U.C. Berkeley History of Art

Histart 234

GRADUATE SEMINAR IN JAPANESE ART: THE HOSOKAWA FAMILY COLLECTION(4 units)

This seminar, built around the exhibition “Lords of the Samurai” at the Asian Art Museum, SF (June 12-September 20), considers the collection of the Hosokawa family within histories of collecting in Japan and East Asia and histories of particular media, genre, and representation/embodiment. As this suggests, our strategy will be to consider triangulations between the Hosokawa, collecting history, and collected objects, rather than linear or binary relationships. The matter thus requires not merely consideration of individual collectors but also cultures of collecting, patronage, and specific objects and texts about objects and collections. We will ask how particular objects created (and re-created) the collection as well as how the collection created objects.

Participants will be required to view the AAMSF exhibition during both its rotations, to attend the one-day symposium scheduled tentatively for June 14, to meet for two sessions in June, and to read a selection of key texts before the fall semester. During the semester, we will combine repeated viewing days at the exhibition with meetings for discussion. The latter third of the semester will be devoted to research and writing. Open to advanced undergraduates in History of Art.