From Edo to Tokyo–
Ukiyo to Urban Chic
Fine Arts 91.02
Merrill 131
Monday 2:00–4:00
Samuel C. Morse
Department of Fine Arts, Amherst College
(413) 256-0990; scmorse@amherst.edu
Office Hours: MW 11:00–12:00 and by appointment
Description
An exploration of the city which was founded in the late sixteenth century as a provincial
military headquarters but which was transfigured rapidly into the dominant urban center
of Japan, a role which it still plays today. The class will examine the ways traditional
culture was transplanted and transformed in the millieu of the new city that was
dominated by constant competition between the military and merchants and the creation
of new artistic forms that were a response to the distinctive- urban environment there.
Areas of discussion will include the prints and paintings depicting the kabuki theater and
the pleasure quarters; the modernization of the city as a Western-style capital during
the second half of the nineteenth century; and the definition by the city of a
contemporary Japanese aesthetic since the 1950s. The class will make extensive use
of the William Green Collection of wood block prints at the Mead Art Museum.
1
Books
The following books have been ordered from the Jeffery Amherst Bookshop on South
Pleasant Street:
Guth, Christine. Art Of Edo Japan : The Artist And The City 1615-1868.
New York: Abrams, 1996.
Hibbett, Howard. The Floating World in Japanese Fiction. Rutland: Tuttle,
1959. USED
All other readings on the syllabus can be found on the reserve shelf in Frost Library.
The Course
The class will meet on Mondays from 2:00 – 4:00. Two viewing sessions of prints in the
William Green Collection at Mead Art Museum. Three visitors will be coming to campus
to give presentations specifically focused on the subject of the course: Hiromi Ito, one of
Japan’s leading feminist poets, Hideaki Ota, a practicing architect in Tokyo who is
presently studying at Yale Architecture School, and Ryan Holmberg, a graduate student
at Yale University with a particular interest in contemporary Japanese art.
The lectures, discussion sessions and readings have been designed to help you come
to your own understanding of the ways the art of various cultural traditions has been
presented and interpreted. Since such a wide range of material is to be covered in only
one semester, regular attendance is essential. The assigned readings should be
completed before each class and because the class will be run as a seminar you should
be prepared to participate in class discussions.
Requirements
Class Attendance and consistent seminar participation. You will be expected to prepare
brief presentations to promote discussion as the semester progresses.
In addition, there will be three writing assignments and a short formal in-class
presentation. All assignments must be typewritten.
1)
An essay discussing certain aspects of genre painting, due October 1
2
22)
3)
A formal comparison of two prints in the collection of the Mead Art
Museum, due October 29
An outline of your final paper due November 15. The final version of the
paper will be due December 17 at 4:00 p.m.
4)
A fifteen minute presentation of the topic of your final paper will take place
on December 10.
3
Lecture Schedule
Sept. 10
Introduction
Sept. 17
Edo–The founding of the City
Sept. 24
Genre Painting and the Floating World
Oct. 1
Genroku Style–Early Ukiyoe Painting and Prints
Oct. 9 (T)
Japanese Bunraku–Tonda Traditional Puppet Theater. Rand
Theater, UMASS. 7:00 lecture, 7:30 performance
Oct. 10 (W)
Workshop with Bunraku Puppets. Experimental Theater. 3:30-5:30
Oct. 15
Coloring Their View-- Harunobu, Shunch , and Kiyonaga
(Viewing of Woodblock Prints, Mead Art Museum)
Oct. 22
With an Insider’s Eye--Utamaro and Sharaku
Oct. 29
Imaging Edo--Hiroshige and Hokusai
Nov. 5
Tokyo–Constructing a Capital for the “New” Japan
Nov. 9 (F)
Viewing of Woodblock Prints, Mead Art Museum 1:30
Nov. 12
Rebuilding Tokyo
Nov. 12
Reading by Ito Hiromi. Webster 217. 4:30 pm.
Nov. 26
Ozu Yasujir ’s Tokyo Story. Professor Patrick Caddeau,
Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations
Dec. 3
Dec. 10
Tokyo Chic (Ryan Holmberg, Yale University)
Presentations
4
5
From Edo to Tokyo–
Ukiyo to Urban Chic
Fine Arts 91.02
Fall 2001
Selected Bibliography
Addiss, Stephen. Tokaido: Adventures on the Road in Old Japan. Lawrence: Spenser
Museum of Art, 1980.
Against Nature–Japanese Art in the Eighties. New York: Grey Art Gallery, 1989.
Annear, Judy. “Peepshow: Inside Yasumasa Morimura’s Looking Glass,” ARTAsia
Pacific, no.13, 1997: 41-47
Asano Sh g and Timothy Clark. The Passionate Art of Kitagawa Utamaro. London:
The British Museum, 1995.
