43rd Public Lecture: The Dynamics of Interaction between Objects and People
The Institute holds a public lecture every autumn in order to disclose the results of our research on art history. This public lecture is the 43rd with the first held in 1966. Since 2006, we have established a common theme titled “The Dynamics of Interaction between Objects and People”, and four researchers from both within and outside the Institute gave presentations on October 2nd and 3rd.
On October 2nd, Tsuchiya Takahiro, a researcher in the Department of Research Programming of the Institute, presented a lecture titled “Creating a ‘foreign country’: A Study of the Genjo Sanzo-e”, and Mr. Tsukamoto Maromitsu, a curator of The Museum Yamatobunkakan , presented a lecture titled “Japanese Buddhist Monk Viewed from the Song Dynasty: Buddhism/Land and the World of Exchange of Cultivated Things”: They intended to dig into how Japan in medieval times and China during the Song Dynasty viewed and recognized each other, using a picture scroll from the Kamakura Period, the transfer/exchange of cultivated things in the eastern Asia, and the social context of the time.
On October 3, Nakano Teruo, the Deputy Director General of the Institute, gave a lecture titled “Optical Investigation of Central Asian Mural Paintings Brought Back by the Ohtani Mission”and Mr. Shirasu Joushin, lecturer at Hiroshima University, had a lecture called “The Tibet Ohtani Mission and the Tibetan Religious World”. They tried to reevaluate the works discovered by the Ohtani mission from the viewpoint of art history based on recent optical investigation, and reviewed the responses of Japan, England, China and Russia concerning the activities of the Ohtani mission at that time.
These four individuals’ presentations reexamined the relationship of Asia to Japan in respective pre-modern and modern periods from the viewpoint of the broad effects and actions of goods, art objects, cultivated things and cultural properties, and the various activities of the people related to those goods. They were well suited to the common theme of The Dynamics of Interaction between Objects and People and were very exciting. The audience on these two days number totals of 133 and 125 people respectively, and questionnaires taken on both days showed that the lectures satisfied many people. We would like to continue disseminating the Institute’s research results in the future.