UPCOMING ZOOM LECTURE
Unlocking the History of Meibutsu
Tuesday, October 6, 2026 at 5pm EDT
Live Zoom Webinar
This webinar focuses on the topic of meibutsu with Christine Guth, art historian and scholar, drawing on her recent book Exemplary Things: Meibutsu in Premodern Japan. In this talk, Dr. Guth will unlock the long and multifaceted history of meibutsu and its role in laying the foundations for the identification, classification and preservation of Japanese cultural heritage.
Meibutsu is a Japanese cultural keyword—with no exact anglophone equivalent—that has had a pervasive and enduring influence in Japan. Literally meaning “famous thing” or “thing with a personal name,” it has served to designate articles of the highest quality, from utensils used in the tea ceremony, swords and incense, to regional crafts and foodstuffs. Initially, this honorific was applied to luxury goods imported from China collected by the elite but over time it became a branding device for domestic products, especially those available along the heavily traveled Tokaido Road linking Kyoto and Edo.
To learn more and register, click here.
Impressions 47 (2026)
Impressions 47 (2026) is on the way to JASA members! Essays discuss Takashi Murakami and his experimentation with ukiyo-e subjects. We introduce the dealer Hasebe Jun’ichi, feature reviews of John Fiorillo’s book on Hokuei and an exhibition of Hokusai in Rome, and we include a photomontage of Harry Packard’s Japanese pots at the Met. Tributes are given to Suzanne Valenstein and Peter Dailey. (View the Table of Contents here.) Additional copies can be ordered for $25 (plus shipping) through the JASA Store or our online Publications Order Form.
2026 ZOOM WEBINARS NOW ONLINE
In the Flesh: The Nude in Modern Japan
July 1, 2026
In this recent lecture, Dr. Rhiannon Paget, Curator of Asian Art at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida State University, introduced her current exhibition, In the Flesh: The Nude in Modern Japanese Art, featuring prints and one painting from the 1910s to 1970s. Dr. Paget discussed how the nude entered Japanese art at the end of the 19th century, the debates it sparked, the ways artists responded to evolving expectations in the early modern period, and how the genre developed across the 20th century.
To watch the lecture, click here.
Bunmei Kaika: Political Landscape in Early Modern and Modern Japan
June 2, 2026
Held at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, the exhibition Bunmei Kaika explored the impact of the late Edo- and Meiji-period political climate on culture, thought, and the dissemination of prints in Japan. In this live webinar, Chelsea Foxwell, Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago, joined curator Monique D’Almeida in examining how Japan’s shifting national identity during the 19th and early 20th centuries was reflected in prints during this period of modernization.
To watch the lecture, click here.
Emerging from Darkness: Prints by Hamanishi Katsunori
May 7, 2026
On May 7, Dr. Janice Katz, Roger L. Weston Curator of Japanese Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, discussed her new exhibition, Emerging from Darkness: Prints by Hamanishi Katsunori, which celebrates Hamanishi’s gift of his landmark Four Seasons prints to the Art Institute of Chicago.
To watch the lecture, click here.
The Infinite Artistry of Japanese Ceramics (Dr. Monika Bincsik)
April 23, 2026
Following her popular in-person exhibition tour in February 2026, Dr. Monika Bincsik, Diane and Arthur Abbey Curator for Japanese Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, discussed the exhibition she has curated in the Arts of Japan Galleries of the museum, on view until August 8, 2027, in three rotations. (Harry Packard: The Infinite Artistry of Japanese Ceramics, the Spring 2026 special issue of the journal Impressions, edited by Julia Meech, is dedicated to this exhibition.)
To watch the lecture, click here.
We Do Not Work Alone: Kawai Kanjirō and Ceramics in Modern Kyoto
March 22, 2026
On March 22, 2026, prior to JASA’s annual meeting during Asia Week New York, Meghen Jones, Professor of Art History at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, gave the talk We Do Not Work Alone: Kawai Kanjirō and Ceramics in Modern Kyoto.
To watch the lecture, click here.
Staging the Samurai
March 3, 2026
Online
In this March 3, 2026, lecture, Dr. Rosina Buckland, Asahi Shimbun Curator in the Department of Asia at the British Museum, discusses the major exhibition Samurai at the museum until May 4, 2026. The exhibition examines the history and myths of the samurai, from their warrior origins in the 11th century to their pervasive presence in popular culture today.
To watch the lecture, click here.
Lyrically Rebellious: The Prints of Onchi Kōshirō
January 13, 2026 at 5pm ET
Online
If you missed our Januarly Zoom Webinar Lyrically Rebellious: The Prints of Onchi Kōshirō, the video is now posted on our site. For this live webinar, Stephen Salel, curator of Japanese Art at the Honolulu Museum of Art (HoMA) discussed an exhibition currently on view at HoMA that commemorates the 70th anniversary of the death of Onchi Koshirō (1891–1955), the leader of the Creative Prints (sōsaku hanga) movement and one of Japan’s first abstract artists. Thanks to the generosity of Honolulu-based collectors such as James Michener (1907–1997) and Oliver Statler (1915–2002), the Honolulu Museum of Art possesses the largest public collection of prints by Onchi outside of Japan.
To watch the lecture, click here.
To view all past lectures, click here.
Help Us Celebrate 50 Years of JASA!
The exhibition Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan, celebrating 50 years of the Japanese Art Society of America, opened at Asia Society Museum, New York, on October 3, 2023. One review called Meiji Modern a “perfect exhibition,” engaging both scholars and non-specialist visitors who are “thrilled to discover beautiful art they didn’t know and to learn its history in labels that are both clear and serious.”
JASA’s beautiful 272-page full-color catalog for the exhibition (cover above) takes a fresh look at the art of the Meiji period (1868-1912) through a selection of approximately 200 objects drawn from public and private collections across the United States, including newly discovered prints, photographs, textiles, paintings, and craft objects. Copies of the catalog can be ordered through the JASA Store or our online Publications Order Form.
To learn more about the catalog, click here. To order a copy online, click here.