Baekeland, Frederick and Martie Young. Imperial Japan: The Art of the Meiji Era
(1868-1912). Ithaca: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art 1980.
Bellah, Robert. Tokugawa Religion–The Cultural Roots of Modern Japan. New York:
The Free Press, 1985.
Brandon, James. Ch shingura: Studies in Kabuki and the Puppet Theatre. Honolulu:
University of Hawai’i Press, 1982.
Brandon, James and William P. Malm and Donald Shively, eds. Studies in Kabuki: Its
Acting, Music and Historical Context. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press,
1978.
Clark, Timothy. Ukiyoe Painting in the British Museum. London: British Museum, 1992.
-----. “Utamaro’s Portraiture.” The Proceedings of the Japan Society [London]. no. 130
(winter, 1997). XEROX
Clark, John. “Subjectivity in the Taisho and Early Showa Avant-Garde,” in Alexandra
Munroe, Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky, New York: Harry
Abrams, 1994: 41-53.
Coaldrake, William. Architecture and Authority in Japan. London and New York:
Routledge, 1996.
Conant, Ellen P. and Steven D. Owyoung, J. Thomas Rimer. Nihonga--Transcending
the Past: Japanese Style Painting, 1868-1968. New York: Weatherhill, 1995.
6
From Edo to Tokyo–
Ukiyo to Urban Chic
Fine Arts 91.02
Fall 2001
De Becker, J.E. The Nightless City, or The History of the Yoshiwara Y waku. Rutland:
Tuttle, 1971.
Foundation Cartier pou l’art contemporain, ed. Issey Miyake–Making Things. Zurich:
Scalo, 1998.
French, Cal. Shiba K kan: Artist Innovator and Pioneer in the Westernization of Japan.
New York: Weatherhill, 1974.
-----. Through Closed Doors--Western Influence on Japanese Art. Rochester,
Michigan: Meadowbrook Art Gallery, 1977.
Friedman, Mildred, ed. Tokyo Form and Spirit. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1986.
Fox, Howard. Primal Spirit: Ten Contemporary Japanese Sculptors. Los Angeles:
Losangeles County Museum of Art, 1990.
Gerstle, C. Andrew, ed. 18th Century Japan, Culture and Society. Sydney: Allen and
Unwin, 1989.
Gluckman, D.C and S. Takeda. When Art Became Fashion. Los Angeles: Los Angeles
County Museum of Art, 1992.
Guth, Christine. “Japan 1868-1945: Art, Architecture and National Identity.” Art
Journal, vol. 55, no. 3 (1996), pp. 16-20. XEROX
Hane, Mikiso. Modern Japan: A Historical Survey. Boulder; Westview Press, 1986.
Hanley, Susan. Everyday Things in Premodern Japan: The Hidden Legacy of Material
Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
-----. “The Material Culture: Stability in Transition.” In Marius Jansen and Gilbert
Rozman, ed. Japan in Transition–From Tokugawa to Meiji. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1986, pp. 447-469.
Hariu, Ichiro. “Progressive Trends in Modern Japanese Art,” in Reconstructions: AvantGarde Art in Japan 1945-1965. Museum of Modern Art Oxford, 1985: 23-27.
Hillier, Jack. Japanese Colour Prints. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1966.
-----. The Japanese Print–A New Approach. Rutland, VT: Tuttle, 1975.
7
From Edo to Tokyo–
Ukiyo to Urban Chic
Fine Arts 91.02
Fall 2001
Hirai, Kiyoshi. Feudal Architecture of Japan. Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1973.
Holborn, Mark. Issey Miyake. Koln: Tsschen, 1995.
Inoura, Yoshinobu and Toshio Kawatake. The Traditional Theatre of Japan. New York:
Weatherhill International, 1981.
Iwasaki, Haruko. “The Literature of Wit and Humor in Late-Eighteenth Century Edo.” In
Donald Jenkins, ed., The Floating World Revisited. Portland: Portland Museum
of Art, 1993, pp. 47-62.
Izzard, Sebastian. Kunisada’s World. New York: Japan Society, 1993.
Jansen, Marius. The Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press:
2000.
Jenkins, Donald ed., The Floating World Revisited. Portland: Portland Museum of Art,
1993.
Jones, Sumie. Imaging/Reading Eros : Proceedings For The Conference, Sexuality
And Edo Culture, 1750-1850. Bloomington: East Asian Studies Center, 1996.
Karatani, K jin. “One Spirit, Two Nineteenth Centuries,” in Masao Miyoshi and H.D.
