Asia 300/History 355: Art and Power in Japan, 1600 to the Present Prof. Julie Oakes, juloakes@umbc.

edu Class: Tu/Th 1:00-2:15 (Academic IV, Room 014) Office Hours (History Dept., Room 713): Tu 12:15-1:00, Th 2:15-3:00 (or by appointment)

The aim of this course is to view art and architecture as instrumental to change in pre-modern and modern Japan. Rather than restricting art to the realms of cultural attainment and leisure, we will emphasize its ability to serve as a visual placeholder for political motivations. The Tokugawa regime (1600-1868) used its temple and mausoleum construction to stake a claim to the ideological and literal landscape; by allowing in so-called Dutch studies in the early 18th century, the shogunate was aligning itself with the perceived advancements of the west. We witness similar manipulation of visual culture in the Meiji period (1868-1912), where photography and the creation of museums drove the final transformation of religious icons into art or bijutsua word actually created in the 1870s. This course will utilize a variety of primary and secondary material, and will conclude with a brief look at the ways art remains central to politics in Japan until the present day.

Required Materials Karen Gerhart, The Eyes of Power: Art and Early Tokugawa Authority (1999) William H. Coaldrake, Architecture and Authority in Japan (1996) Patricia J. Graham, Faith and Power in Japanese Buddhist Art (2007) Nicole Rousmainere, Reflecting Truth: Japanese Photography in the 19th Century (2004) Okakura Tenshin, Ideals of the East (2007, first published 1904) Kim Brandt, Kingdom of Beauty: Mingei and the Politics of Folk Art (2007)

Course Requirements/Grading There will be a midterm and a final exam (30% each) There will be a final art-or architecture-based research/analysis paper, (and perhaps a brief presentation of your research to the class) (25%) Discussion Board/Class Participation (15%). I will be asking you to respond to both images and your readings for the Discussion Board postings.

UMBC Policy on Academic Integrity By enrolling in this course, each student assumes the responsibilities of an active participant in UMBCs scholarly community in which everyones academic work and behavior are held to the highest standards of honesty. Cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and helping others to commit these acts are all forms of academic dishonesty, and they are wrong. Academic misconduct could result in disciplinary action that may include, but not limited to, suspension or dismissal. To read more about this policy, please ask your instructor for specific sources.

Make-Up and Attendance Policy I will offerone timeeither a make-up for the midterm exam or an extension on the paper, as long as I am notified prior to 10:00pm the night before the test/due date. Also please note that you must complete all three major assignments in order to pass the class. Finally, attendance counts as part of the Discussion Board/Class Participation grade

1. (Th, 1/26) Introduction

2. (Tu, 1/31) Theory of the Object (orWhat is art?) *The Object of Art History, (contributors D. Freedberg, O. Grabar, A. Higonnet, C. Klein, L. Tickner, A. Vidler), Art Bulletin, Vol. 76, No. 3 (Sept. 1994), pp. 394-410 *JSTOR

Historical Background 3. (Th, 2/2) Pre-1600 Shinto Art and Culture, I Coaldrake, Ch. 1 (Authority in Architecture). pp. 1-15 *Blackboard: foundation of Shinto, Wei Records We will see a DVD today on Shinto, and there will be a Discussion Board question to follow.

4. (Tu, 2/7) Pre-1600 Shinto Art and Culture, II Coaldrake, Ch. 2 (The Grand Shrines of Ise and Izumo), pp. 16-51

5. (Th, 2/9) Pre-1600 Buddhist Art and Culture Coaldrake, Ch. 3 (Great Halls of Religion and State), pp. 52-80 *Blackboard: foundation of Buddhism

Tokugawa Period (1600-1868): Creating a Center 6. (Tu, 2/14) Nij Castle and the Political Landscape Coaldrake, Ch. 6 (Nij Castle and the Psychology of Architectural Intimidation), pp. 138-162 We will see a background video on the Tokugawa period today.

7. (Th, 2/16) Nij Castle and Subtle Persuasion Gerhart, Ch. 1 (Pine Trees as Political Iconography), pp. 1-33 Whose approach to Nij do you find more compelling?

8. (Tu, 2/21) Nikk: Memorial to the Great Ieyasu Coaldrake, Nikk Tshg, pp. 180-192; Gerhart, Ch. 3 (Nikks Ymeimon: Sculpture and Sacred Landscape), pp. 73-105

Tokugawa Period (1600-1868): Diffusion of Control 9. (Th, 2/23) Localized Power: Temples and Deities for the People Graham, Ch. 3 (Temples for Commoners), and Ch. 4 (Depictions of Popular Deities and Spiritual Concerns)

10. (Tu, 2/28) Representing Dutch Learning: Sugita Genpaku and Shiba Kkan *Timon Screech, The Meaning of Western Perspective in Edo Popular Culture, Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 47 (1994), pp. 58-69 *JSTOR *Blackboard: Sugita Genpaku *(Recommended) Alice Tseng, Kuroda Seikis Morning Toilette on Exhibition in Modern Kyoto, Art Bulletin, Vol. 90, no. 3 (Sept. 2008), pp. 417-440 *JSTOR

