Description
“Memory in Space: Creatively Imagining and Living Japanese Landscapes” withJunzo Uchiyama (Kanazawa University), Oscar Wrenn (Kobe University), Tsukamoto Akihiro (Tokushima University) and Liliana Janik (University of Cambridge)
Panel abstract
Landscapes not only reflect our natural environment, but also preserve and evoke individual or collective memories specific to particular places. Those memories might include ritual and cultural associations, allusions to broader social relationships, and recollections of political conflict. Human life and activity are in this way incorporated into, and expressed through, landscapes. To explore the meaning and significance of landscapes as repositories of collective and individual memory requires an understanding of human creativity. We therefore argue that thinking through Japanese landscape from the perspective of memory reveals new possibilities for understanding the intertwined relationships between human creativity and landscapes.
The four papers in this panel use different methods to analyze and explore Japanese landscapes within the fields of archaeology, art, anthropology and information science, bringing together distinct approaches in the hope of facilitating interdisciplinary dialogue.
Uchiyama Junzo will examine the concept of sustainability from prehistory to the modern day, focusing on Hida provenance and Mt. Fuji and highlighting the historical formation through human interaction of these landscapes; Matsuba Ryoko will explore the role popular prints played in the early modern period in transforming the traditional function of meisho-e (picture of famous places); Oscar Wrenn will discuss ruptured landscapes in depopulated Japanese communities, and the way in which disconnection is experienced through creative engagement with the environment, and the role of memory and future orientations; and Tsukamoto Akihiro will look at contemporary processes of creatively engaging with famous places in the Tokushima area through analysis of SNS photo and text information.
| Period | 27 Mar 2022 |
|---|---|
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Honolulu, United States, Hawaii |