Harootunian, eds., Postmodernism and Japan. Durham: Duke University Press,
1989: 259-272.
Keene, Donald. World Within Walls, Japanese Literature of the Pre-Modern Era 16001867. New York: Grove press, 1976.
Keyes, Roger and George Kuwayama. The Bizarre Imagery of Yoshitoshi. Los
Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1980
Kobayashi Tadashi, “Mitate in the Art of the Ukiyo-e Artist Suzuki Harunobu.” In Donald
Jenkins, ed., The Floating World Revisited. Portland: Portland Museum of Art,
1993, pp. 85-91.
-----. Utamaro’s Portraits from the Floating World. New York: Kodansha International,
1993.
Kominz, Laurence. “Ichikawa Danj r V and Kabuki’s Golden Age.” In Donald
Jenkins, ed., The Floating World Revisited. Portland: Portland Museum of Art,
1993, pp. 63-85.
8
From Edo to Tokyo–
Ukiyo to Urban Chic
Fine Arts 91.02
Fall 2001
-----. The Stars who Created Kabuki. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1997.
Koplos, Janet. “Some Kind of Revolution?” Art in America, May 1992: 98-111, 155.
Lane, Richard. Hokusai–Life and Work. London: Barrie and jenkins, 1989.
Lane, Richard. Images of the Floating World. Secaucus, N.J.Chartwell, 1978.
Lillehoj, Elizabeth. Woman in the Eyes of Man: Images of Women in Japanese Art.
Chicago: De Paul University, 1995.
Link, Howard. Primitive Ukiyoe. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1980.
-----. The Theatrical Prints of the Torii Masters. Honolulu: Honolulu Academy of Arts,
1977.
Lowitz, L. and M. Aoyama. Other Side River. Stone Bridge Press, 1995.
McClain, James. L. “Edobashi: Power, Space, and Popular Culture in Edo.” In James.
L. McClain and John M. Merriman, Edo and Paris–Urban Life and the State in
the Early Modern Era. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994, pp. 105-131.
McClain, James. L. and John M. Merriman. “Edo and Paris: Cities and Power.” In Edo
and Paris–Urban Life and the State in the Early Modern Era. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1994, pp. 3-38.
Marcus, Andrew. “The Carnival of Edo: Misemono Spectacles from Contemporary
Accounts.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, no. 45 (1985), pp. 499-541.
Matsuoka, Haruo. “The Artistic Legacy of Shin Hanga,” in Amy Newland and Chris
Uhlenbeck eds., Ukiyo-e to Shin hanga. Hong Kong: Mallard Press, 1990: 28-43
Meech-Pekarik, Julia. The World of the Meiji Print. New York: Weatherhill, 1986.
Munroe, Alexandra. “A Box of Smile: Tokyo Fluxus, Conceptual Art, and the School of
Metaphysics,” in Japanese Art After 1945, pp. 215-225.
-----.. “Circle: Modernism and Tradition.” In Japanese Art After 1945, pp. 125-148
-----. “Hinomaru Illumination: Japanese Art of the 1990s. ” In Japanese Art After 1945,
pp. 339-350.
9
From Edo to Tokyo–
Ukiyo to Urban Chic
Fine Arts 91.02
Fall 2001
-----. “The Laws of Situation: Mono-ha and Beyond the Sculptural Paradigm,” in
Japanese Art After 1945, pp. 257-270.
-----. “Revolt of the Flesh: Ankoku Butoh and Obsessional Art”” in Japanese Art After
1945, pp. 189-201.
-----. Japanese Art After 1945–Scream Against the Sky. New York: Abrams, 1994.
Nakane Chie and ishi Shinzabur , eds.. Tokugawa Japan: The Social and Economic
Antecedents of Modern Japan. Tokyo: Tokyo University Press, 1990.
Naruzaki, Muneshige. Hiroshige--Famous Views. Tokyo: Kodansha International,
1968.
-----. Hiroshige--The 53 Stages of the Tokaido. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1969.
-----. Sharaku: The Enigmatic Ukiyoe Master. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1983.
Newland, Amy. Ukiyo-e to Shin hanga : the Art of Japanese Woodblock Prints. London:
Bison Books, 1990.
Oka, Naomi. Edo Architecture, Katsura and Nikko. Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1975.
Oshima, Mark. “The Keisei as a Meeting Point of Different Worlds,” in Elizabeth
Swinton, ed., The Women of the Pleasure Quarters. New York: Hudson Hills
Press and the Worcester Art Museum, 1996: 87-105.
Phillips, Sandra S. Daido Moriyama : Stray Dog. San Francisco, Calif. : San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art, 1999.
