4 p.m.
RISD Museum
Rhode Island School of Design
224 Benefit St.
Providence, Rhode Island
Feathers, Flowers, Talons and Fangs: Power and Serenity in Japanese Nature Prints
Symposium with panelists John T. Carpenter, Sarah Thompson, Ann Yonemura, Maggie Bickford and Miriam Wattles
Study Day co-sponsored by the Society for this exhibition, which brings fresh attention to kachōga category of ukiyo-e with sixty exquisite prints from the RISD Museum’s collection given by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in the 1930s.
Wednesday, March 21
6 p.m.
New York University Institute of Fine Arts
1 East 78th St.
New York, New York
Actor Prints by Toyokuni I, II and III
John T. Carpenter, lecturer in History of Japanese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London and head of London Office, Sainsbury Institute of Japanese Arts and Cultures
Friday, March 30
5 p.m. reception; 6 p.m. lecture
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
Vassar College
124 Raymond Ave.
Poughkeepsie, New York
Chikanobu: Modernity and Nostalgia in Japanese Prints
Reception for exhibition opening will be followed by lecture by Bruce A. Coats, Art History and Humanities Department, Scripps College.
Saturday, March 31
Registration 9 a.m.; program 9:45 a.m.-5 p.m., reception to follow
Arthur Ross Gallery
University of Pennsylvania, Logan Hall 17
220 S. 34th St.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
(215) 898-4401
Acting Modern: A Symposium for the Exhibition “Dramatic Impressions”
Conference speakers: C. Andrew Gerstle, SOAS, University of London; Sarah Thompson, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Kendall Brown, California State University, Long Beach; Gennifer Weisenfeld, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Shirley Luber, The Luber Gallery, Philadelphia; and Yoshie Endō, Frank L. Chance and Julie Davis, University of Pennsylvania
The Center for East Asian Studies and the Department of the History of Art are co-sponsoring a symposium in conjunction with this exhibition of Japanese theater prints from the Gilbert Luber Collection, which is on display from March 17-May 6; Society members are also invited to the exhibition’s opening reception Friday, March 23, 5-7 p.m. The papers will engage issues concerned with Osaka print production, Kamigata stencil prints, the Shin-hanga revival of woodblock printing in the early 20th century, the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake and Kabuki in the 20th century, among other topics. There will also be a collectors and curators forum on the exhibition. The symposium is free and open to the public.
Saturday, March 31
The Carnegie Museum of Art
4400 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
10:15 a.m.
Meet at the gift shop by the fountain entrance of the museum for a tour of the exhibition Modern Japanese Prints: 1868-1989, guided by Sandy Kita.
12:30 p.m.
Lunch and then a visit to the museum’s print storage room.
6:30-8 p.m.
Reception at the home of Esther Barazzone, President of Chatham College, with the members of the Pittsburgh Japanese Print Club.
Sunday, April 1
10 a.m.
Lecture on Japanese Prints, Howe-Childs Gate House, Chatham College, by Sandy Kita, Senior Scholar, Department of Art History, Chatham College.
January
Thursday, January 25, 6 p.m.
Japan Society
Murase Room
333 East 47th St.
New York, New York
Utamaro’s “Gift of the Ebb Tide” and Popular Religious Practice in the Late Edo Period
Samuel C. Morse, Departments of Fine Arts and Asian Languages and Civilizations, Amherst College