Most studies of Japanese crafts during the Momoyama and Tokugawa periods approach the subject from the perspective of individual masters and media, or within the realms of collecting, curation, and display. In this lecture, Christine Guth will take a different approach, drawing critical attention to the dynamic, multidirectional network of forces—both material and immaterial-- that undergird Japan’s extraordinarily rich, diverse and aesthetically sophisticated artifactual culture.

This will include the particular materials and tools and the people who wield them, but also the institutions, modes of thought, behaviors and the reciprocal relationships among them. In drawing attention to “craft culture” this lecture, based on Christine's latest publication Craft Culture in Early Modern Japan: Materials, Makers, Mastery, will emphasize shared assumptions fundamental to ways and values of making that transcend the specifics of each practice.

About the speaker

Christine M. E. Guth has taught at institutions including Princeton, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and Berkeley. She led the Asian specialism in the Victoria and Albert Museum & Royal College of Art’s Post-graduate History of Design Program from 2007 until 2016.  Her previous books include Art of Edo Japan: The Artist and the City 1615-1868 (1996) and Hokusai’s Great Wave: Biography of a Global Icon (2015). She is also co-author (with Haruhiko Fujita) of The Encyclopedia of East-Asian Design (2019). Craft Culture in Early Modern Japan: Materials, Makers, Mastery will be published in October 2021.

If you have any questions, please call the Japan Society office on 020 3075 1996 or email events@japansociety.org.uk.