Author Information
Ilya Yerashevich, Tokyo University of Arts, JapanAbstract
Is traditional always a synonym for “conservative” or does it have the potential to challenge and react to social and political problems? This research explores how contemporality and social activism, particularly, have developed inside a group of traditional Japanese arts – woodblock prints ukiyo-e, calligraphy shodo, Japanese painting nihonga, and ikebana. For this purpose, I analyzed the contemporary art scene through publications in the media and exhibition catalogs both online and offline, from the period of the Japanese economic miracle till nowadays. By comparing the visual forms of traditional arts and problematics reflected in their topics then and now, I attempted to understand better traditional arts’ role and power in participating in social, political, and environmental discourse. Besides traditionally socially oriented woodblock prints, that from their very beginning in the Edo period were critical and satirical – free-spirited depictions of social life with all its goods and flaws, this research unveiled an emerging movement of so-called neo-arts in nihonga, shodo, and ikebana, that raise questions about women's rights (Fuyuko Matsui), tragedies of war (Ilya Baibikov) and many others. At the same time, as an art practitioner, I created Nihonga artworks that carry a social message to support the ongoing change toward deeper social and political engagement. Doing so I am starting an important but still absent in a public field conversation on how traditional Japanese arts stop being a spectator and become an actor in the social and political life of the country.
Paper Information
Conference: ACAH2025Stream: Arts Practices
This paper is part of the ACAH2025 Conference Proceedings (View)
Full Paper
View / Download the full paper in a new tab/window
To cite this article:
Yerashevich I. (2025) Traditional Japanese Arts in a Social and Political Context: Overview and Practical Application ISSN: 2186-229X – The Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities 2025 Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 17-28) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-229X.2025.2
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-229X.2025.2
Comments
Powered by WP LinkPress