Paper short abstract:

In the 1880s Okakura Tenshin formulated a history of 'Japanese' art that almost completely left out any outstanding Osaka works, many of which were consciously within an 'East Asian' art tradition. My paper will focus on Kimura Kenkado and his network of artists to reevaluate this tradition.

Paper long abstract:

The lectures conducted by Okakura Kakuzo (Tenshin) over three years starting in 1890 at the Tokyo Fine Arts School covered most of the history of Japanese art and were influential in formulating Japanese art history. In the context of the time period, we can understand his selections. There were many outstanding works of art, however, which were never evaluated by Okakura. Considering early modern and modern works, notably, almost none of the paintings from "Osaka Painting Schools (Osaka Gadan)" were evaluated by Okakura.

The framework for evaluations of Japanese art history in the Edo period established by Okakura became mainstream in the research of Tokyo-based scholars since that time, and it is safe to say that research on Osaka Painting Schools was stagnant, at least until the "Osaka Painting Schools in the Edo period" exhibition was held at the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art in 1981. This could be seen to show a new aspect in the modernization of Japanese society.

The history of art evaluation that began with Okakura will no doubt be dramatically revised through future research. I will argue that the reevaluation of Osaka Painting Schools that is likely to take place from now will inevitably be framed within the concept of East Asian art history, and will break down the limited framework of "Japanese art history".

In my paper I will make a case to show that Kimura Kenkado (1736-1802) and other Osaka Painting Schools artists of the Edo period will take an important place not only in a new Japanese art history, but in a new East Asian art history as well.