UPCOMING ZOOM TALK
In the Flesh: The Nude in Modern Japan
Wednesday, July 1, 5pm EDT
Live Zoom Webinar
In this webinar, Dr. Rhiannon Paget, Curator of Asian Art at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida State University, will introduce her current exhibition, In the Flesh: The Nude in Modern Japanese Art, featuring prints and one painting from the 1910s to 1970s. Dr. Paget will discuss 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.
The exhibition explores the emergence of the nude as a provocative and transformative subject in Japanese art from the late 19th century through the postwar period. Long associated in Japan with erotic imagery rather than fine art, the unclothed body became a focal point for debates about morality, modernity and artistic freedom as artists engaged with Western academic traditions.
As Japanese artists encountered new ideas about anatomy, realism and the expressive potential of the human form, the nude gradually entered the repertoire of modern painting, printmaking and other media. Bathing, grooming, and moments of private introspection offered socially acceptable frameworks for depicting the unclothed figure, while later modernist artists pushed beyond idealized forms toward bold color, abstraction and psychological intensity.
Featuring works on paper and an arresting oil painting by Ishikawa Toraji, In the Flesh traces how artists reimagined the body in response to changing social norms and artistic priorities. Predominantly images of women, these works reflect both the conventions of the genre and the perspectives of the artists and audiences who shaped it. Together, they reveal how the nude became a site for negotiating gender, desire and artistic identity in modern Japan.
If you have any questions, please contact Cheryl Gall at [email protected] or (978) 600-8128.
To register, click here.
2026 ZOOM WEBINARS NOW ONLINE
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.
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.
The Art of Yoshida Chizuko (Dr. Jeannie Kenmotsu)
December 10, 2026
Online
On December 10, 2025, Dr. Jeannie Kenmotsu, Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Asian Art at the Portland Art Museum, explored the career of groundbreaking 20th-century painter and printmaker Yoshida Chizuko (née Inoue, 1924–2017), a pioneering woman modernist in Japan. As a young painter, Yoshida Chizuko made remarkable inroads in the male-dominated, often conservative, art establishment of mid-century Japan, securing coveted prizes and invitations to join distinguished art societies. Committed to forging her own style of radical modernism and gifted with a brilliant sense of color and pattern, Chizuko’s work engaged with abstraction for over 60 years. However, today she is best known as a member of the Yoshida family of artists into which she married. This lecture is informed by the artist’s first major retrospective exhibition, titled Yoshida Chizuko, and presents a new understanding of Chizuko’s six-decade artistic career. The exhibition is on view at the Portland Art Museum until January 4, 2026, and brings together over 100 works—many of which have never been seen outside Japan.
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.
Impressions Special Issue (2026)
The spring 2026 Impressions is a Special Issue devoted to Japanese ceramics that came to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1975 as part sale, part gift from the dealer and collector Harry G. C. Packard (1914–1991). Twenty-two articles and sixteen authors cover everything from Jomon to Edo, from soba cups to Nabeshima dishes for daimyo. (View the Table of Contents here.) This issue accompanies the Met’s 2026 exhibition “The Infinite Artistry of Japanese Ceramics,” now on view until August 8, 2027 (in three rotations). Additional copies can be ordered for $25 (plus shipping) through the JASA Store or our online Publications Order Form.
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.
