Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 329-340).

Esta pesquisa visou possibilitar o conhecimento da Ikebana como uma manifestação estética significativa, integrante da história da arte japonesa e que vem se disseminando pelo mundo. Para compreensão da sua estética, será demonstrado como exemplo o trabalho do artista contemporâneo Toshiro Kawase, o estudo do Zen e suas características. Toshiro Kawase é um artista especializado na arte da Ikebana, e suas obras resultaram em dois livros de âmbito internacional: Inspired Flower Arrangements (1990) e The Book of Ikebana (2000). A arte japonesa é baseada nos sentimentos e na simplicidade de expressão, que motivaram este povo a utilizar a natureza como suporte para executar memoráveis obras de arte. Ao longo da história, no oriente e no ocidente da mesma forma, a beleza das flores adicionou graça e charme na vida das pessoas. A pesquisa analisa a arte japonesa e sua ligação inseparável com a religião, abordando principalmente os aspectos do sagrado, o conceito do belo e a real função do artista de Ikebana. / This research intends to show Ikebana by being an esthetic manifestation of art, that been walking side by side with all stages of Art History. To understand the esthetic of Ikebana, will be demonstrated by example, the contemporary artist Toshiro Kawase, the Zen study and its characteristics. Toshiro Kawase is an artist specialized in Ikebanas Art, and his production inspired two international books: Inspired Flower Arrangements (1990) and The Book of Ikebana (2000). The Japanese art is based on emotions and expression simplicity that motivated this people to use the nature like a support to execute memorable works of art. In all parts of history of the art, in occident and in the orient at the same way, the beauty of flowers added grace and charm in peoples life. The question is: Why do Ikebanas art appeared only in Japan or related to Japanese? This research, analyses the Japanese art and its unbreakable link with religiosity, often the sacred aspect, the definition of beauty and the real functionality of the artist. This research also presents aspects of the principal objective of art, and how to do its communication purposing the perpetuation of his human experiences.

In Japan, ceramics has long been considered a medium associated with elevated aesthetic expression and high cultural capital. However, the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw transformations of its epistemological underpinnings. The collapse of the feudal system gave rise to the multivalenced concept of "art craft" (bijutsu kôgei) that included "art ceramics." For individual artists like Tomimoto Kenkichi (1886-1963), ceramics traversed a parallel path with other mediums of modern art that emphasized self-expression and hybridizations of multiple geo-historical sources. Ultimately, these ceramics became significant state-supported symbols of the nation. An analysis of the art, praxis, and theories of Tomimoto Kenkichi presents an ideal case study for illuminating the central mechanisms responsible for the emergence and development of modern Japanese art ceramics. With a wide angle yet critical perspective lacking in previous studies, this dissertation not only reveals Tomimoto's complex individual role in the history of modern ceramics, but also sheds light on the ontology of modern Japanese craft itself. By considering Tomimoto's entire oeuvre-- including calligraphy, ceramics, design goods, painting, and prints--we may track the development of his modernist embrace of the direct observation of nature, abstract form, and original expression. His praxis, synergistically modeled on William Morris and Ogata Kenzan, reveals a modernist stance towards Japanese literati culture in which ceramics became a medium negotiating between British Arts and Crafts design; modernist European sculpture; and Chinese, Korean, and Japanese historical ceramics. The dissertation's diachronic structure charts artistic concepts, ideologies, and creative works from the late Meiji to the mid-Shôwa eras, relying on formal analysis as well as organizational analysis of pedagogical systems, art organizations, and exhibition structures. Chapter One considers Tomimoto's lineal inheritances, university education, and self-study. Chapter Two explores Tomimoto's discourse of self-expression and the equivalency of artistic mediums. Chapter Three deconstructs the image of the ceramic vessel and Tomimoto's discourse of ceramic form according to respective engagements with Joseon porcelain and modernist sculpture. Chapter Four analyzes the sinophilic and modernist aspects of his overglaze enamel porcelain. Finally, Chapter Five surveys the role of exhibitions and preservation efforts in positioning ceramics as art and national tradition.

