Elizabeth Lillehoj
Associate Professor
Department of the History of Art and Architecture
DePaul University
“Politics and Ideology in Early Modern Japanese Visual Culture”
Friday, April 30, 4-6 pm
CWAC 156
Abstract
Visual culture functioned as an integral element in interactions between leaders of the imperial court and heads of warrior regimes at the outset of Japan’s early modern era (late 16th to early 17th centuries). This was a critical time for both the imperial institution and the warrior government. Emperors, who were still revered by many, faced financial straights and personal frustrations in adapting to a new order being established by ruling military lords, the most powerful and wealthy cohort in the country. Leading warriors – first the head of the Toyotomi clan and then shoguns of the Tokugawa clan — depended on emperors, because only an emperor could bestow upon them the right to rule. The two sides were thus caught in a dependent relationship with emperors needing economic support from warlords and warlords requiring sanction from emperors. Taking advantage of an age-old imperial ideology, emperors and empresses managed to enhance the court’s inherited status. It might even be said that imperial leaders preserved the court’s symbolically exalted place by redirecting initiatives formulated by warlords. The story of that process, with strategic moves and counter-moves taken by each side, is inseparable from a history of art; indeed, art works deployed in emperor/warlord exchanges came to manifest the value of status and tradition.
