Head of London Office
John T. Carpenter
John T. Carpenter is Reader in Japanese Art at SOAS, Visiting Professor at Tokyo University's Cultural Resource Studies, and Visiting Associate Professor at the Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto. He received his PhD from Columbia University in 1997. His research interests include the history of East Asian calligraphy, Edo-period surimono and other examples of word-image interrelationships in Japanese art. After receiving a BA in English Literature from the University of Notre Dame, John Carpenter lived and travelled in various Asian countries, including several years in Japan. After taking courses in Japanese language and calligraphy at Rikkyo University, Tokyo, he entered the graduate programme in East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University in 1987. His PhD research focussed on calligraphy of 11th century Japanese court. His interests in image/text relationships extend to later periods as well, and he has written extensively on literary aspects of Japanese paintings and prints of the Edo period (17th-19th centuries). Before moving to London, he taught courses in the history of East Asian art at the New School for Social Research in New York City, University of Washington in Seattle, and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Current Research
John T. Carpenter continues to work on topics related to the interaction of Japanese literature and visual arts. Expanding on his previous doctoral research on the calligraphy by Fujiwara no Yukinari, a high-ranked courtier of the early 11th century Heian court, his forthcoming monograph traces aesthetic, social and political aspects of the practice of calligraphy in early medieval Japan. Related to work on court calligraphy carried out in Kyoto at the Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University, he continues to research and publish on the topic of calligraphy by emperors of premodern Japan. He also is the organiser of the Japanese Literature in Art Colloquy (JLAC) series under the auspices of the Sainsbury Institute, which sponsors international workshops on topics related to interaction of literary and pictorial arts in the Japanese tradition. The project supports publications related to the colloquies including specialized collaborative projects, proceedings volumes, and online databases. One of the major projects underway is publication project to study and translate actor surimono in Edo, with special attention to ukiyo-e artists' interaction with kyoka poetry groups, kabuki fan clubs. He was co-author of The Frank Lloyd Wright Collection of Surimono (1995) and Jewels of Japanese Printmaking, Surimono of the Bunka-Bunsei Era 1804-1830 (2000), and edited Hokusai and His Age: Ukiyo-e Painting, Printmaking and Book Illustration in Late Edo Japan (2005), Imperial Calligraphy of Premodern Japan: Scribal Conventions for Poems and Letters from the Palace (2006) and Reading Surimono: The Interplay of Text and Image in Japanese Prints (2008).
Contact
Address: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG, United Kingdom
Email: jc54@soas.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20-78984457
Fax: +44 (0)20-78984429
Authored Books
Carpenter , John and Matsumoto, I. and Kawashima, M. and Kaneko, T. (2006) Imperial Calligraphy of Premodern Japan: Scribal Conventions for Poems and Letters from the Palace. Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University (Kyoto) & Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures.
Mirviss , Joan B. and Carpenter , John (2000) Jewels of Japanese Printmaking: Surimono of the Bunka-Bunsei Era (1804-1830). Tokyo: Ota Memorial Museum & Nihon Keizai Shinbun.
Hickman, Money L. and Carpenter, John T. and Rosenfield, John M. and Guth, Christine (1996) Japan's Golden Age: Momoyama. New Haven and London: Dallas Art Museum /Yale University Press.
Mirviss, Joan B. and Carpenter, John T. (1995) The Frank Lloyd Wright Collection of Surimono. New York: Weatherhill; Phoenix, Ariz.: Phoenix Art Museum.
Edited Books
Carpenter, John T., ed. (2008) Reading Surimono: The Interplay of Text and Image in Japanese Prints. Leiden: Brill; Boston: Hotei Publishing .
Carpenter, John T., ed. (2005) Hokusai and His Age: Ukiyo-e Painting, Printmaking and Book Illustration in Late Edo Japan. Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing.
Calza, Gian Calza and Carpenter, John T., eds. (1994) Hokusai Paintings: Selected Essays. Venice: The International Hokusai Research Centre, University of Venice .
Chapter in Books
Carpenter, John T. (2008) 'The Literary Network: Private Commissions for Hokusai and his Circle.' In: Meech, Julia and Oliver, Jane, (eds.), Designed for Pleasure: The World of Edo Japan in Prints and Paintings. New York: The Asia Society/University of Washington Press.
