Thursday 9 June, 2016
10:00am BST - 5:00pm BST
Sainsbury Institute, 64 The Close, Norwich NR1 4DH
About the Workshop
Chanoyu – the rituals and aesthetics formalized in the practice of drinking Chinese-style whisked powered tea – came to signify a longstanding artistic tradition in Japan, and its prominent status was due largely to enthusiastic patrons who collected and commissioned its related arts. The reinvention of chanoyu in the modern era allowed certain values to be ascribed to a range of tea utensils as representative of a unifying, homogeneous “Japanese essence.” However, this stress on continuity often conceals the reality that chanoyu has continued to evolve and undergo radical transformations over the centuries of its practice.
This international workshop is dedicated to examining the incredible vitality of chanoyu with particular focus on its different modes of art collecting and patronage. The focus of discussion will be divided into three components thematically and chronologically:
1) the political, economic, and cultural dimensions of chanoyu’s impact on the collecting and patronage of tea utensils in early modern Japan;
2) the development of tea taste associated with Japanese infusion of “Other” foreign culture;
3) the revival of chanoyu and its new patrons in modern and contemporary Japan. An integrated yet deliberately diverse set of presentations will be in conversation with one another while calling attention to how different personalities and patterns of art collecting and patronage played crucial roles in shaping the way of tea.
Workshop Programme
Sainsbury Institute (64 The Close, Norwich NR1 4DH)
10:00 Coffee
10:30 Opening Remarks: Mami Mizutori (Executive Director, Sainsbury Institute)
10:40–12:10 Session One: The Development of Aesthetic Values and Collecting in Tea
Oka Yoshiko (Otemae University)
Changing Concepts of the Value of ‘Things’ in Japan: From Gusoku to Dōgu
Andrew M. Watsky (Princeton University)
Cracks in the Canon: Positioning Large Jars in Sixteenth-century Chanoyu
Christine Guth (Royal College of Art)
Reconstructing the Material World of Ritsuō’s Lacquer Teabowl
Discussant: Louise Cort (Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution)
12:10–13:30 Lunch Break
13:30–14:30 Session Two: Art Collecting for Tea: The Old and New Daimyo
Morgan Pitelka (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
Warrior Tea Collectors in the Seventeenth Century
Seung Yeon Sang (Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow, SISJAC)
The Appreciation of Tea Utensils in Modern Japan
Discussant: Angus Lockyer (SOAS, University of London)
14:30–14:50 Break
14:50–15:50 Session Three: The New Way of Tea
Katayama Mabi (Tokyo University of the Arts)
Yanagi Muneyoshi’s Chanoyu and Creation of “Kōraijawan”
Robin Wilson (University of Oxford)
Oxford Anagama and the Living National Treasure of Bizen: Possible Futures for Bizen-yaki
Discussant: Charlotte Horlyck (SOAS, University of London)
15:50–16:50 Final Roundtable Discussion
16:50–17:00 Closing Remarks: Seung Yeon Sang (Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow, SISJAC)
Organised by Dr. Seung Yeon Sang (Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow)
The workshop is free and open to students and scholars interested in the subject. But due to space availability, the number of participants is limited and advance registration is required.
Please contact the Sainsbury Institute to book your place.
This event is funded by the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Art and Cultures and the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation.
Image: Bizen tea caddy, 1590-1630. The Victoria and Albert Museum. Victoria and Albert Museum, London