Copying the Master and Stealing His Secrets : Talent and Training in Japanese Painting

__Copying the Master and Stealing His Secrets__ examines the transmission of painting traditions in Japan from one generation to the next. The contributors emphasize the relationship between inborn abilities and those skills taught in the course of learning how to paint. They focus their discussion on a group of painting masters loosely associated with the prestigious Kano painting atelier, Japan's de facto painting academy throughout the Tokugawa period (1615-1868) and into the early modern era. By delving into why, how, and what these painters transmitted to students through their teaching, readers gain insight into artistic and aesthetic sensibilities active in Japanese painting and a fuller appreciation of extant paintings within their cultural and historical contexts.

Rhetoric in Modern Japan is the first volume to discuss the role of Western rhetoric in the creation of a modern Japanese oral and narrative style. It considers the introduction of Western rhetoric, clarifying its interactions with the forces and synergies that shaped Japanese literature and culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Focusing on the Meiji and Taishxc5x8d years (1868-1926), it challenges the prevailing view among contemporary scholars that rhetoric did not play a significant role in the literary developments of the period.

Massimiliano Tomasi chronicles the blooming of scholarship in the field in the early 1870s, providing the first descriptive analysis and cogently articulated critique of the major rhetorical treatises of the time. In discussing the rise of public speaking in early Meiji society, he unveils the existence of crucial links between the study of rhetoric and the social and literary events of the time, underscoring the key role played by oratory both as a tool for social modernization and as an effective platform for the reappraisal of the spoken language.

The collusion and conflicts characterizing rhetoric and its relationship with the genbun itchi movement, which sought to unify spoken and written language, are explored, demonstrating that their perceived antagonism was the uh_product of a misguided notion of rhetoric and the process of rhetorical signification rather than a true theoretical conflict. Tomasi makes a convincing argument that, in fact, Western rhetoric mediated between these equally compelling pursuits and paved the way toward an acceptable compromise between classical and colloquial written styles.

Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments Notes To The Reader An Afterword Posing As A Foreword: Some Comparative And Miscellaneous Thoughts On Talent And Training Introduction Chapter 1. Talent,Training, And Power: The Kano Painting Workshop In The Seventeenth Century Chapter 2. Copying From Beginning To End?: Student Life In The Kano School Chapter 3. In The Studio Of Painting Study: Transmission Practices Of Tani Bunchō Chapter 4. Kawanabe Kyōsai’s Theory And Pedagogy: The Preeminence Of Shasei Chapter 5. Okuhara Seiko: A Case Of Funpon Training I N L Ate Edo Literat I Painting Chapter 6. Institutionalizing Talent And The Kano: Legacy At The Tokyo School Of Fine Arts, 1889–1893 Epilogue From Technique To Art Appendix. An Examination Of Records: Painting Commissions As Determinants Of Hierarchy In The Early-Seventeenth-Century Kano House Notes Bibliography Contributors Index In this examination of the transmission of painting traditions in Japan from one generation to the next, scholars emphasize the relationship between inborn abilities and those skills taught in the course of learning how to paint. Focus is on pedagogical approaches used by masters who were trained by Kano or Kano lineage painters during the 17th through 19th centuries. This volume is illustrated with reproductions of Japanese artwork in b & w and color