Lecture: Classical Literary Motifs in Surimono by Kubo Shunman

March 28, 2001

Note: This program was originally scheduled for March 29
Lecture: Classical Literary Motifs in Surimono by Kubo Shunman
Professor John Carpenter (Donald Keene Lecturer in the History of Japanese Art, SOAS, University of London & Sainsbury Institute)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
6:30 PM

A lacquer picnic box, violets, and dandelions by Kubo Shunman

While introducing rare surimono (privately published Japanese prints) from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this lecture will explore the interaction of scholars of the kokugaku (National Learning) movement, kyôka poets, and ukiyo-e artists during the late Edo period. Within a literary and artistic context dominated by kokugaku sensibilities, the surimono designer Kubo Shunman (1757-1820) still remains exceptional and seems to have had a firmer grounding in classical studies than his fellow surimono designers. Shunman’s erudition and kokugaku inspired artistic tendencies are evident in his surimono production of the Bunka era (1804-1818), especially in his extended series inspired by works of classical literature such as Ise monogatari (Tales of Ise), Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness), and Torikaebaya monogatari (If I Could Only Change Them).
John T. Carpenter received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1997. His research interests range from the history of East Asian calligraphy to early modern Japanese painting and prints. He was co-author of The Frank Lloyd Wright Collection of Surimono (1995), and Jewels of Japanese Printmaking, Surimono of the Bunka-Bunsei Era 1804-1830 (2000), and helped edit and translate Hokusai Paintings, Selected Essays (1994). He has just been reappointed as Donald Keene Lecturer in the History of Japanese Art at the SOAS, University of London.
Co-sponsored by the Ukiyo-e Society of America