Abstract:
There has been a growing effort among historians of 19th-century Japan to treat the relationship between premodernity and modernity as a continuum rather than a disjunction. Inspired by this body of scholarship, this presentation seeks to present a new perspective on the role of premodern cultural practices in the modernization of art in Meiji-period Japan. In particular, I will discuss how premodern Sinophilic literati art continued to develop during the turbulent age of Japan’s modernization, and I will consider the various new cultural and social functions it played during that period. By focusing on the lives and artistic practices of women literati artists who enjoyed great fame particularly from the mid-19th century onward, I will also examine how gender and culture were mapped onto the artificial division between premodernity and modernity constructed by contemporary social critics.

* This seminar is co-organized by ASNET, Network for Education and Research on Asia as a part of ASNET lecture series.