Modern Japanese Sculpture Network

In terms of scholarship, modern Japanese sculpture is a relatively new field. Only in the last few years has it started to attract attention from museum curators and academics in Japan and in the West. The focus of this research network is sculpture made in Japan after the Meiji restoration of 1868, when the country was opened officially to Western influence for the first time in two centuries. The following decades saw the collision and fusion of two very different artistic cultures, as foreign artists were invited into Japan, Japanese artists travelled to the West and the first Western-style art academies were founded in Tokyo. Before the Meiji period, there was no word for 'sculpture' in Japanese and no concept of sculpture as an independent art form, distinct from craft practice. However, there were rich traditions of object making both for religious and secular purposes and of carving in wood, bone and ivory.

In the Meiji period (1868-1912) Japanese artists with a background in traditional object-making experimented with Western techniques, aesthetics and forms, including modelling in clay, working directly from the life model, anatomical realism, portraiture and figure sculpture. By the following Taisho and Showa periods (1912-c.1937), a younger generation of sculptors were able to draw upon a variety of different sources, revisiting traditional craft practices and applying Western techniques to non-Western forms and aesthetics, to create hybrid objects, hovering between the different artistic traditions. This was an avant-garde that used skill and tradition to develop sculptural thinking in new ways.

Given the current lack of knowledge in Europe of Japanese sculpture of this period, the research network will use the exhibitions A Study of Modern Japanese Sculpture, at the Henry Moore Institute and a further exhibition at Musashino Art Museum as the focus and starting point for a series of three research workshops: at the Henry Moore Institute; Musashino University and the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, which will bring together scholars from Japan and the UK and promote international discussion around a subject which itself embodies cross-cultural exchange.

The intention with the Modern Japanese Sculpture Network is to open debates on an under-researched topic, sharing ideas between Japan and the UK and developing opportunities for future collaborations.

The research of the Modern Japanese Sculpture Research Network is designed to be of wide reaching impact beyond academia. It aims to involve, connect and work with a range of individuals and institutions. It is intended that the outcomes of the network will be disseminated in a wide range of forms having a lasting impact on many users.

Beneficiaries of the network beyond the academic research community will include:

Museums & Galleries, Arts, Culture & Heritage
Through its inclusion, involvement and knowledge sharing with Museums & Galleries, Arts, Culture & Heritage institutions across the UK and Japan, the network will promote and foster growing knowledge of Modern Japanese Sculpture and is intended to lead to further exhibitions, seminars and conferences on the subject - introducing and involving a range of museum individuals, curatorial departments and audiences to the sculptural work of this period in Japan, previously unseen in the UK. Henry Moore Institute (HMI), and Musashino Art University (MAU) have already committed to the network, while the Ashmolean Museum, The Sainsbury Centre for the Study of Japanese Art and Cultures, British Museum, V&A, Museum Of Modern Art, Tokyo, The Hirgausa Denshu Museum, Tokyo, The Asakura Fumio Chosu Kan, the Migei Kan among others have expressed serious interest.

Creative Practitioners
The sculptural techniques used in Modern Japanese Sculpture are a unique fusion of traditional Japanese craft and Western forms of making, previously unstudied. The network's object based study will reveal these novel making methods introducing them to UK and Japanese creative practitioners, widening their practice and vocabulary.

The Wider Public
The exhibitions at HMI and MAU organized by the network will bring important works of art to the wider public for the first time. Accompanying both exhibitions are the proposed conferences and workshops, which the wider public will be able to attend. All participating institutions will be disseminating information online and through social media platforms.

Libraries and Archives
Libraries and archivists will be invited and introduced to the network. It is hoped this will lead to further collaborations within the UK and internationally with the potential for further events to be held, outreach projects to be established and outcomes of the network to be housed within such institutions in future.

The UK and Japan Government
UCL is in a special position to connect government in Japan and the UK and to positively affect international relations. As a non-religious and liberal arts university the first Japanese students ever to visit the UK, The Choso Five, visited UCL in 1865, one of them, Hirobumi Ito, became the first Japanese Prime Minister. In 2014 the current Japanese Prime Minister Abe visited UCL. UCL is also part of a joint UK /Japanese university association called RENKEI (Research and Education Network for Knowledge Economy Initiatives). Renkei is the Japanese word for collaboration.

Japanese Community in the UK and vice versa
The network, its exhibitions and research is based on cultural exchange and understanding the close cultural connections between the West and Japan in modern art. It is hoped that its outcomes will impact community relations, develop public awareness, attitudes, debates and understanding.

Commemoration and reconciliation
One of the reasons for the neglect of the study of this subject, both within Japan and outside, is what in Japan is known as the Pacific War (World War II). This is still contentious within Japan and diplomatically sensitive. The aim of the network will be to neutrally develop a UK/Japanese methodology to examine sculptural works of this period in relation to Western interaction and develop new ways of both preserving them and understanding them, and by doing so also impact public awareness, attitudes, debate, and encourage reconciliation regarding this period in history.