International Symposium: Sex art in Japan- perspectives on shunga

The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation have supported the international symposium at the British Museum on shunga with a Small Grant in the March 2013 round of funding. The symposium will be held on on 4-5 October 2013. The full line up of the symposium follows after the main body of text. There will also be a talk about shunga at the Daiwa Foundation on 9 October by Tim Clark, Head of the Japanese Section at the British Museum. (More info here )

The exhibition Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art is being held at the British Museum from 3 October 2013 to 5 January 2014. A full-colour catalogue of 520 pages with more than 30 contributors will accompany the exhibition, edited by T Clark, C A Gerstle, A Ishigami and A Yano. This is published by the British Museum Press (and jointly from December with Brill). This catalogue will be available for purchase at the talk which is being held at the Daiwa Foundation on 9 October .

Another outcome of this project is a special issue on shunga, of the journal Japan Review  which will come out in September 2013. This journal is distributed to libraries around the world and will be available for download from the Nichibunken website within a few months of publication (http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/graphicversion/dbase/review_e.html).

 

Sex art in Japan: perspectives on shunga

An international symposium

Organised by the British Museum and SOAS, University of London

Supported by Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, Japan Foundation Endowment Committee, and Japan Foundation

Venue: British Museum, BP Lecture Theatre, admission free (seating is limited)

Dates: Friday 4 & Saturday 5 October 2013

Includes content of a sexually explicit nature

Parental guidance advised for under 16s

Friday 4 October

Morning session: Laughing with Shunga

MC: Tim Clark, British Museum

10.00 Introduction: Tim Clark

10.15 Hayakawa Monta (Nichibunken): The laughter of warai-e

10.45 Joshua Mostow (Univ. of British Columbia): Making fun of the classics

11.15 Break

11.30 Kano Hiroyuki (Dōshisha Univ.): Humour in Japanese art and shunga

Discussant: Andrew Gerstle, SOAS

12.30 Lunch

Afternoon session: Women and Shunga

MC: Akiko Yano, SOAS

Panelists and topics:

14,00 Ishigami Aki (Ritsumeikan Univ.): What does shunga offer women today?

14.30 Rosina Buckland (National Museum of Scotland): Women readers and shunga

15.00 Break

15.15 Paul Berry (Kansai Gaidai Univ.): Gender roles in early shunga painting

Discussant: Christine Guth, RCA/V&A

16.30 Finish

18.30: Special public lecture (in association with Japan400)

MC: Tim Clark, BM

SPEAKER: Timon Screech (SOAS): Shunga and the World

* Please note this is a ticketed event, £5 admission, £3 Members/concessions

Booking: Britishmuseum.org/shunga  

Saturday 5 October

Morning session: Modern Legacies of Shunga

MC: Andrew Gerstle, SOAS

10.00 Henry D Smith II (Emeritus, Columbia): Shunga in the Meiji era

10.30 Kinoshita Naoyuki (Univ. of Tokyo): Shunga versus ‘The Nude’ in Modern Japan

11.00 Break

11.15 Ricard Bru (Barcelona City Council Culture Institute): Secret Japonisme

Discussant: Julie Peakman, Birkbeck College, Univ. of London

12.15 General discussion

13.00 Finish