A presente pesquisa investiga o movimento de gravura moderna japonesa Shin-hanga, que se iniciou na Era Meiji (1868 1912) e foi desenvolvido nas duas eras subsequentes, Taish (1912 1926) e Shwa (1926 1989), em um momento em que o Japão passava por um processo de ocidentalização. Tal contexto histórico é explicado no primeiro capítulo, o qual nos ajuda a entender o desenvolvimento do Shin-hanga e suas relações com o mundo e a arte ocidental, principalmente a europeia. O movimento em si é explicado no segundo capítulo: o seu início, o desenvolvimento e os principais artistas. A paisagem, ou as vistas de lugares, foi o tema escolhido para a análise das imagens. Como exemplo do movimento, destacou-se o artista Hiroshi Yoshida (1876 1950), o qual teve muitas oportunidades para viajar para fora do Japão, tendo a vivência no Ocidente e no Oriente. Yoshida fez pinturas e xilogravuras e utilizou a técnica tradicional japonesa em sua produção, mas também incorporou conceitos ocidentais no estudo de luz, por exemplo. Suas obras foram estudadas estabelecendo comparações com as estampas Ukiyo-e e algumas pinturas impressionistas europeias. / The present research investigates the modern Japanese print movement Shin-hanga, which began in the Meiji Era (1868 1912) and was developed in the two subsequent eras, Taish (1912 1926) and Shwa (1926 1989), at a time when Japan underwent a process of westernization. Such a context is explained in the first chapter, which helps us understand the development of Shin-hanga and his relations with the world and Western art, mainly European. The movement itself is explained in the second chapter: its beginning, development and the leading artists. The landscape, or the views of places was the theme chosen for the analysis of the images. As an example of the movement, the highlight is on the artist Hiroshi Yoshida (1876 - 1950), who had many opportunities to travel outside Japan, having experience in the West and East. Yoshida made paintings and prints and used the traditional Japanese technique in his production, but also incorporated Western concepts in the study of light, for example. His works were studied alongside Ukiyo-e prints and some Impressionist paintings by European artists.

A presente investigação teve como ponto de partida o estudo da palavra kôgei 工芸, derivada de geijutsu 芸術, que corresponde à ideia de arte no Japão. A pesquisa inicia-se com uma análise preliminar das principais diferenças entre geijutsu e a arte europeia, no sentido de belas artes predominante até meados do século XIX. Segue-se um esclarecimento acerca da origem da palavra kôgei, criada para traduzir o termo inglês industry no contexto da modernização do país, mas que sofreria um processo de reelaboração desse significado, tornando-o mais próximo de arte e artesanato, e símbolo da cultura material japonesa. Em nossa delimitação cronológica, que tem início com a reabertura dos portos japoneses para as potências marítimas estrangeiras durante os anos 1850, investigamos alguns elementos que contribuíram para a transformação semântica de kôgei, tais como a função social da arte no Japão pré-moderno, a participação nas exposições internacionais de arte e indústria, o aponismo e a inserção da arte japonesa no debate ocidental sobre a arte aplicada por volta da década de 1870. / The starting point of the investigation here presented was the study of the word kōgei工芸, derived from geijutsu 芸術, which corresponds to the idea of art in Japan. The research begins with a preliminary analysis of the main differences between geijutsu and European art, in the sense of fine arts prevalent until the mid-nineteenth century. It is followed by a clarification about the origin of the word kōgei, created to translate the English term industry in the context of the country modernization. That meaning would be the subject of re-elaboration, making it closer to art and crafts, and symbol of the Japanese material culture. In our chronological delimitation, which begins with the reopening of Japanese ports to the international maritime powers during the 1850s, we investigate some elements that contributed to the semantic transformation of kōgei, such as the social function of art in premodern Japan, the participation in international exhibitions of art and industry, Japonisme and the insertion of the Japanese art in the Western debate on applied arts around the 1870s.

