ACM CONVERSATIONS

Fukusa and the Culture of Spectacle in Premodern Japan
Christine M.E. Guth

Free. Registration (with a $10 refundable deposit) is required.
Click here to register: https://christineguthfukusapremodernjapan.peatix.com

Fukusa, silk squares decorated with woven patterns, embroidery, or dyed in ink and colours, played a central role in ceremonial gift-giving in Japan between the seventeenth and late nineteenth centuries. Gifting was an essential part of social life, and the use of fukusa was embedded in traditions of formal etiquette that emphasised performance and display. More decorative than functional, they were draped over gifts on special occasions to add a layer of physical and metaphorical beauty that spoke to the refinement of donor and recipient alike.

This talk looks at fukusa as part of a wider culture of spectacle that includes the arrangement and display of artistic objects in reception rooms for visits from distinguished guests, the embellishment of garments, and the ornamentation of articles used in the tea ceremony. In so doing, it argues that today’s popular stereotype of premodern Japanese art as “minimalist” overlooks the rich diversity of its aesthetic traditions.

About the speaker

Christine M. E. Guth led the Asian specialism in the Post-graduate History of Design Programme at the Victoria and Albert Museum & Royal College of Art from 2007 to 2016. She has written widely about Japanese art and cultural exchange between the United States and Japan. Her books include Hokusai’s Great Wave: Biography of a Global Icon (2015) and Craft Culture in Early Modern Japan: Materials, Makers, and Mastery (2021).

The ACM Conversations Lecture Series is generously sponsored by Royal Insignia