Arts of Japan

This course surveys the arts of Japan from the sixth to the twentieth century. Focusing on landmark objects and sites—including temples, shrines, gardens, painting, sculpture, prints, castles, mausoleums, brothels, theaters, museums, and world’s fairs—students will gain an understanding of key monuments as well as the techniques and means by which visual arts were employed to overwhelm the senses, transport viewers into supernatural worlds, consolidate power, placate the dead, and define Japan itself will be considered. Essential themes of the course will include the relationship between artistic production and Japanese sociopolitical development, Sino-Japanese as well as Western cultural exchange, and the impact of religion, region, gender, and class on the appearance of Japanese art.