THE FLOATING WORLD OF NEW YORK
THE FLOATING WORLD OF NEW YORK Japanese Art, Community, and Politics in the First Half of the Twentieth Century What Did “Japanese Art” Mean in New York? Making Modern Art in an Immigrant City Who Counted as an American Artist? Art, Work, and Politics War, Incarceration, and Beginning Again RESEARCH, SOURCES, AND CREDITS Unknown artist, Illustrated Legends of the Kitano Tenjin Shrine (Kitano Tenjin engi emaki), late thirteenth century. Set of five handscrolls; ink, color, and cut gold leaf (kirikane) on paper. Formerly with Yamanaka & Company. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Makino Katsuji, interior decoration of the Shōfū Room at Shōfūden, Forestburgh, New York, c. 1909. Image courtesy of […]
Japanese Artists in New York City – Artistic Traces from the 1910s to the 1940s –
Japanese Artists in New York City – Artistic Traces from the 1910s to the 1940s – Introduction Visit Exhibits Timeline Image Archive References Curator Talks The Gacho-Kai group photo at the exhibition site. In the center of the front row is Kotato Gado(T.K. Gado), and Yasuo Kuniyoshi is on the right side of the front row, facing sideways. Eitaro Ishigaki is on the far left in the back row, Kyohei Inukai is second from the left in the second row, and Toshi Shimizu is fourth from the left in the back row. INTRODUCTION The first exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in 1917 is probably best known for the […]
This exhibit is currently under construction!
Issei
ISSEI Portraits Of The First-Generation Japanese New Yorkers Created in 1980 by Japanese photographer Hiroyuki “Tora” Inoue, these portraits capture New York’s Issei, the first generation of Japanese immigrants whose lives helped shape the city’s Japanese community but often remained unseen. Nearly forty-five years later, most of this remarkable body of work is now brought together in this digital exhibition. Hiroyuki Inoue (left) and Teruho Saito (right) at the original ISSEI exhibition at JAA in 1980 Inoue passed away in 2024, and many of the individuals in these photographs remain unidentified. By exhibiting the portraits and interview notes together, this ongoing participatory project invites family members, descendants, community members, researchers, […]
Yoshiko Uchida (1921-1992)
Lecture on Exhibiting Japan in Mid-Century New York by Dr. Angus Lockyer, Rhode Island School of Design
In this lecture, historian Angus Lockyer examines Japan’s participation in the 1939–40 and 1964–65 New York World’s Fairs. He explores how Japan’s pavilions and exhibitions combined traditional culture with modern achievement while responding to the very different diplomatic circumstances of the prewar and postwar periods. Placing the Japanese exhibits within the broader history of international expositions, Flushing Meadows, and New York City, Lockyer shows how government officials, exhibitors, and the Japanese community used the fairs to present Japan to Western audiences and navigate a turbulent century. Angus Lockyer is a historian of Japan, East Asia, and global history. He is the author of Exhibitionist Japan: The Spectacle of Modern Development […]