Getty to Publish English Translation of Seminal Japanese Art Historical Text

Book explores the changing process of evaluating objects from the past during the late Tokugawa and early Meiji periods

Topics

Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan

The Archaeology of Things in the Late Tokugawa and Early Meiji Periods

Authors

Hiroyuki Suzuki, Maki Fukuoka

Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan book cover
Dec 01, 2021

Originally published in Japanese in 2003, Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan (Getty Research Institute, $60) explores how antiquarians navigated the gap between antiquarianism as practiced in premodern Japan and the modern European concept of art.

This study presents an analysis using detailed case studies of noted collectors who were pioneering in the acquisition and display of venerated old objects in the decades marked by the opening of Japan to the West and the national displays in the great world’s fairs. Art historian Hiroyuki Suzuki demonstrates how collectors and antiquarians exchanged novel ideas about objects, ideas that were influenced both by the heritage of the Tokugawa-period intellectual sphere and by the pioneering and evolving cultural policies of the Meiji government. In its discussion of changes in Japanese notions about heritage, display, and appreciation, this book offers a critical perspective on the institutionalization of art in the context of modern and non-Western nations and cultures.

Art historian Maki Fukuoka’s sensitive translation is preceded by an introduction that situates the author’s methodological and intellectual analyses in the context of the practices of antiquarianism and relevant contemporary thought.

Author Information

Hiroyuki Suzuki is professor emeritus of Japanese art history at Tokyo Gakugei University.

Maki Fukuoka is associate professor of the history of art at the University of Leeds.

Endorsements

“What a boon to now have available in English, in an expert translation, this study by Suzuki Hiroyuki, one of the most insightful art historians anywhere in the world. The ostensible subject is antiquarianism, but Suzuki makes clear that during the fast-paced metabolism of Japan in the 1870s, the terms art and antique are multiple and under constant revision. Situating them at the conjunction of East Asian modes of knowing, traditional modes of assembly, changing display practices, new reprographic technologies, and the professionalization of knowledge, Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan peers just under the surface of a more common narrative about the rise of art history in Japan. In doing so, it offers a thoughtful, richly detailed perspective on what art was before Art, on the eve of Nation.”

— Yukio Lippit, Jeffrey T. Chambers and Andrea Okamura Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University

Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan

The Archaeology of Things in the Late Tokugawa and Early Meiji Periods

$60/£45

Learn more about this publication
Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan book cover
Back to Top

Resources for Journalists

Press Contacts