The Empty Museum: Western Cultures and the Artistic Field in Modern Japan

by Masaaki Morishita

Overview

The book examines the processes through which public art museums, as modern Western institutions, were introduced to Japan in the late nineteenth century and how they subsequently developed distinctive national characteristics. Focusing on 'empty museums', one of the most distinctive forms of Japanese museums, Morishita shows how they developed, in relation to socio-cultural conditions at certain periods in modern Japanese history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781409492634
Publisher:	Ashgate Publishing Ltd
Publication date:	12/28/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Masaaki Morishita is a Project Coordinator at the Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan and a Visiting Researcher at the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo, Japan.

Table of Contents

Contents: Preface; Introduction; Transculturation and Bourdieu's field theory; The early development of the field of Bijutsu: the Bunten and the art group; The birth of the regional art museum: art groups and the avant-garde; Post-war development: curators and museums of modern art; Struggles between the local artist and the curator; Conclusion; Appendix; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

'This excellent work promises a new way of thinking about Museology, as well as injecting a welcome non-Eurocentric line of argument. The approach that "the emptiness of the Museum represented, not a failure of Westernisation but a process of transculturation" is very rewarding.' Timon Screech, University of London, UK 'This important and scholarly work, engages with transculturalism as outlined by Ortiz and Bourdieu’s field theory to discuss the birth of the "empty" (temporary exhibition) - art museum in Japan. Although centering on developments in Tokyo, Morishita’s richly illustrated book, dealing with the complex struggles between agents in the contemporary world, will interest students of museum studies in general.' Viv Golding, University of Leicester, UK '... commendably lucid and very well researched study of art museums in Japan... Morishita gives us fascinating insights into internal art politics in museums in Japan, exemplified by the long battle over many years for control and authority between the curators and artists in his case study of the Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts... Morishita's book is [...] a most significant contribution to museum and art studies about Japan, and to museology internationally, in revealing the way that Japanese art museums have adapted Western models to suit their own society.' reCollections 'Morishita does not present comparative discussions of Japanese versus the Western art museum models. Instead, the author offers an English language audience important insights into the evolution of the nation's cultural and museological history through the experience and opinion of key institutional and art group figures.' Asia Pacific World

From the Publisher