4:30pm at CWAC 156.
Title: “Risō Sculptures in Meiji Japan: Takenouchi Hisakazu’s Gigeiten and the Nihonga Style”
Abstract: This paper is a work-in-progress that attempts to examine Takenouchi Hisakazu’s 竹内久一 (1857–1916, alt. Takeuchi Kyūichi) wooden sculpture Gigeiten 伎芸天 (The Divinity of the Arts, Gigeiten, 1893) as one of the first riso 理想 sculptures, a distinctive characteristic that is strongly associated with nihonga paintings and intellectual Okakura Kakuzō 岡倉覚三 (alt. Okakura Tenshin 岡倉天心, 1862–1913). Takenouchi, influenced by Okakura, attempted to integrate the Western sculptural style to the already-existing “traditional” style in Japan. This approach and idea was supposed to become an “ultimate” style that Japan could call its own. While this style did not succeed in becoming permanent in Japan, I argue that the Gigeitenwas not only a sculpture but also a “vision” for Japanese sculptural art going forward. For this presentation, as I am still in the process of researching certain aspects that relate to the risō and nihonga paintings, I will present on how I first came to study this concept as a whole, as well as presenting on my current progress in my research.
Persons with concerns regarding accessibility please contact Dongshan Zhang at dongshan@uchicago.edu
(This program is sponsored by the University of Chicago Center for East Asian Studies)
