Kameda-Madar publishes research on Tokugawa-era painters

The book chapter entitled "Copying and Theory in Edo-Period Japan (1615-1868)" by Kazuko Kameda-Madar, Ph.D., Lecturer of Art History, was included in an anthology, Theorizing imitation in Global Context, published by Wiley in January 2016.

Abstract of the book chapter:Kameda-Madar's chapter challenges the stereotypical ideas attached to copying, while reconsidering the issues of allusion, adaptation, transculturation, and pedagogy in the Japanese art tradition, through case studies of the Tokugawa-era (1615-1868) literati painters, Nakayama Kōyō (1717-1780) and Nakabayashi Chikutō (1776-1853), who copied the Chinese paintings.

Kōyō and Chikutō were prolific theorists who, in their treatises, theorized that the proper study of painting began with copying Chinese models in order to gain the technical discipline necessary for the development of an individual style. For literati painters, the practice of copying after the particular style of masters was an intellectual activity that prominently displayed their knowledge of history.  However, these literati painting theories are also filled with intriguing irony, and they often contradicted their practice.

More on the anthology here.

Kazuko Kameda-Madar, Ph.D.,
art history lecturer & coordinator of
HPU’s Japan Research Group.