In the mid-1990s, Japanese artists Mariko Mori (b. 1962) and Takashi Murakami (b. 1967) began creating works that referenced Japanese popular culture tropes such as sexuality, technology and the idea of kawaii, or cute. These tropes were associated with emerging youth cultures instigating a “soft rebellion” against social conventions. While emancipated female youths, or shōjo, were criticized for lifestyles based on the consumption of kawaii goods, their male contemporaries, the otaku were demonized for a fetishization of kawaii girls and technology through anime and manga, or animation and comic books. Destabilizing the nation’s patriarchal theory of cultural uniqueness, or nihonjinron, the youth triggered fears of a growing infantilized, feminized automaton ‘alien’ society during Japan’s economically tumultuous 1990s. In response to these trends, Mori and Murakami create works and personae that celebrate Japan’s emerging heterogeneity and reveal that Japan’s fear of the ‘alien within’ is a result of a tenuous post-war Japanese-American relationship. But in denoting America’s position in Japan’s psyche, Mori’s and Murakami’s illustration of Japan as both victim and threat encourages Orientalist and Techno-Orientalist readings. The artists’ ambivalence towards Western stereotypes in their works and personae, as well as their distortion of boundaries between commercial and fine art, intimate a collusion between commercialization, art and cultural identity. Such acts suggest that in the global economy of art production, Japanese cultural identity has become as much as a brand, as art a commodity. In this ambivalent perspective, the artists isolate the relatively recent difficulty of enunciating Japanese cultural identity in the international framework. With the downfall of its cultural homogeneity theory, Japan faced a crisis of representation. Self-Orientalization emerged as a cultural imperative for stabilizing a coherent national identity, transposing blame for Japan’s social and economic disrepair onto America. But by relocating Japanese self-Orientalization within the global art market, Mori and Murakami suggest that as non-Western artists, economic viability is based upon their ability to cultivate desirability, not necessarily authenticity. In the international realm, national identity has become a brand based upon the economies of desire, predicated by external consumption, rather than an internalized production of meaning.

In the mid-1990s, Japanese artists Mariko Mori (b. 1962) and Takashi Murakami (b. 1967) began creating works that referenced Japanese popular culture tropes such as sexuality, technology and the idea of kawaii, or cute. These tropes were associated with emerging youth cultures instigating a “soft rebellion” against social conventions. While emancipated female youths, or shōjo, were criticized for lifestyles based on the consumption of kawaii goods, their male contemporaries, the otaku were demonized for a fetishization of kawaii girls and technology through anime and manga, or animation and comic books. Destabilizing the nation’s patriarchal theory of cultural uniqueness, or nihonjinron, the youth triggered fears of a growing infantilized, feminized automaton ‘alien’ society during Japan’s economically tumultuous 1990s. In response to these trends, Mori and Murakami create works and personae that celebrate Japan’s emerging heterogeneity and reveal that Japan’s fear of the ‘alien within’ is a result of a tenuous post-war Japanese-American relationship. But in denoting America’s position in Japan’s psyche, Mori’s and Murakami’s illustration of Japan as both victim and threat encourages Orientalist and Techno-Orientalist readings. The artists’ ambivalence towards Western stereotypes in their works and personae, as well as their distortion of boundaries between commercial and fine art, intimate a collusion between commercialization, art and cultural identity. Such acts suggest that in the global economy of art production, Japanese cultural identity has become as much as a brand, as art a commodity. In this ambivalent perspective, the artists isolate the relatively recent difficulty of enunciating Japanese cultural identity in the international framework. With the downfall of its cultural homogeneity theory, Japan faced a crisis of representation. Self-Orientalization emerged as a cultural imperative for stabilizing a coherent national identity, transposing blame for Japan’s social and economic disrepair onto America. But by relocating Japanese self-Orientalization within the global art market, Mori and Murakami suggest that as non-Western artists, economic viability is based upon their ability to cultivate desirability, not necessarily authenticity. In the international realm, national identity has become a brand based upon the economies of desire, predicated by external consumption, rather than an internalized production of meaning.

