Lectures & Symposia

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Past Lectures & Symposia

  • October 16, 2025: 6:00-7:30PM

    Inaugural Miyeko Murase Memorial Lecture

    Midori Sano
    Professor Emerita, Gakushuin University

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Spring and Summer Palace Gardens, from The Tale of Genji; 17th century; six-panel folding screen; ink, color, and gold on paper; Overall 67 × 141 inches (170.2 cm × 3 m 58.1 cm); Detroit Institute of Art, City of Detroit Purchase, 27.541

  • April 25, 2025; 5:30–7:00PM
    Koji Mayuyama
    Ceramics Conservator

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    © Koji Mayuyama

  • April 17, 2025; 5:30–7PM
    Amy McNair
    Professor, University of Kansas

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Xu Sangeng (1826-1890), face of seal reading “Difeng, style name Yuesheng,” ca. 1880, soapstone, 5.5 x 5.5 cm, Zhejiang Provincial Museum.

  • April 3, 2025; 5:30–7PM
    Aida Yuen Wong
    Nathan Cummings and Robert B. and Beatrice C. Mayer Professor, Brandeis University

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Parc Oriental de Maulévrier, France; photographed by Aida Yuen Wong, 2024. 

  • March 10, 2025; 1:00–2:30PM

    403 Kent Hall, Columbia University

    Fuji Pilgrimage Mandala (Fuji sankei mandara); Edo period, seventeenth century; hanging scroll, ink and colors on paper, 178.6 x 144.6 cm; Shōeiji, Aichi Prefecture, Japan (in the care of Kaguyahime Museum, Shizuoka, Japan).

  • February 18, 2025; 6–7:30PM
    Yoshikawa Miho
    Curator, Tokugawa Art Museum

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Portrait of Honda Heihachirō (Important cultural property); two-panel folding screen; Edo period, 17th century;Tokugawa Art Museum.

  • November 15, 2024; 5:30–7PM
    Hans Bjarne Thomsen
    Institute of Art History, University of Zurich

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Anonymous, “Oh, for theBlessings of Tranquility.” Woodblock print, ink and colors on paper, 1855. National Museum of Japanese History, Sakura, Japan.

  • October 31, 2024; 5:30–7PM
    Alexandra Munroe
    Senior Curator at Large, Global Arts, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Installation view : Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World, Guggenheim Museum, 2017. Photo: David Heald.

  • October 3, 2024; 5:30–7PM
    Ignacio Adriasola
    Associate Professor of Art History, University of British Columbia

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Enokura Kōji. Quality of Wetness, 1970Gelatin silver print, 16.2 × 24 cm. Art Institute of Chicago. (Photo-documentation of a work originally presented at Space Totsuka ’70.)

  • September 13, 2024; 5:30–7PM
    Cynthea J. Bogel
    Japanese Art and Buddhist Visual Cultures of East Asia

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Main Hall altar from the east; Yakushiji, Nara.

  • April 4, 2024; 5:30–7PM
    Mia Yinxing Liu
    Assistant Professor, History of Art, Johns Hopkins University

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Hadachi Osamu at work in Yungang, Cave 19. 1939; Photo in Nagahiro Toshio, Unkō nikki Taisenchu no bukkyo sekō chiyōsa, 雲岡日記:大戰中の仏教石窟調查 (Yungang Dairy: War-time Expeditions to Buddhist Grottoes), Tokyo: NHK Press, 1988.

  • March 28, 2024; 5:30–7PM
    Rachel Saunders
    Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Curator of Asian Art, Harvard University Art Museums

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Sakai Hōitsu 酒井抱一 (1761-1828); Birds and Flowers of the Twelve Months (Detail from Tenth Month); Edo period, c. 1820-1828; Set of twelve hanging scrolls; ink, color, and gold on silk; Promised Gift of Robert S. and Betsy G. Feinberg, Harvard Art Museums.

  • February 8, 2024; 5:30–7PM
    Takeshi Noguchi
    Curator, Nezu Museum

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Suzuki Kiitsu (1796-1858); Mountain Streams in Summer and Autumn; 19th century; pair of six-panel folding screens; ink and color on gold-foiled paper; Nezu Museum.
  • November 30, 2023; 6–7:30PM
    Masaaki Arakawa and Frank Feltens
    Visiting Professor from Gakushuin University and Curator of Japanese Art, National Museum of Asian Art

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743) and Ogata Korin (1658-1716); Square dish with design of Eight Bridges (1712-16); glazed earthenware with underglaze drawing in iron; National Museum of Asian Art.

  • October 9, 2023; 6–7:30PM
    Takuro Tsunoda and Chelsea Foxwell

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Mitsutani Kunishirō; Flowers, circa 1910; oil on canvas; private collection.

