Arts of Japan

(4 Credits)

This course introduces students to the art produced in Japan from the Neolithic to the Modern era. The study of the institutional, political, and economic contexts in which art objects were created and circulated will shed light on deeper issues concerning the function and meaning of luxury items in elite culture’s display of power and self-fashioning. Markedly interdisciplinary, the course will familiarize students with art objects and will provide analytical tools for the understanding of the stories these objects were meant to tell. Our discussion will also explore how knowledge about Japan evolved in the West and its current state in contemporary academic discourses, museum practices, and the art market.