Aesthetics and Art Studies in Modern Japan

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The aimof this research is to think over the ideal image of aesthetics at present and in future byreflecting on the situations in which aesthetics and art studies in the Meiji era Japan were placed. Concretely, the time span this exploration covers is limited within the period from 1870's (beginning of importation of aesthetics) to 1900 (Otsuka's inauguration into the chair of aesthetics at University of Tokyo), so that the background of the birth of institutional framework of aesthetics in Japan, which keeps the strong controlling power even now, might be investigated efficiently.As is shown in the Report, where six papers are collected, it can be said that the initial aim has been almost adequately attained. Aesthetical texts by Nishi, Fenollosa, Otsuka etc. and their social contexts are analysed here successively, and the situations in Japan are compared with those in the advanced European countries^like Germany. By using the method of sociology of knowledge", this research tries to relativize the then "aesthetics" which was inspired with a kind of neoclassic view of art and was shared widely with many intellectuals everywhere in the world. "Of course, there may be lots of insufficiencies and inaccuracies. Art genres and countries to compare with have been reduced. And it is also regrettable that the descriptions tend to be concentrated to the academic mainstream aesthetics around University of Tokyo. Overcoming these inadequacies will be my future task.