| NOTA |
(★)(1.In this penetrating analysis of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Japanese culture, Timon Screech reassesses the career of the chief minister Matsudaira Sadanobu and locates it within broader cultural and intellectual concerns. Aware of how visual representations could support or undermine regimes, and of how European monarchies were using imagery in the service of power, Sadanobu promoted painting to advance his own political aims and improve the shogunate´s image. As an antidote to the hedonistic ukiyo-e tradition, which he opposed, Sadanobu supported attempts to construct a new approach to painting modern life that would depict social reality as he understood it. At the same time, he sought to revive historical and literary painting, favouring such artists as Sumiyoshi Hiroyuki, Tani Bunichoo and the flamboyant, innovative Maruyama Ookyo. In 1788, the city of Kyoto was destroyed by fire. Its reconstruction provided the stage for the consummation of the´shogun´s painted culture´in a renewed iconography of power. Once retired, Sadanobu continued to work, issuing endless recommendations to the government. In Screech´s view, he played a key role in defining what we call´Japanese culture´today. 2.Timon Screech is Senior Lecturer in the history of Japanese art at SOAS, University of London, and Senior Research Associate at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures. He is the author of several books on Japanese history and culture, including´Sex and the Floating World : Erotic Images in Japan 1700-1820 [Reaktion, 1999]´.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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