El estudio del arte japonés hoy. ¿Qué pasará en Tallinn en quince días?

Del 24 al 27 de agosto próximos se celebrará en la Universidad de Tallinn, Estonia, la 14ta Conferencia Internacional de la European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS). Este evento, que se realiza con una frecuencia de tres años, reune tanto a especialistas en estudios japoneses de Europa como de otros países del  mundo, que discuten sobre los más diversos temas de actualidad en torno a Japón desde diferentes disciplinas.

Para esta próxima sesión tuve el privilegio de ser el organizador principal de la sección de artes visuales para la que se me hizo interesante convocar a aquellos interesados en la situación actual de los estudios sobre historia del arte japonés.

Así, la convocatoria que lanzamos para presentar propuestas en la sección de artes visuales, y que se publicó a fines del año pasado, fue la siguiente:

The State of the Art in Japanese Art History

During the last two decades the discipline of Art History has experienced a proliferation of analytical strategies resulting from the presence of several theoretical-methodological fault lines within and outside the discipline itself. The relations of Art History with other fields, as well as the inclusion of notions (or maneuvers) such as the study of visual and material culture, have also motivated further scholarly discourse.

Despite remarkable advances, yet a need is felt to provide wider intellectual arenas within the field of Japanese Art History in order to address numerous problems relating to self definition, both historically and in contemporary terms. Problematic issues include: the lack of a coherent system of academic terminology, the need to question the paradigms through which “Japanese art” has been largely studied, or the need for designing alternative ways for approaching our objects of study and dealing with them. Given such circumstances, do we need to rethink the discipline? And, if so, in which terms? What does “Japanese Art History” really mean? What kind of problems - theoretical, methodological, historiographical, and practical - are now emerging in the specific field?

This Call for Papers addresses to all scholars working on Japanese Art History and Visual Arts and entices you to contribute to the debate about the present and future developments of our discipline and particular field of study. The main purpose of this call consists not only in seeking for answers, but also in stimulating new ideas and questions. Additionally, papers and panels dealing with experience at research level (case studies), as well as from teaching and curatorial practices, are encouraged and welcome.

A pesar de las buenas propuestas recibidas (muchas de ellas finalmente aceptadas para su presentación en la Conferencia), sentimos que todavía hay cierta reticencia a discutir en profundidad algunos de los problemas de base a los que se enfrenta nuestra disciplina y área de estudio. En ese sentido, fueron realmente pocas las propuestas presentadas que estaban interesadas en ahondar en aspectos medulares de la convocatoria, así como en debatir sobre estrategias metodológicas que si bien encontramos en otras áreas de estudio dentro de la discilplina de Historia del Arte, rara vez se incorporan a los estudios sobre el "arte japonés", ya sea en Japón como fuera de él. No obstante estos antojos y desencantos, fue posible armar un interesante programa para poder discutir durante esos cuatro días de trabajo intenso.

Para que los lectores de este blog estén enterados e informados sobre los contenidos de la sección de artes visuales, estoy incluyendo a continuación el programa de la sección.

Section 4: Visual and Performing Arts
Subsection 4a: Visual Arts

Convenors:
Amaury GARCIA RODRIGUEZ ( visual_arts [at] eajs.eu )
Donatella FAILLA ( visual_arts [at] eajs.eu )

Wednesday, 24 August 2011
09:00 - 18:00 Registration
12:30 - 14:30 Coffee break
14:30 - 16:00 EAJS 2011 Opening Plenary Session
UENO Chizuko keynote speech
16:00 - 16:30 Coffee break
16:30 - 18:00 Section Keynote Speech
AKAMA Ryo (Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto),
デジタルイメージを使った研究潮流 ー何がもたらされるべきかー

Thursday, 25 August 2011
09:00 - 10:30 Panel: Rethinking the Development of Style in Japanese art: Tools and materials as catalysts
Discussant: John CARPENTER (SOAS, University of London)
Panelists
Rethinking the pictorial expression – styles defined by the brush (MURATA Takashi, Osaka International University)
Golden styles of Japanese calligraphy paper and lacquer art: the technical development of gold leaf and metal powder application (Monika BINCSIK, Ritsumeikan University)
Weaving bamboo into the history of Japanese art: the present state of Japanese bamboo art research (MAEZAKI Shinya, Ritsumeikan University)
The Innovative Use of Pigments and Painting Materials in Nihonga: The Case of Hishida Shunso (TOMIZAWA-KAY Eriko, SOAS, University of London)
10:30 - 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 - 12:30 Group of papers
Kyushu c. 1600: A new visual culture in early modern Japan (Alexandra CURVELO, Centro de História de Além-Mar, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Angelo CATTANEO, CHAM)
European views of East Asia, past and present (ITANI Yoshie, Tama University)
Iconological analysis of the rocks depicted in Sesshu’s landscape paintings (HAIJIMA Agnese, Latvia University)
Parallel Session:
Group of papers
Lost pages in Japan´s art history (Svetlana RYBALKO, University of Ukraine)
Seven key figures of methodology to the study of lacquerware (Leonor LEIRIA, Oxford Brookes University)
About the listening to odour: May olfactory memories be detected through material artifacts? (Chantal WEBER, University of Cologne)
12:30 - 14:30 Lunch
14:30 - 16:00 Panel: Displaying ‘Japan’ in the West: Nineteenth century to the present
Discussant: Angus LOCKYER (SOAS, University of London)
Panelists
What is the History of Japanese Art? – Displaying Japanese Antiquities in the British Museum – (Princess Akiko of Mikasa, Ritsumeikan University)
Japan at International Exhibitions, 1873-1933 (ITO Mamiko, Sacred Heart University)
How Japan has been exhibited outside Japan? (YOSHIDA Kenji, National Museum of Ethnology)
16:00 - 16:30 Coffee break
16:30 - 18:00 Group of papers
Prices and values of Japanese art in the Meiji period: The Chiossone Museum Collections and their historical inventory dated 1898 (Donatella FAILLA, Edoardo Chiossone Museum of Oriental Art)
The mingei undo in the collections of the Ethnology Museum of Barcelona (Muriel GOMEZ, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
A Japonism artwork collector and cork industry in Catalonia (SHIRAISHI Minoru, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona )
Travelling textiles: ‘Foreign’ elements in a Japanese textile sample book (Petra HOLMBERG, Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities)