  • May 4, 2023; 6–7PM
    Samuel C. Morse
    Howard M. and Martha P. Mitchell Professor, Amherst College

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Dainichi; Kamakura period, late 12th century; Shinnyo-en, Tokyo.
  • April 20, 2023; 6–7PM
    Julie Nelson Davis
    Professor of the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Katsushika Ōi (ca. 1800–1860); Yoshiwara at Night, ca. 1850; woodblock print; Ōta Museum of Art.

  • March 29, 2023; 6–7PM
    Masatomo Kawai
    Professor Emeritus, Keio University and former director of Chiba City Art Museum

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Sesshū Tōyō (1420–1506); detail from "Splashed Ink Landscape" (Haboku sansui zu), 1495; ink on paper; Tokyo National Museum.

  • December 13, 2022; 6–7PM
    Samuel C. Morse
    Howard M. and Martha P. Mitchell Professor, Amherst College

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Unkei (d. 1223); Miroku with the Hossō Patriarch Muchaku and Seshin (Maitreya with the Hossō Patriarchs Asanga and Vasubandhu); Kamakura period, dated 1212; North Octagonal Hall, Kōfukuji, Nara.

  • October 13, 2022; 6–7PM
    Alfreda Murck

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Teapot with black peony blossoms and date of 1913; porcelain; British Museum.

  • April 28, 2022; 6–7PM
    Jan Stuart
    Melvin R. Seiden Curator of Chinese Art, Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art

    Webinar

    Detail from Spring Morning in the Han Palace, twelve-panel lacquer screen; Qing dynasty, Kangxi reign, 1672; Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1906.42.

  • October 7, 2021; 6–7PM
    Namiko Kunimoto
    Associate Professor of Art History, The Ohio State University

    Webinar

    Katsura Yuki, Gonbe and Crow, 1966. Copyright Katsura Akinari, Courtesy of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

  • May 14, 2021; 8–10PM

    Webinar

    “National Border Tokara Archipelago: Deserting Islands” by Takuma Nakahira from the March 1977 issue of Asahi Camera © Gen Nakahira

  • April 8, 2021; 6–7PM
    Talia Andrei
    Assistant Professor of Art History, East Asian Studies, Wesleyan University

    Webinar

    Nachi Sankei Mandara; 16th-17th century; hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, 59 7/8 x 64 3/4 in.; Gitter-Yelen Collection, New Orleans.

  • February 4, 2021; 6–7PM
    Aaron Rio
    Associate Curator of Japanese Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

    Webinar

    Chinese Sages (detail)
    Japan, Momoyama period, late 16th-early 17th century
    Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink on paper
    The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation Fund, Gift of Florence and Herbert Irving, by exchange, and Brooke Russell Astor Bequest, 2020 (2020.359.1, .2) 

  • January 21, 2021; 6–7:30PM
    Reiko Tomii
    Independent Scholar, Curator, and PoNJA-GenKon Co-director

    Webinar

    Shinohara Ushio, Oiran, c. 1966. Fluorescent paint, lacquer paint, and acrylic sheet on canvas mounted on board; 26.5 x 26.3 x 3.7 cm. Private collection (formerly collection of Naiqua Gallery/Miyata Kunio). Photo © Gilbert Plantinga. 

  • December 2, 2020; 6–7PM
    Pengliang Lu
    Associate Curator of Chinese Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art

    Webinar

    Vase with elephant-headed handles (detail); Yuan (1271-1368) - Ming (1368-1644) dynasty, 14th to 15th century; Bronze, H. 11 in. (28 cm); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Barbara and William Karatz Gift, 2019 (2019.264).

  • October 29, 2020; 6–7PM
    Maggie Mustard
    Independent Scholar

    Webinar

    Anrakuji Emi, untitled, from the series IPY (2007/2008), C-Print, 16.5 x 12 in. Courtesy the artist and Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, New York.

  • February 13 and 20; March 5 and 26 (to be rescheduled in 2022); and April 2, 2020 (to be rescheduled in 2023): 6–7PM
    Samuel C. Morse
    Howard M. and Martha P. Mitchell Professor of the History of Art and Asian Languages and Civilizations, Amherst College

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    FEB 13 AND 20; MAR 5 AND 26 (CANCELLED); AND APR 2, 2020 (CANCELLED): 6–7PM

    Detail of Unkei (d. 1223), Mujaku bosatsu (Asanga), National Treasure; Kamakura period, ca. 1212. Wood with polychromy and rock crystal eyes. Kōfukuji, Nara.

  • November 21, 2019; 6–7PM
    Ryūsuke Masuki
    Associate Professor of Art History, Kobe University

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Detail of Butsugen Butsumo (Buddhalocani), National Treasure; Heian Period, 12th century; ink and color on silk; 197 x 127.9 cm; Kōzanji, Kyoto.

