Culture on the Move: Cultural Transpositions and Artistic Transmissions between China, Ryukyu, and Japan

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel

Abstract

This panel examines trans-cultural flows between different countries in premodern East Asia. The papers examine motifs, aesthetic principles, and spatial concepts of Chinese origin, transplanted into Ryukyu or Japan via networks of trade, diplomacy, religious, and intellectual exchange. Exchanges between China and Ryukyu highlight the importance of Fuzhou as a node of cultural and artistic dissemination. Originating in Chinese folklore, Hanshan and Shide transformed within China amidst the interplay of Buddhism and Daoism. Transplanted into Japan, these figures continued to evolve in ways both commensurate with their Chinese origins and in divergent paths specific to Japanese contexts. Similarly, a close examination of kan (Jp. gan) in Buddhist architecture reveals the dialectical process at work, constituting and re-constituting meaning in different cultural environments. Religious geography also forms the broader context for the development of Japan’s earthquake catfish. The Chinese-derived roots of this peculiar creature developed within the geo-cultural environment of the Lake Biwa area before spreading throughout Japan during the eighteenth century. All of the papers treat cultural production and transformation as emergent phenomena evolving from the complex interplay of local and regional geographies, political boundaries, trade networks, and religious traditions.

Area of Study

• Interarea-Border Crossing

Session Organizer

• Gregory Smits, Pennsylvania State University

Chair

• Gregory Smits, Pennsylvania State University

Individual Presentations

• Sun Yi, Go Shiken, In Genryo and China-Ryukyu Artistic Transmission in the Eighteenth Century - Li-yun Huang, Taipei National University of the Arts

• Chinese Wandering Saints Visit Japan: Transformed Images of Hanshan and Shide between China and Japan - Wen-chien Cheng, Royal Ontario Museum

• The Concept of Kan: The Transpositions of Buddhist Spatial Discourse across East Asia - Chun Wa Chan, University of Michigan

• Dragons, Turtles, and Catfish: Exploring the Chinese Roots of Japan’s Earthquake Catfish - Gregory Smits, Pennsylvania State University

Discussant

• Maribeth Graybill, Portland Art Museum