Design’s Objects: Furniture, Technical Drawing, and Education in Japan ca. 1890–1910

Brown Bag Lecture Co-sponsored with the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and the Center on Japanese Economy and Business.

Lecture Information:
In 1903, the Japanese Ministry of Education decreed that all pupils in elementary schools would learn rudimentary western-style technical drawing for the manufacture of wooden objects as part of compulsory manual-education classes. Professor Teasley’s talk explores the broader context for this regulation. Through an analysis of the changing status of the technical drawing and technical specification, it considers ideas of technology, expertise, design, and the public in late Meiji Japan.

Lecturer Information:
Sarah Teasley teaches design history at the Royal College of Art in London. She received her doctorate in Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies at the University of Tokyo, and has published widely in both English and Japanese on the history of Japanese design. Her books include 20th Century Design History (Tokyo: Petit Grand Publishing, 2005), which she co-authored with Watabe Chiharu.