  • November 7, 2019; 6–7PM
    Alice Tseng
    Chair and Associate Professor of Art History, Boston University

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Ceremony at the Shishinden Viewed from the Shomei Gate, 1928; color lithograph; ink on card stock; 8.9 x 14 cm; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

  • October 24, 2019; 6–7PM
    Lei Xue
    Associate Professor of Art History, Oregon State University

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Sun Kehong (1532-1610), detail from Copying Model Books; handscroll, Ht. 27.9 cm. National Palace Museum, Taipei.

  • September 26, 2019; 6–7PM
    Menno Fitski
    Head of Asian Art, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Japanese Chest, ca. 1635–1645; lacquer, gold and silver foil, crystal, copper; 63.5 cm x 144.5 cm; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

  • April 30, 2019; 6–7PM
    Evgeny Steiner
    Japan Research Centre SOAS, University of London

    Evgeny Steiner, Hokusai Manga, published in Russian, 2017

  • April 23, 2019; 6–7PM
    Eugene Wang
    Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art, Harvard University

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Hungry Tigress Jataka panel, from the Tamamushi Shrine, c. 650, Hōryū-ji Treasure House, Hōryū-ji, Nara; lacquer on wood.

  • April 13–14, 2019

    Tosa Mitsuoki (1617–1691). Portrait-Icon of Murasaki Shikibu. Edo period (1615–1868), 17th century. Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk; 35 5/8 x 20 3/4 in. (90.5 x 52.7 cm). Ishiyamadera Temple, Shiga Prefecture, Courtesy of Ishiyamadera Temple, photo 

  • March 28, 2019; 6–7PM
    Masako Watanabe
    Independent Scholar

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    “New Herbs (Wakana)” from the Tale of Genji; Tosa Mitsuyoshi (1593-1613); album leaf; ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper; Kyoto National Museum

  • February 27, 2019; 6–7PM
    Asato Ikeda
    Assistant Professor, Fordham University

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Fujita Tsuguharu, detail from Events in Akita, 1937. Oil on canvas, 365 x 2050 cm. Hirano   Masakichi Foundation. Tsuguharu Foujita © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York /  ADAGP, Paris.

  • November 27, 2018; 6–7PM
    Anne Nishimura Morse
    William and Helen Pounds Senior Curator of Japanese Art Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

    807 Schermerhorn Hall

    Mandala of the Hosso School (late Heian–Kamakura periods, 12th century); panel; ink, color, gold, and silver on silk; 89.2 x 58 cm; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Fenollosa-Weld Collection, 11.4053

  • April 17, 2018; 6–7PM
    Joan Kee
    Associate Professor of Art History, University of Michigan

    612 Schermerhorn Hall

    Image credit: Yook Myung-shim, c. 1966

  • March 29, 2018; 6–7PM
    Melanie Trede
    Visiting Professor, Professor of Histories of Japanese Art and Head of the Institute of East Asian Art History Centre for East Asian Studies, Heidelberg University

    934 Schermerhorn Hall

    Detail from Taishokan Narrative (early seventeenth century), manuscript dismantled and pasted onto a folding screen; ink, gold and color on paper. Private collection, Japan.

  • February 14, 2018; 6–7PM
    Aaron Rio
    Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Curator of Japanese and Korean Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art

    612 Schermerhorn Hall

    White-robed Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva Gazing at the Moon (detail), Kenchōji, Kamakura, 15th century; hanging scroll from a set of 32; ink on silk.

  • November 9, 2017; 6–7PM
    Frank Feltens
    Assistant Curator, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

    612 Schermerhorn Hall

    Unkoku Tōgan, Landscape, Muromachi or Momoyama Period, 16th century. Ink, gold, and tint on paper. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.: Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1907.134

  • October 17, 2017; 6:30–8PM
    Nobuo Tsuji and Takashi Murakami

    The Italian Academy 1161 Amsterdam Avenue, Columbia University

    Photo by Naohiro Tsutsuguchi (Shinchosha) ©2009 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

  • April 20, 2017; 6–7PM
    Akira Takagishi
    Visiting Professor, Tokyo University

    612 Schermerhorn Hall, Columbia University

    Detail from Konda sōbyō engi emaki, 1433

  • April 13, 2017; 6–7PM
    Yeewan Koon
    Associate Professor of Art History, Hong Kong University

    612 Schermerhorn Hall

  • April 4, 2017; Reception 5–5:30PM, Lecture 5:30–7PM
    Nara Yoshitomo

    Schermerhorn Hall 8th floor; Stronach Center

  • December 7, 2017; 6–7PM
    Chin-Sung Chang
    Professor of Art History, Seoul National University

    612 Schermerhorn Hall

    Detail from The City of Great Peace, early nineteenth century, Korea. Eight-panel screen, ink and colors on silk, 113.6 x 49.1 (each panel), National Museum of Korea, Seoul.

  • December 1, 2016; 6–7PM
    Professor Michio Yonekura
    Distinguished Atsumi Visiting Professor

    612 Schermerhorn Hall