Public Lecture: Prof. Nancy K. Stalker, UT Austin

February 17, 12:00pm - 1:15pm
Mānoa Campus, Sakamaki A-201 Add to Calendar

In 1970, shortly before his suicide after leading a failed military coup, iconic novelist Mishima Yukio declared, "I don't like that Japanese culture is represented only by flower arrangement." Ikebana is indeed a powerful symbol of national identity that promotes conception of Japan as a feminized nation grounded in aesthetics and appreciation of nature. Mishima was referring to the worldwide adulation for ikebana, which reached its peak in popularity in the late 1960s with over three thousand schools and an estimated ten million participants. Premodern arts such as ikebana and tea ceremony occupy a central role in modern Japanese identity to a degree unparalleled among the world’s most powerful nations but historians have not adequately considered the dynamic forces exerted and absorbed by cultural institutions in Japan's momentous twentieth century.

In this talk Nancy Stalker provides a brief overview of her book project on ikebana’s transformation and globalization over the course of that century, when it metamorphosed from an elite, male pastime based on classical forms to a female-centric, multinational mass industry that advocated avant-garde styles.

Nancy K. Stalker is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Asian Studies and History, University of Texas at Austin.


Event Sponsor
Dept. of History, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Prof. David Hanlon, 956-8486

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