What is Japanese ‘traditional’ art?

This talk confronts what we consider to be Japanese “traditional” arts. Focusing on representations of Kyoto by Shiokawa Bunrin (1808-77) and Kōno Barei (1844-95), it shows that rather than a monolithic Japanese art history, there are instead many histories of Japanese art worthy of study.

Pauline Ayumi Ota is an art historian of Japan, specializing in late 18th and early 19th century two-dimensional arts, particularly the work of Maruyama Ōkyo and the Maruyama and Shijō schools. She is currently completing her book project, Seeing the City Anew: Maruyama Ōkyo’s Representations of Kyoto, 1758-1790, with Brill’s Japanese Visual Culture Series. She is chair and associate professor of art and art history at De Pauw University.