Research

Dr Yuko Kikuchi

Reader, TrAIN

Research Areas

Art, Design & Craft History in Britain, Japan and Taiwan; Mingei; Modernity and National Identity in non-western Visual Cultures.

Peer Esteem

Editorial Board Member, Chung Yuan Journal Of Design published by Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan. Membership of the British Association for Japanese Studies; British Association for Korean Studies; Association for Asian Studies (USA); Design History Society; Association of Art Historians (UK); College Art Association (USA); Japan Art History Society, and The Japan Society of Design.

Steering committee member for the Victoria & Albert Museum for the 'International Arts & Crafts' exhibition organised during March-July in 2005 and Member of the AHRB joint project: 'Modernity and National Identity in Art: India, Japan and Mexico, 1860s-1940s'.

Current Research - Statement

"My current research interest is on the issue of modernity and the discourse of cultural identities in Asian and comparative visual cultures of the non-western countries with a particular geographical focus on Japan and Taiwan.

I have published a monograph 'Japanese Modernisation and Mingei Theory: Cultural Nationalism and Oriental Orientalism' [RoutledgeCurzon, 2004] which examined the nationalist discourse of Mingei (Japanese folkcrafts) theory developed by Yanagi Soetsu in the 1920s from the post-colonial cross-cultural perspectives. Bamboo crafts, crafts related to the modern wars (memorabilia, war fashion, substitute products) and cultural politics involved in crafts in modern Japan, and modernities in the relationship with Mexico and Japan are the subjects of the projects that I have been developing recently.

I have also been conducting research on the discourse on Taiwanese identities in crafts from the Japanese colonial to the contemporary period and editing a collection of essays by nine contributors, to be published as 'Refracted Modernity: Visual Culture and Identity in Colonial Taiwan' (forthcoming 2007). As a Keeper of the Camberwell/ILEA Collection of Applied Arts at Camberwell College of Arts, I have also been conducting research on the nature of the collection with particular interest in the Japanese objects in the collection."

Research Outputs - Recent Selection

Authored Books
Kikuchi, Yuko 2004. 'Japanese Modernisation and Mingei Theory: Cultural Nationalism and Oriental Orientalism', London: Routledge/Curzon.

Kikuchi, Yuko and Watanabe, Toshio 1997. 'Ruskin in Japan 1890-1940: Nature for Art, Art for Life', Tokyo: Cogito. (Winner of 1998 The Japan Festival Prize and 1999 The Gesner Golden Award)

Forthcoming Publications & other Projects

Editor, 'Refracted Modernity:Visual Culture and Identity in Colonial Taiwan', Honolulu: Hawai'i University Press (2007)
Curator, 'Refraction and Creation: Modernity in Taiwanese Craft' at National Taiwan Museum, Taipei; Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London (2008)
Chapter, 'Bamboo Nationalism: The Complicity of Orientalism and Neo-nationalism in Modern Japanese/Taiwanese Crafts' in Oriana Baddley, Partha Mitter, Toshio Watanabe eds., 'Nation, Identity and Modernity: Visual Culture of India, Japan and Mexico, 1860s-1940s', Durham: Duke University Press (2007).
Chapter, 'Consuming Nationalism: Visual Art and Patriotic Objects of Desire during the Russo-Japanese War' in Naoko Shimazu and Rosamund Bartlett eds, 'Re-Imagining Culture in the Russo-Japanese War' (forthcoming).

Chapters/Essays in Books

Essay, 'Japan and the Mingei movement' in Karen Livingstone and Linda Parry eds., 'International Arts and Crafts', London: V&A Publications, 2005
Essay, 'The British Discovery of Japanese Art', (co-author with Toshio Watanabe), in Gordon Daniels and Chushichi Tsuzuki eds, 'The History of Anglo-Japanese Relations 1600-2000', vol. 5, Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press (Japanese version) and Palgrave (English version), 2002

Conference Papers

Paper, 'Refracted Colonial Modernity: Identity in Taiwanese Crafts from the Colonial Modern to the Contemporary National'. The Proceedings of the Papers at the Asia-Pacific Traditional Arts Forum organised by the Council for Cultural Affairs, the Executive Yuan, ROC and the National Institute of the Arts in Taipei, 2002

Curation

'International Arts and Crafts' (Japan Section) at the Victoria and Albert Museum; Indianapolis Museum of Art; and Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2005/06.
'Ruskin in Japan 1890-1940: Nature for Art, Art for Life' at Koriyama City Museum of Art; The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura; and The Ruskin Gallery, Sheffield, 1997.

Supervision Expertise

Art, Craft and Design History

Current Research Students

Voon Pow Bartlett, 'Made in China, For Export Only: Beijing artists and how they construct their identity for a global audience in the 21st century', UAL scholarship
Anna Basham, 'The Denial of Influence: Japan and British Design 1919-1939'.
Jenny Lu, 'Between Homes - Examining the Notion of the Unheimlich in Art Practice and Its Relationship to Post-Colonial Identity in Taiwanese Contemporary Society'.
Pamela Kember, 'Perfectly At Home, Nowhere: Artists in Diaspora - Hong Kong - Britain'

Past Research Students

Chien-Chih Ni, Mphil, 'A Visual Wonderland: a cross-cultural and social approach to the tradition and modernity in Shan Shui painting in Taiwan after 1987'.

Email

y.kikuchi@chelsea.arts.ac.uk

Camberwell College of Arts

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