A presente pesquisa investiga o movimento de gravura moderna japonesa Shin-hanga, que se iniciou na Era Meiji (1868 1912) e foi desenvolvido nas duas eras subsequentes, Taish (1912 1926) e Shwa (1926 1989), em um momento em que o Japão passava por um processo de ocidentalização. Tal contexto histórico é explicado no primeiro capítulo, o qual nos ajuda a entender o desenvolvimento do Shin-hanga e suas relações com o mundo e a arte ocidental, principalmente a europeia. O movimento em si é explicado no segundo capítulo: o seu início, o desenvolvimento e os principais artistas. A paisagem, ou as vistas de lugares, foi o tema escolhido para a análise das imagens. Como exemplo do movimento, destacou-se o artista Hiroshi Yoshida (1876 1950), o qual teve muitas oportunidades para viajar para fora do Japão, tendo a vivência no Ocidente e no Oriente. Yoshida fez pinturas e xilogravuras e utilizou a técnica tradicional japonesa em sua produção, mas também incorporou conceitos ocidentais no estudo de luz, por exemplo. Suas obras foram estudadas estabelecendo comparações com as estampas Ukiyo-e e algumas pinturas impressionistas europeias. / The present research investigates the modern Japanese print movement Shin-hanga, which began in the Meiji Era (1868 1912) and was developed in the two subsequent eras, Taish (1912 1926) and Shwa (1926 1989), at a time when Japan underwent a process of westernization. Such a context is explained in the first chapter, which helps us understand the development of Shin-hanga and his relations with the world and Western art, mainly European. The movement itself is explained in the second chapter: its beginning, development and the leading artists. The landscape, or the views of places was the theme chosen for the analysis of the images. As an example of the movement, the highlight is on the artist Hiroshi Yoshida (1876 - 1950), who had many opportunities to travel outside Japan, having experience in the West and East. Yoshida made paintings and prints and used the traditional Japanese technique in his production, but also incorporated Western concepts in the study of light, for example. His works were studied alongside Ukiyo-e prints and some Impressionist paintings by European artists.

Zen Buddhism Thoughts and their Reflection in Japanese Art This thesis covers the development of Chan and Zen Buddhism thoughts, their effect on Japanese culture and their reflection in specific art forms. In the first part, it summarizes the arriving and settling of Zen in Japan as a follow-up to Chan development in China and as a reaction to the preceeding Buddhist schools in Japan. In the second part it deduces a set of criteria for defining "Zen Arts" from the general trends in taste at that time. And in the third part, it compares the differences in architecture, landscape design and painting before and after the influence of Zen. It follows the changes in development of specific components and techniques of these art forms and on this basis it determines what are the key Zen Buddhism thoughts that are expressed by that and how.

In the mid-1990s, Japanese artists Mariko Mori (b. 1962) and Takashi Murakami (b. 1967) began creating works that referenced Japanese popular culture tropes such as sexuality, technology and the idea of kawaii, or cute. These tropes were associated with emerging youth cultures instigating a “soft rebellion” against social conventions. While emancipated female youths, or shōjo, were criticized for lifestyles based on the consumption of kawaii goods, their male contemporaries, the otaku were demonized for a fetishization of kawaii girls and technology through anime and manga, or animation and comic books. Destabilizing the nation’s patriarchal theory of cultural uniqueness, or nihonjinron, the youth triggered fears of a growing infantilized, feminized automaton ‘alien’ society during Japan’s economically tumultuous 1990s. In response to these trends, Mori and Murakami create works and personae that celebrate Japan’s emerging heterogeneity and reveal that Japan’s fear of the ‘alien within’ is a result of a tenuous post-war Japanese-American relationship. But in denoting America’s position in Japan’s psyche, Mori’s and Murakami’s illustration of Japan as both victim and threat encourages Orientalist and Techno-Orientalist readings. The artists’ ambivalence towards Western stereotypes in their works and personae, as well as their distortion of boundaries between commercial and fine art, intimate a collusion between commercialization, art and cultural identity. Such acts suggest that in the global economy of art production, Japanese cultural identity has become as much as a brand, as art a commodity. In this ambivalent perspective, the artists isolate the relatively recent difficulty of enunciating Japanese cultural identity in the international framework. With the downfall of its cultural homogeneity theory, Japan faced a crisis of representation. Self-Orientalization emerged as a cultural imperative for stabilizing a coherent national identity, transposing blame for Japan’s social and economic disrepair onto America. But by relocating Japanese self-Orientalization within the global art market, Mori and Murakami suggest that as non-Western artists, economic viability is based upon their ability to cultivate desirability, not necessarily authenticity. In the international realm, national identity has become a brand based upon the economies of desire, predicated by external consumption, rather than an internalized production of meaning. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate