Narrative

This exhibition will take you on a Journey Through Time in Japan Through the Lenses of Gender and Social Structure. The time periods touched upon will include Yayoi, Kofun, Heian, Momoyama, Edo, and the Meiji period. We will focus on gender and the social structure as our two main topics, since the two are both issues in the eyes of the contemporary viewer. Through the use of art, you will be able to apply modern day concerns onto past periods and make connections to the art, allowing you to connect more to these works of art, and compare and contrast not only the different pieces of art from each other, but also compare and contrast what is portrayed in the art you see, and what you know about today’s society. We want you to experience an earlier time in history through art, and make a connection with a past that you yourself will never be able to experience first hand (Orr (2014), pg. 4). As you move through the gallery, take notice of what you see in the pieces of art. How many of the art pieces displays a man working? What about a woman working? You will notice that in all of the pieces featured like the photographs, woodblock prints, and paintings of women, that the women are either doing housework like cleaning the kitchen or washing clothes. None of the women however, are actually working at jobs like men were. This was a common practice in Japan starting since Japan formed to 20th century. How different is this from our society today though? In 2009 Edwin A. Fleishman stated that, “Women make up over 45% of the U.S. workforce and this proportion is likely to increase,” (Cleveland, Stockdale, Murphy, Gutek, (2000), xi). As you walk through the gallery today, women in the workforce does not seem weird or strange at all, but actually fairly normal and common. This was not the case for Japan however during the periods that the pieces of art found in this gallery were made.

To do this, we have incorporated paintings, sculptures/artifacts, and oil paintings on canvas that represent and show either gender normalites, social normalities, or both. As you first enter into our gallery, you will find that immediately to your right along the wall are five beautiful woodblock prints. These woodblock prints feature and portray different gender normalities and social normalities found in Japan during the Edo period (1603-1868). The artists included in this collection of woodblock prints are Harunobu, Utamaro, and Kitagawa Shunko, giving you a variety of different woodblock print styles from the Edo period (1603-1868). Within these woodblock prints you will see a woman cooking in the kitchen while the woman of the house watches over her while cleaning a glass, something that was common and expected of women in Japan during most of Japan’s history. You will also witness fishermen carrying fish to different stalls and vendors, while the women just stand off to the side, suggesting a submissive nature and personality, which was also something expect of women in early Japan. These woodblock prints are great representations of gender and social issues in Japan, and a great opening to our theme that we want you to experience and grow to understand as you move through our gallery. As you continue on from the woodblocks, you will notice the photographs we have lined up on the next wall.

The photographs selected do a wonderful job of representing the social and gender issues of Japan in the later Meiji period (1868-1912). One example of gender issues that you see is in the photograph of the Kabuki actor. Without reading the name of this piece, look closely at the figure that has been captured in this photograph. Notice anything? The Kabuki actor is actually a male playing a female. Women were not allowed to perform in Kabuki plays, so a man would have to dress up as a woman and play the role for the piece. Another photograph displays women doing laundry, again something expected of women of the time. If you look at the photograph of the women playing instruments however, you will witness a change in social normalities. Women at the time of this photograph (1875) were able to start getting jobs to support their families, and the job you see in this photograph is that of women performing for spectators at a tea ceremony. We hope that as you view these wonderful photographs, you will come to understand that while these photographs are from a fairly late time in Japan’s history, gender and social normalities have only just started to change from centuries of repeated practices. As you move on from the photographs you will come across our section of paintings lined up on the next wall.

These paintings do a wonderful job of showing you the social normalities of Japan. Our painting Women at Chinese Court does a wonderful job of showing you how the higher class beauties were not expected to stay at home and clean and cook like women of lower class were. These women were allowed to wait for their husbands outside in the courtyard. This painting also shows gender normalities too. If you look at the women, they are all elegantly dressed, very relaxed and surrounded by nature, giving them a peaceful and calming look, a very calming theme for women in art. Although this painting is of a Chinese court, it goes to show how Japan’s art and culture was influenced by China. Another beautiful painting that you will see is our Fair Wind (Junpû) panel. This piece is very different from the other paintings, as it has heavy western influence. Looking at Fair Wind (Junpû), you will notice how the clothing and facial structure of the Japanese women are very Western look, noting the Western influence involved in the painting and Japan’s society at the time this painting was made (1933). These women are depicted in a boat and wearing nice dresses and jewelry, which tells you that they are of a wealthy class and are sailing for pleasure. The nice dresses and jewelry were not something that the poor and working class could afford, and the ability to take time to sail for pleasure was not an option for these classes, since they spent most of their time working to make money to support their families. After you finish with the paintings, you will come to our next section which are oil paintings.

Our oil paintings section is our second last section in our gallery. All of the oil paintings that we have collected show a Western influence in their style. This section of oil paintings represents more of the social normalities than gender normalities of Japan. One of the oil paintings that you will see is the Self Portrait of Kaita Murayama. Self portraits were not usually something that just anyone could get. To have a self portrait during this time in Japan (Meiji period: 1868-1912) and before meant that you were wealth and of an elite class. The elites and highest ranked in societies would have self portraits made of themselves to forever have their face remembered by their country even after their passing. You will also notice the oil painting Maiko Girl by Kuroda Seiki. Seiki was heavily influenced by the Western style of art during the time that he spent in France. In the piece Maiko Girl, you will notice how the Geisha-in-training is wearing brighter colors than the helper to the right of the painting. This alone sets apart the different social classes of these two women. During this time in the Meiji period (1868-1912), the role of Geisha was seen more than just a sex work, and more as an actual government supported position. This means that the woman who is training to be a Geisha will soon be entering into a higher class, while the helper will always remain in the low class of a helper. The last oil painting that you will see is Vegetable Garden in Spring by Asai Chu. This beautiful piece represents the hard working farmers Japan during the Meiji period (1868-1912). A large majority of Japan’s population were in fact farmers, and these farmers supplied Japan with most of its food, yet the farmers were near the bottom of the social class pyramid. While you look at this beautiful oil painting, try and think about what it might of been like for these farmers, and even try to possibly imagine yourself in their “getas”. Imagine that you are spending everyday out in the fields, plowing, planting, managing and taking care of animals, spending hours sweating and tiring yourself out to make sure that your country will have enough food to sustain itself. Now imagine that after all of the hard work that you have to do to make sure that your country can be fed, you still have no say in important government issues, and are still being paid barely enough to get by. You would not say this is fair, but would be outraged at the thought that with as much work that you do and how critical your job was, that you were neglected and seen as one of the lower classes in society. Yet the farmers had no choice but to continue farming, for if they stopped, their country would starve. Our final selection that you will move on to is the sculptures and artifacts section of the gallery.

The sculptures and artifacts section is the last and final section of our gallery. We aim to identify and reciprocate different sculptures that exemplifies Japan’s traditional/historical image of the past and then comparing it the Edo/Meiji period. Some of the traditional and ancient items that you will see will be from the early Kofun period (250-538) and Momoyama period (1568-1600). We have also incorporated artifacts from more recent periods of Japan, including the Edo (1603-1868) and Meiji (1868-1912) periods. Some examples of different sculptures that you will see includes a Haniwa figure dating back to the Kofun period that represents a female, meant to hold the spirit or soul of the deceased. Haniwa figures were put on the graves or alters of elite deceased figures. The style and details of the Haniwa figures were meant to represent and show characteristics of the deceased. The particular Haniwa figure that you will see is that of a woman, which means that the deceased is most likely the wife of a higher classed male. You will also find yourself in front of a suit of armor made for a samurai during the Edo period. This particular suit of armor was made for Date Yoshimura (1703–1746), who became daimyo of Sendai at the age of 23. As Japan was no longer in its warring states period, the armor was meant for ceremony purposes only. Notice the beautiful intricate designs on the legs and chest of the armor. Lots of detail was put into the creation of the helmet, which was made separately by one man alone, Saotome Iyetada. The silk and gilt copper gives the armor a beautiful, high quality look, letting those who gaze upon it know that the wearer was one of high status.

As you leave the gallery, we hope that you will have taken away something from the message that we were trying to display to you through the art. We displayed before you multiple works of art of different eras within the same room/space in sections; giving you a way to look at the art and also compare it to the other forms of art that are from the future and the present of different objects. Each section contained multiple pieces of art from multiple time periods each and every one of the pieces displaying either gender or social normalities of Japan in the past. With each section you walked through, you experienced the change in art style repeatedly in different forms of art, but were still exposed to the same message throughout. We are very excited to have the opportunity to be able to present this exhibit of beautiful art from Japan to all of you, and hope that as you leave the exhibit you will be both satisfied and enlightened on ancient Japan. We look forward to the opening of this amazing gallery that will be held on April 27th, 2017. For more information please contact: agrasu_j1@denison.edu, laub_s1@denison.edu, or vo_t1@denison.edu. We look forward to hearing from you and answering any questions that you may have. Enjoy!

References

Cleveland, Jeanette, Kevin R. Murphy, Margaret S. Stockdale, and Gutek. Women and men in organizations: sex and gender issues at work. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2000.

Orr, Tori. "The Information-Seeking Behavior of Museum Visitors: A Review of Literature." ToriOrr, May 19, 2004. https://toriorr.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/rol_museumvisitors.doc.