Japan - What's Art, What's Not

This morning I heard Cynthea Bogel speak at the Seattle Asian Art Museum as part of the lecture series, No Passport Required: Saturday University Lecture Series, Asian in Focus.  Her lecture, What's Art and What's Not in the History of Japan was full of new insights for me.  Bogel looked at the history of Japan's National Treasures: how the process has favored certain types and periods of art over others, and how the distinction has done much to shape Japan's regard for it's art and artifacts. 

A couple take-aways I got:  1. that the list of National Treasures currently includes not a single Japanese ukiyo-e print or painting.  That's right, not one.  No Great Wave, or Ohashi, or Kambara, or anything by the mysterious Sharaku.  2. that the People in Charge decided in 1950, to wipe clean the list of National Treasures and start over, bestowing the honor on only a fraction of the works of art that were previously included on the list, and 3.  that the word for 'art' in Japanese, bijitsu, was coined, along with new words for painting, sculpture, textiles, and handicraft, around the time of the 1873 and 1876 World Expositions in Vienna and Philidelphia, in order to better market Japanese art to the West.  Particularly in the case of Buddhist iconic figures, the new term 'sculpture' chokōku, allowed these sacred figures to be regarded as art, which allowed for their removal from temples, and later exhibition in Japanese halls and subsequent sale to Western collectors and museums.  

If you have attended any of the lectures this fall, there will be one more round table discussion next Saturday morning at 9:30.  Thanks to SAAM for putting together this great series!

Hokusai, the movie

I will never be as hip as my friend Jay, who sent me this great little movie a few months ago.  I like this film on so many levels - soft-handed animation of Hokusai's prints, a succinct art history lesson, all wrapped in a cool lo-fi quality.

Watching Tony White's creation (made way back in 1978, buy the way) gets me thinking about how frequently Japanese prints make their way into contemporary art and design, from little ubiquitous quotes like this tee-shirt ($49.99(!) on Ebay)

to full-fledged inspiration as seen in the art of Masami Teraoka, Roger Shimomura (really obvious examples - send me yours), or a recent favorite of mine, Eva Pietzcker, and how often most viewers aren't aware of the real source material.  This can get me down worrying about how my generation or the next will ever get excited about Japanese prints, (and sure, for my sake, start collecting them.)  Then I see something like this video for a (beautiful) Jose Gonzales tune, Hand on your Heart, (thanks again, Jay) and I perk up a little.

Is appreciation and knowledge of Japanese prints dying off?  Some days it feels that way.  Are there other 30 or 40-something Japanese print collectors out there?  Are you alone among your peers, or have you been able to turn any of your friends onto prints?  How do you regard Japanese in your life given that the world of conceptual art looms so largely in art magazines, interior design, contemporary art museums, and art fairs?  Are there other painters, printmakers, or video artists out there who find Japanese print inspiration creeping into your art?  If you're out there, I'd love to hear from you.