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Kaikodo Journal XXIV

Material Witness

Corresponding to the exhibition held between March 15 and April 11, 2008. 48 Chinese and Japanese paintings; 32 Chinese objects (80 color plates). Preface by Howard Rogers. 316 pages.

Includes the essays:
Steven D. Owyoung:
“Lu Yu’s Brazier
Taoist Elements in the T’ang Book of Tea”
K.Y. Ng:
“Song Dynnasty Black-glazed Tea Bowls from
the Yulinting Kilns at Mount Wuyi”
Howard Rogers:
“Lives of the Painters: Sheng Mou
(ca.1300-ca.1359)”
“In Their Emperor’s Service:
Court Painting of the Ming Dynasty”
Mary Ann Rogers:
“Treasures from the Kingdom of Qian:
The Mu Family Collection of Painting & Calligraphy”
Hiroko T. McDermott:
“Art Exhibitions in Mid-Late Meiji Japan
and Ueno”

This journal features six essays on subjects ranging from the tea ceremony during the 8th century in China to art sales in Ueno Park in Tokyo during the 19th century.

The first essay is by Steven D. Owyoung, retired Curator of Asian Art at the St. Louis Art Museum, writing about a subject that has occupied him for decades, the Chinese tea-ceremony, especially as that had been codified by Lu Yu during the 8th century in his “Book of Tea.” The second essay, by K.Y. Ng of Hong Kong, is also concerned with the tea-ceremony but from a more material point of view, discussing a fascinating group of wares from the Yulinting kilns in Fujian province. With decoration in gold and silver painted most usually on black-glazed tea-wares, these bowls bear material witness to a group of ceramics inspired by the poems of Zhu Xi (1130-1200) of the later Song dynasty.

Next is an essay by Howard Rogers on Sheng Mou (ca. 1300-1359) , a major master of the Yuan dynasty about whom very little is recorded in written sources. However, his paintings or those by immediate followers survive in considerable numbers, and these can be used illumine certain characteristics of Yuan dynasty painting. Howard also contributed the next essay on court painters of the Ming era, including a brief description of court activity during the first reign-era but is expected to be mainly useful for the charts in the appendix, which list all academy painters as well as their immediate disciples known to the author at present.

Mary Ann Rogers contributed an important article also related to painting of the early Ming era, one outlining the Mu-family collection of paintings as that evolved through several generations, beginning with gifts from the first emperor of the Ming. Mu Ying, the adopted son of the first emperor, was the founder of the family collection and its good fortune, and his son, Mu Sheng, was also a patron of such consequential court painters as Dai Jin and Shih Rui whose access to the collection had significant implications for their art. Mary Ann also wrote in memory of one of her early teachers at SOAS, Professor William Watson.

The last essay is by Hiroko T. McDermott, who completed her D.Phil dissertation in 2002 at Oxford University and is now an independent researcher specializing in Meiji art history. She has here focused on a fascinating subject-the largest private sociery of collectors, dealers, and artists active during the late 19th-early 20th century-and brought to light several important aspects of the evolution of Meiji art circles thalt have escaped notice in both Japanese and Western research. Especially illuminating is her discussion of the collaboration between this society and the Imperial Household to hold numerous exhibitions in a hall built by them in Ueno Park-on Imperial land.

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Kaikodo Journal XXXVI - Spring 2020 (web)Online only
Kaikodo Journal XXXV - Spring 2019 (web)Online only
Kaikodo Journal XXXIV - Spring 2018 (web)Online only
Kaikodo Journal XXXIII - Spring 2017 (web)Online only
Kaikodo Journal XXXII - Spring 2016 (web)Online only
Kaikodo Journal XXXI - Spring 2015Available
Kaikodo Journal XXX - Spring 2014Available
Kaikodo Journal XXIX - Spring 2013Available
Kaikodo Journal XXVIII - Spring 2012Available
Kaikodo Journal XXVII - Spring 2011Available
Kaikodo Journal XXVI - Spring 2010available
Kaikodo Journal XXV - Spring 2009Available
Kaikodo Journal XXIV - Spring 2008Available
Kaikodo Journal XXIII - Spring 2007
Spring in Jinling - Spring 2004
Kaikodo Journal XXII - Spring 2002
Kaikodo Journal XXI - Autumn 2001
Kaikodo Journal XX - Autumn 2001Available
Kaikodo Journal XIX - Spring 2001Available
Kaikodo Journal XVIII - November 2000
Kaikodo Journal XVII - Autumn 2000
Kaikodo Journal XVI - May 2000Available
Kaikodo Journal XV - Spring 2000Available
Kaikodo Journal XIV - November 1999Available
Kaikodo Journal XIII - Autumn 1999Available
Kaikodo Journal XII - Autumn 1999
In Two Dimensions - Spring 1999
Kaikodo Journal XI - Spring 1999
Kaikodo Journal X - November 1998Out of Print
Kaikodo Journal IX - Autumn 1998Available
Kaikodo Journal VIII - May 1998Available
Kaikodo Journal VII - Spring 1998Available
Kaikodo Journal VI - October 1997Not Available
Kaikodo Journal V - Autumn 1997
Kaikodo Journal IV - May 1997OUT OF PRINT
Kaikodo Journal III - Spring 1997OUT OF PRINT
Kaikodo Journal II - Autumn 1996OUT OF PRINT
Kaikodo Journal I - Spring 1996OUT OF PRINT
Backward Glances - February 1996
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