Friday, 26 August 2011
09:00 - 10:30 Panel: Shunga in its social and cultural context I
Discussant: Amaury GARCIA RODRIGUEZ (El Colegio de México)
Panelists
The physical properties of shunpon (shunga books) (Ellis TINIOS, University of Leeds),
Characteristics of Sexual Representation in Ukiyoe Shunga: Faces and Genitals of Men and Women drawn in a Parallel line (HAYAKAWA Monta, International Research Center for Japanese Studies)
Yōbutsu kurabe (Phallus Competition) handscrolls’ place in the history of /shunga/ (YANO Akiko, SOAS, University of London)
10:30 - 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 - 12:30 Panel: Shunga in its social and cultural context II
How did Nishikawa Sukenobu’s Shunpon Depict Various Castes?: A Case Study of Iro hiinagata (ISHIGAMI Aki, Ritsumeikan University)
Could Sex get Polemic? The Shunpon of Nishikawa Sukenobu (Jenny PRESTON, SOAS, University of London)
Is Their Polemical Intent in Shunga Parodies (mojiri/yatsushi)? (Andrew GERSTLE, SOAS, University of London)
12:30 - 14:30 Lunch
14:30 - 16:00 Panel: Shunga in its social and cultural context III
The private lives of kabuki actors as revealed in prints and illustrated books (MATSUBA Ryoko, Ritsumeikan University)
Intended for the female gaze? Utagawa Kunisada’s Shunshoku hatsune no ume (Spring Love: Six women of the First Cry, 1842) (Monika HINKEL, SOAS, University of London)
Erotica in the Meiji Era (Rosina BUCKLAND, National Museum of Scotland)
16:00 - 16:30 Coffee break
16:30 - 18:00 Group of papers
Hokusai Manga: Reconstructing the composition (Evgeny STEINER, SOAS, University of London)
For women or for men? Japanese pre-modern illustrated printed books from the Nordenskiöld Collection in Stockholm” (MACHOTKA Ewa, Stockholm University)

Saturday, 27 August 2011
09:00 - 10:30 Panel: Visual satire in Japan: A genre in decay?
Discussant: Sepp LINHART (University of Vienna)
Panelists
明治初期の風刺錦絵 (Noriko BRANDL, University of Vienna)
Prime-minister Koizumi Junichiro in Political Cartoons – On Characteristic Features of Contemporary Japanese Cartoons (Yulia MIKHAILOVA, Hiroshima City University)
The Limits of Humor - a Comparative Study of Satire in Recent Japanese Cartooning (Ron STEWART, Prefectural University of Hiroshima)
Parallel Session:
Group of papers
What is considered fine art in Japan?: A historical review of the situation in the early 20th century focusing on Takehisa Yumeji (Sabine SCHENK, German Institute for Japanese Studies)
The art of Morita Kohei (Marta FANASCA, Sapienza University of Rome)
Aesthetics and political agency: Natori Yonosuke, a Japanese Riefenstahl? (Andrea GERMER, Hiroshima City University)
10:30 - 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 - 12:30 Group of papers
Avant-garde art and fashion: Artists, critics and their clothes in Meiji and Taisho Japan (Toby SLADE, University of Tokyo)
Between ‘real’ history and ‘realistic’ painting: The making of Meiji Shrine Memorial Art Gallery, 1912-1936 (IMAIZUMI Yoshiko, Meiji Jingu Research Institute)
Parallel Session:
Group of papers
Rethinking Japanese visual culture: Japanese contemporary art in relation to anime and popular visual representations (John CLAMMER, United Nations University)
The postmodern notion of tradition in contemporary Japanese art: The case of Makoto Aida and Akira Yamaguchi (Ievgeniia BOGDANOVA, Heidelberg University)
The study of Japanese art in Brazil (OKANO Michiko, Federal University of Sao Paulo)
12:30 - 14:30 Lunch
14:30 - 17:00 EAJS General Meeting and Closing Ceremony

Como pueden ver (y como quizás también era lógico suponer), decidí dedicar un día completo al debate sobre diferentes aspectos de la estampa erótica japonesa shunga. Para esto se dispusieron tres paneles exclusivamente dedicados a este tema donde estarán participando tanto los investigadores más importantes de éste momento que trabajan shunga, como otros más nóveles que recién están comenzando a dar sus primeros pasos. 

Esta iniciativa, de cierta forma, intenta reforzar las diferentes actividades que anteceden a la magna exhibición internacional que sobre shunga que presentará en la primavera del 2013 en el Museo Británico, y que hemos comentado en otros posts de este blog.

Para los interesados en el programa preliminar completo de la Conferencia, les coloco aquí el enlace directo de su ubicación en el sitio de la Universidad de Tallinn.

Los mantendré informados de los resultados del evento.