The Ryūkyū archipelago, in Southern Japan, is home to some ancient techniques for crafting (Kijōka-bashōfu) and dyeing (Bingata) textiles which are not found elsewhere in mainland Japan. The...Show moreThe Ryūkyū archipelago, in Southern Japan, is home to some ancient techniques for crafting (Kijōka-bashōfu) and dyeing (Bingata) textiles which are not found elsewhere in mainland Japan. The Kingdom of Ryūkyū was annexed to the Japanese empire only in recent times (1879), after centuries of relative independence, and the Japanese governments of the first decades of the 20th century has made considerable efforts to reshape and silence the local identity. This process of neutralization of local culture also affected the visibility and the perceived identity of those crafts within the national cultural discourse throughout the whole century. My thesis inspects different issues related to the intercurrent relations between heritage and nation. I will reconstruct what has been done to the Ryūkyū local heritage in the past and what the latest developments have been. I will also highlight the differences existing between the ways the identity of these crafts, Kijōka-bashōfu in particular, are presented in documents aiming at the international, rather than domestic, public. By doing so, I will offer an insight on the cultural policies implemented by the Japanese governments in this respect. Finally, I will operate an audiovisual analysis on a documentary made by entities independent by Japan, representing the everyday life and the activities of local craftspeople involved in the production of these textiles. With that, I will also assess how the local discourse on identity differs from the national discourse.Show less
Sexually explicit shunga of the Edo period have long been subjected to censorship and suppressive official attitudes. In the Meiji era, due to crypto-colonial pressures, censorship grew more...Show moreSexually explicit shunga of the Edo period have long been subjected to censorship and suppressive official attitudes. In the Meiji era, due to crypto-colonial pressures, censorship grew more stringent and persists until today. Even academic shunga publications long remained censored and their study has been marginalized within ukiyo-e research, both in Japan and abroad. With the liberalization of shunga publication in Japan, scholarship began closing the gaps in the field, shifting from aestheticizing to more critical approaches. However, despite the interconnectedness of shunga with ukiyo-e imagery, museum institutions have lagged behind in their inclusion. Thus, marginalizing and self-censoring institutional attitudes still persist, despite changing social ones, constructing a disjuncture between scholarly and institutional discourses on shunga. This thesis presents the 2013 British Museum exhibition and its 2015-2016 reshowing in Japan, which resulted from the international collaborative efforts of researchers and practitioners, as a model for overcoming institutional self-censorship and marginalization of shunga. Thus showing a way forward towards the inclusion of the sexually explicit genre.Show less
A comparative study of two memorials and their museums (Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Yasukuni Shrine) in Japan, with an insight on the public opinion of the two on the web.
In the years 1663-1665, the Danish King Frederick III (1609-1670) had the walls of his cabinet in Rosenborg Castle entirely covered by black lacquer panels by the Dutch artist François de Bray (c....Show moreIn the years 1663-1665, the Danish King Frederick III (1609-1670) had the walls of his cabinet in Rosenborg Castle entirely covered by black lacquer panels by the Dutch artist François de Bray (c. 1642-c. 1672). This room later became known as the "Chinese Tower Room". This thesis discusses the design of the "Chinese Tower Room" by tracing its history since the time of King Christian IV (1577-1648), the first Danish monarch with an interest in Asian objects, and also in relation to the environment of lacquer workers in the Dutch Republic, from where many artists working at the Danish court originated. Transculturation, the transformation of a culture by the influx of new cultural elements and the loss or alteration of existing ones, played an important role in the room's creation. It created a new symbolic cultural language that was used to reinforce the status of the monarch and the existing ideologies that legitimized his position.Show less
