Visiting professor explores history of Japanese art

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/donmccallum.jpg” caption=”Don McCallum, Hooker Distinguished Visiting Professor”]

From the fifth century through to the 20th, Japan has a diverse and prolific
artistic history. Don McCallum, Professor of Art History at UCLA and a specialist
in Japanese art, will share his knowledge of Japanese Art Sept. 22 and 23 at
McMaster. A Hooker Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Religious
Studies, McCallum will lecture on two examples of Japanese art, one from the
Second World War era and one from the seventh and eighth century.

The first event, a departmental seminar titled "The Spiritual Journey
of Matsumoto Shunsuke (1912-1948): Japan in the Pre-war, Wartime, and Post-war
Periods," concerns oil-painter, Matsumoto Shunsuke. Shunsuke embodies a
crucial spiritual struggle in pre-war, wartime, and post-war Japan. This talk
will deal with possible Christian influences during Shunsuke’s youth,
his connection with the "New Religion," Seicho no, and his general
struggle for meaning during an extraordinarily difficult period in Japanese
history. This seminar will take place Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2004 at 1:30 p.m.
in Council Chambers (Gilmour Hall, Room 111).

In
a public lecture on Thursday, Sept. 23, 8 p.m., McCallum will deal with Yakushiji,
one of most important temples in Japan. This temple was built between 680 and
ca. 700 in the first full-scale capital of Japan, Fujiwarakyo. McCallum will
explore the political and economic dimensions of the building of an imperial
temple, discuss the nature of the religious activities at the temple, and comment
on some of the major sculptures and buildings. For the last few decades, the
Japanese have been entirely reconstructing the structure on the basis of the
ancient plan, so it is now possible to have a concrete and relatively accurate
visualization of a seventh-eighth century temple. "Yakushiji, the Imperial
Temple of the Medicine Buddha: Piety and Politics in Early Japan" will
be held in the Ewart Angus Center, Room 1A6

McCallum's publications include Zenkoji and Its Icon: A Study in Medieval
Japanese Religious Art (Princeton, 1994) as well as more than fifty articles,
book chapters, book reviews, and catalog essays. He has just completed a monograph
entitled The Four Great Temples of Seventh-Century Japan and is now
working on a book based on the Murphy Lectures at the University of Kansas,
Hakuho Sculpture.

More information on these lectures is available on the Religious Studies Web
site at www.socsci.mcmaster.ca/relstud.