Pincus, Leslie. Authenticating Culture in Imperial Japan–Kuki Sh zo and the rise of
National Aesthetics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
Reynolds. Jonathan. “Japan’s Imperial Diet Building: Debate over Construction of a
National Identity.” Art Journal, vol. 55, no. 3 (Fall 1996), pp. 38-47. XEROX
Richie, Donald. “The Occupied Arts,” in Mark Sandler, ed. The Confusion Era: Art and
Culture of Japan During the Allied Occupation, 1945-1952. Washington, D.C.:
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution and the University of
Washington Press, 1997: 11-21.
Rosenfield, John. M. "Western Style Painting in the Early Meiji Period," in Donald
10
From Edo to Tokyo–
Ukiyo to Urban Chic
Fine Arts 91.02
Fall 2001
Shively, ed. Tradition and Modernization in Japanese Culture. Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 1974. pp. 181-219.
Schaap, Robert. Heroes and Ghosts: Japanese Prints by Kuniyoshi. Leiden: Hotei,
1998.
Screech, Timon. “The Meaning of Western Perspective in Edo popular Culture.”
Archives of Asian Art, no. 47 (1994), pp. 58-69. XEROX
-----. Sex and the Floating World. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999.
-----. The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan : the Lens
Within the Heart. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996
Seigle, Cecelia Segawa. Yoshiwara, the Glittering World of the Japanese Courtesan.
Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1993.
Seidensticker, Edward. High City Low City: Tokyo from Edo to the Earthquake. New
York: Knopf, 1983.
-----. Tokyo Rising. New York: Knopf, 1990.
Shively, Donald. “Sumptuary Regulations and Status in Early Tokugawa Japan.”
Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 25 (1965), pp. 123-164.
Skov, Lise. “Fashion Trends, Japonisme and Postmodernism, or ‘What is so Japanese
About Comme Des Garçons?’” in John Whittier Treat, ed., Contemporary Japan
and Popular Culture, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996: 137-168.
Smith, Henry. “The Edo-Tokyo Transition: In Search of Common Ground.” In Marius
Jansen and Gilbert Rozman, ed. Japan in Transition–From Tokugawa to Meiji.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986, pp. 347-374.
-----. “The Floating World in Its Edo Locale, 1750-1850.” In Donald Jenkins, ed., The
Floating World Revisited. Portland: Portland Museum of Art, 1993, pp. 25-46.
-----. Kiyochika, Artist of Meiji Japan. Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Museum of Art,
1988
Smith, Henry and Amy Poster. One Hundred Views of Edo. New York: Abrams, 1986.
Takeuchi, Makoto. “Festival and Fights: The Law and the People of Edo.” In James. L.
McClain and John M. Merriman, Edo and Paris–Urban Life and the State in the
11
From Edo to Tokyo–
Ukiyo to Urban Chic
Fine Arts 91.02
Fall 2001
Early Modern Era. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994, pp. 384-406.
Thomson, Sarah and H. D. Hartoonian. Undercurrents in the Floating World:
Censorship and Japanese Prints. New York: Asia Society Galleries, 1991.
Vaporis, Constantine. “To Edo and Back: Alternate Attendance and Japanese Culture
in the Early Modern Period.” Journal of Japanese Studies, no. 23, vol. 1 (1997).
Vergez, Robert. Early Ukiyoe Master--Okumura Masanobu. Tokyo: Kodansha
International, 1983.
Volker, T. Ukiyoe Quartet. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1961. XEROX
Waley, Paul. Tokyo Now and Then. New York: Weatherhill, 1984. DS 896.38 W35
1984
Watanabe, Toshio. “Josiah Condor’s Rokumeikan: Architecture and National
Representation in Meiji Japan. Art Journal, vol. 55, no. 3 (Fall 1996), pp. 21-27.
XEROX
Waterhouse, D. B. Harunobu and His Age. London: The British Museum, 1964.
Weiermair, Peter and Gerald Matt, eds. Japanese Photography : Desire and Void.
Zurich : Edition Stemmle, c1997.
Weisenfeld, Gennifer. “Mavo’s ‘Conscious Constructivism’: Art, Individualism, and Daily
Life in Interwar Japan.” Art Journal, 55, no. 3 (Fall 1996): 64-73. XEROX
Wigen, Karen. “The Geographic Imagination in Early Modern Japanese History:
Retrospect and Prospect.” Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 51, no.1 (Feb., 1992),
pp. 3-29
Yamanashi, Emiko. “Painting in the Age of Heavy Hands,” in Mark Sandler, ed. The
Confusion Era: Art and Culture of Japan During the Allied Occupation, 19451952. Washington, D.C.: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1997. pp. 23-37.
12