11. (Th, 3/1) Merchants, Ukiyo-e, and Edo City Life

*Blackboard: Christine Guth, Development in Woodblock Prints, from Art of Edo Japan, pp. 99118; article on government censorship of prints (TBA)

12. (Tu, 3/6) Midterm Exam

Meiji Period (1868-1912) and the Development of the National Treasure System 13. (Th, 3/8) The Power of Destruction: haibutsu kishaku and the Attack on Buddhism *Blackboard: either James Ketelaar or Martin Colcutt, on the destruction of Buddhist idols Graham, Ch. 7 (Buddhist Institutions after an Era of Persecution, 1868-1945)

14. (Tu, 3/13) From Destruction to Creation: Meiji Treasure Surveys *Blackboard: Julie Oakes, Ch. 1, (Introduction: Faint Traces and Hints of Color), Contestation and the Japanese National Treasure System (Dissertation, Dec. 2009) Graham, Ch. 8 (From Icon to Art, 1868-1945)

15.(Th, 3/15) The Power to Name: Japans National Treasures (kokuho) *Blackboard: Oakes, Ch. 2 (Dispersion from Within: The Treasure Investigation Process)

SPRING BREAK: 3/17-3/26Have a great time!

16. (Tu, 3/27) Reflecting Truth: The Advent of Photography in Japan In Rousmaniere, Himeno, Encounters with Foreign Photographers, pp. 18-29; Gartlan, Changing Views: The Early Topographical Photographs, pp. 40-65; Hockley, Packaged Tours, pp. 66-85.

17. (Th, 3/29) Furthering Whose Agenda? Ogawa Kazumasa and the Publication of Treasure Photographs *Blackboard: Oakes, Ch. 4 (Treasured Objects, Treasured Images)

18. (Tu, 4/3) Disseminating Japanese Culture Abroad: Art as Mediator

*Thomas Kim, Being Modern: The Circulation of Oriental Objects, American Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 2 (June, 2006), pp. 379-406 *JSTOR [students A-L] *Blackboard: Bunkio Matsuki A Pleasing Novelty: Bunkio Matsuki and the Japan Craze in Victorian Salem (The Peabody and Essex Museum, 1993) [students M-Z]

19. (Th, 4/5) Securing Japans Place in the World: The 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition *Ellen Conant, Japan Abroad at the Chicago Exposition, 1893, in Conant, ed., Challenging Past and Present: The Metamorphosis of Nineteenth-Century Japanese Art (2006), pp. 254-280

20. (Tu, 4/10) Meiji Architecture and Authority Coaldrake, Ch.9 (Building the Meiji State), pp. 208-250

21. (Th, 4/12) Meiji Architecture and Authority: Museums *Alice Tseng, Styling Japan: The Case of Josiah Condor and the Museum at Ueno, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 63, No. 4 (Dec. 2004), pp. 472-497 *JSTOR *(Recommended) Steven Conn, Where is the East? Asian Objects in American Museums, from Nathan Dunn to Charles Freer, Winterthur Portfolio, Vol. 35, No. 2/3 (Summer-Autumn 2000), pp. 157-173 *JSTOR

22. (Tu, 4/17) The Power of Discourse and the Creation of Japanese Art History Okakura, Ideals of the East *Blackboard: excerpts from Ernest Fenolloas Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art

Expanding the Canon 23.(Th, 4/19) Contestation and the Japanese Folkcraft Movement, I Start reading Brandt, Chapters 1-3, pp. 7-123

24. (Tu, 4/24) Contestation and the Japanese Folkcraft Movement, II Finish Brandt, Chapters 1-3, pp. 7-123

25. (Th, 4/26) Monuments and Memorials to War: The Power of Yasukuni Shrine *John Nelson, Social Memory and Ritual Practice: Commemorating Spirits of the Military Dead at Yasukuni Shinto Shrine, Journal of Asian Studies Vol. 62, No. 2 (May 2003), pp. 443-467 *JSTOR [students A-L] *Blackboard: Harry Harootunian, Memory, Mourning, and National Morality: Yasukuni Shrine and the Reunion of State and Religion, Nation and Religion (1999) [students M-Z] (Recommended) Ellen Schattschneider, The Blood Stained Doll: Violence and the Gift in Wartime Japan, Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Summer 2005), pp. 329-356. *JSTOR

26. (Tu, 5/1) Monuments and Memorials to War: Hiroshima and Nagasaki *Blackboard: Lisa Yoneyama,Ethnic and Colonial Memories: The Atomic A-Bomb Memorials, Hiroshima Traces (1999) Rousmaniere, ed., Kinoshita Naoyuki, Portraying the War Dead: Photography as a Medium for Memorial Portraiture, pp. 86-97 Graham, Evocation of Buddhism at Nondenominational Sites, pp. 245-250

27. (Th, 5/3) Research Paper Presentations

28. (Tu, 5/8) Research Paper Presentations

29. (Th, 5/10) Research Paper Presentations FINAL PAPERS DUE HERE

Our Final Exam is

HAVE A FABULOUS SUMMER!