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Art History in Japan and Its Future Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Shigetoshi Osano
Shigetoshi Osano*
Affiliation:
University of Tokyo
*
Shigetoshi Osano, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, Institute of Art History, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Commencing with the argument that modern art history is rooted in fifteenth- and early six-teenth-century Italy, a period of unusual primacy for the ‘eye’, the author provides an over-view of the history of art history: from its foundation as a university discipline to its recent bipolarity. In the 1980s art history devolved into a state of confusion. At the same time, con-noisseurship, a primary and indispensable foundation for training in art history, went into decline. This state of affairs resulted from the penetration of the language-based disciplines into the realm of art historical study, since their approaches are not predicated upon direct access to the art object. Counter to this trend, however, the author argues that art history is a humanistic discipline that begins with the careful viewing of an individual work of art or visual object, and works outward toward the building up of a historical, geographical and worldwide map of art.

A close examination of the limitations of a globally-oriented approach (that is, world art studies or world art history) and a regionally-oriented practice that could be categorized as a traditional form of art history, leads the author to consider the future of art history in Japan. He proposes a comparative approach as a promising way of bridging Western and Japanese art history, as practiced both inside and outside Japan, in future years.

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Articles
Information
Diogenes , Volume 58 , Issue 1-2: The Humanities Today , May 2011 , pp. 119 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2012

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