Course Description

The Meiji government, established as a new government in 1867, undertook various reforms in order to establish a new national system and modernize the country. One of them is called the Europeanization policy.

The end of the 19th century was the era of imperialism, when the Western powers colonized East Asia, and Japan was also under threat. In order to cope with this international situation, the Meiji government actively introduced the advanced knowledge, systems, science and technology of Western civilization in an attempt to strengthen the country's power.

In the course of this movement, art, along with other cultural artifacts and knowledge, was brought from Europe, and in Japan it became associated with the idea of the nation-state, which had also been developed in the West. As a result, the cultural concept of "Japanese art" was created to show the uniqueness of the Japanese nation both at home and abroad, and to artificially create a sense of Japanese national consciousness.

In this class, we will look at how art developed in the West was accepted in Japan by following the development of "Japanese art" artificially created in modern Japan, and the Japanese paintings and historical paintings that accompanied it.

In addition, the modern era was a time when new media appeared due to the development of science and technology, and modern Japanese pictorial expression was influenced in various ways by illustrations in picture books and magazines. In particular, from the 30s of the Meiji era (1868-1912) onward, when woodblock printing technology, which had continued since the Edo era, coexisted with advanced printing technology from Western countries and popular media flourished, painters began to work not only on canvas but also as graphic designers, creating cover art, illustrations, manga, and picture books.

As a result, the work of painting no longer existed as only one original, but changed into an art form that was supposed to be reproduced. Furthermore, the painters who worked during the transition from the 19th to the 20th century developed their art based on the idea of "Japanese art" created in modern Japan, rather than utilizing their individual talents for the benefit of society. In other words, the "Japanese art" that was born in the modern era expanded into the field of popular media.

Based on this historical development, in the latter half of this lecture, we will focus on the influence of ideas and works in the field of art on the expression of modern mass media, and explore the reality of how "art" has interacted with society and people widely through entertainment. What kind of works were created by modern and contemporary painters who ventured out of the realm of art through the commercial media of the 20th century, and how were these works mass-produced and accepted by people? How were these works mass-produced and accepted by the public? We will consider the national and commercial use of painting from the perspective of the relationship between art and society.