Carpenter, John T. (2008) 'Der kulturelle und literarische Kontext von Surimono.' In: Surimono: Die Kunst der Anspielung in japanischen Holzdrucken. Zurich: Museum Rietberg.
Carpenter, John T. (2008) 'Inventing New Iconographies: Historicist and Nativist Motives in Late-Edo Surimono.' In: Carpenter, John T., (ed.), Reading Surimono: The Interplay of Text and Image in Japanese Prints. Leiden: Brill; Boston: Hotei Publishing, pp. 72-83.
Carpenter, John T. (2007) 'Chinese Calligraphic Models in Heian Japan: Copying Practices and Stylistic Transmission.' In: Cox, R., (ed.), The Culture of Copying in Japan: Critical and Historical Perspectives. London: Routledge, pp. 156-195.
Carpenter, John T. (2006) 'Handwriting Empowered by History: The Aura of Calligraphy by Japanese Emperors.' In: Carpenter, John T., (ed.), Imperial Calligraphy of Premodern Japan: Scribal Conventions for Poems and Letters from the Palace. Kyoto: Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University, pp. 14-55.
Carpenter , John (2005) 'Painting and Calligraphy of the Pleasure Quarters: Interaction of Image and Text in Hokusai's Early Bijinga.' In: Carpenter, J., (ed.), Hokusai and His Age. Ukiyo-e Painting, Printmaking and Book Illustration in Late Edo Japan. Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, pp. 32-61.
Carpenter, John T. (2004) 'Calligraphy and Painting of the Pleasure Quarters: Poetic and Pictorial Interaction in Hokusai's Courtesan Portraits.' In: Carpenter, J., (ed.), Hokusai and His Age: Ukiyo-e Painting, Printmaking and Book Illustration in Late Edo Japan. Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing.
Carpenter , John (2004) 'Textures of Antiquarian Imagination: Kubo Shunman and the Kokugaku Movement.' In: Newland, A.R., (ed.), The Commercial and Cultural Climate of Japanese Printmaking. Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, pp. 77-113.
Carpenter, John (2002) 'Twisted Poses: The Kabuku Aesthetic in Early Edo Genre Painting.' In: Rousmaniere, N, (ed.), Kazari: Decoration and Display in Japan, 15th through 19th Centuries. Abrams (New York), British Museum Press (London), 42-49 (plus catalogue entries).
Carpenter, John (2002) 'The Fictive Realms of Ukiyo-e Painting.' In: Rotondo-McCord, L, (ed.), An Enduring Vision: 17th to 20th Century Japanese Painting from the Gitter-Yelen Collection. University of Washington Press (Seattle), New Orleans Museum of Art (New Orleans), 164-83 (essay), 277-85 (catalogue entries).
Carpenter, John and Clark, T. (2001) 'Translations and commentaries on calligraphy and poems.' In: The Dawn of the Floating World 1650-1765: Early Ukiyo-e Treasures from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. London: Royal Academy of Arts.
Carpenter, John (1998) 'The Human Figure in the Playground of Edo Artistic Imagination.' In: Singer, R, (ed.), Edo:Art in Japan 1615-1868. National Gallery of Art USA/Yale Univ Press, pp. 367-397.
Carpenter, John (1994) 'Hokusai and Kyoden: Portrayals of Courtesans in Painting and Poetry.' In: Calza, G. C., (ed.), Hokusai Paintings: Selected Essays. Venezia : International Hokusai Research Centre, University of Venice, pp. 91-116.
Articles
Carpenter, John T. (2007) 'By Brush or Block Printing: Transmitting Cultural Heritage in Premodern Japan.' Orientations, 38 (8). pp. 57-66.
Carpenter, John T. (2007) 'Wild Boars and Dirty Rats: Kyōka Surimono Celebrating Ichikawa Danjūrō VII as Arajishi Otokonosuke.' Impressions: Journal of the Japanese Art Society of America (28). pp. 40-59.
Carpenter, John (2003) 'Hokku, Waka and Kyoka: Poetic Inscriptions on Ukiyo-e Prints.' Asiatica Venetiana, vol.6/7 .
Carpenter, John (2002) 'Edo Actors in Osaka Prints: Surimono by Ukiyo Utayoshi.' Andon, vol. 72 . pp. 95-101.
Carpenter, John (2002) 'Calligraphy as Self-Portrait: Poems and Letters by Retired Emporer Gotoba.' Orientations, vol. 33 no 2 . pp. 41-49.