EASTD 261: Advanced Readings in East Asian Art
This is a seminar for advanced graduate students in East Asian art (and adjacent fields) focusing on reading secondary and primary sources in Japanese, as well as recent scholarship and theoretical texts in English. The topic will change each semester to accommodate the research projects, general exam fields, and interests of the participants. In addition to examining the state of the field of East Asian art history, the goal is to provide instruction in practical areas such as deciphering calligraphic texts (kuzushiji), improving bibliographic skills, and mastering specialized terminology.
Spring semester 2020: the course focused on painting treatises, specifically the Honchō gashi 本朝画史 as a core text for close reading and translating each week. Published by Kano Einō (1631-1697) and based on a manuscript by his father Kano Sansetsu (1590-1651), Honchō gashi, or History of Painting of the Realm, is the first substantive history of painting in Japan and one of the most important texts in our field. Also examined: earlier painting treatises, other contemporary Edo-period painting manuals, Chinese painting treatises, and paintings themselves as relevant to entries in the Honchō gashi,.