Student Travel

Visited museums in Mito, Shizuoka, Nara, and Kyushu to conduct dissertation research on the painter Kikuchi Yōsai; viewed exhibitions including Jakuchū and Kyoto’s Art: The Quintessence of the Hosomi Collection Kyoto, Morimura Yasumasa: My Self-Portraits as a Theater of Labyrinths, and From the land of Steppe: 50 Years of Mongolian Art; visited various Japanese gardens and temples, including Kairakuen, Katsura Palace, and Saihōji.

Attended the Graduate Summer School in Japanese Early-modern Palaeography at the University of Cambridge, to learn how to decipher kuzushiji in different types of woodblock printed books, such as gesaku, kibyōshi, and ōraimono.

Completed the KCJS Modern Japanese program; visited major Obaku Zen temples in Kyoto, Nagasaki, and Tokyo; met with the abbot of Kōfukuji, Nagasaki, to discuss the development of Obaku; viewed exhibitions including Art of the Ji Shū A New Sect of Buddhism in the Kamakura Period.

Completed the KCJS Classical Japanese program and conducted research at the Gutai archives, the National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, and the Sōgetsu Kaikan; viewed exhibitions including Fabric of Memory - From ひろしま/hiroshima (Irie Taikichi Memorial Museum) and Emancipation of Humanity: Focusing on Works by Female Artists (MoMAT).

Completed the Japanese program at the University of Pittsburgh; visited The Influencers: The Pritzker Architecture Prize (Carnegie Museum of Art) where drawings, miniatures, and architectural photographs by Japanese architects are featured; visited the Japanese courtyard garden designed by Kurisu Hoichi, exhibited at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh.

Completed the Advanced Japanese Summer Program at the Inter-University Center, Yokohama; visited exhibitions including Early Drawings of Tadao Andō: Autonomy and Dialogue (National Archives of Modern Architecture); teamLab Planets TOKYO; Setouchi Triennale 2019; and visited sites of modern architecture in Yokohama, Tokyo, and Kyoto.

Visited Shūzenji and Kiichiji on the Izu Peninsula where the Chinese priest Yishan Yining was active in the fall of 1299 upon his arrival in Japan; conducted field research on Yishan's calligraphies held at the Jōdōji in Shizuoka prefecture, Idemitsu Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in Gunma, and the Teikan'en Foundation in Niigata Prefecture. 

Completed the KCJS Classical Japanese program and visited special exhibitions including Large-Format Paintings of Hasegawa Tōhaku (Ishikawa Nanao Art Museum), Japan: Country of Gold Screens of the Kano, Hasegawa, Rinpa and Other Schools (Okada Museum of Art), Masterpieces of Japanese Art: From Sesshū and Eitoku to Korin and Hokusai (Tokyo National Museum) and Masterpieces from the Fujita Museum (Nara National Museum).

Presented the paper, “From Representation to Presence: A New Framework for the Study of Japanese Colonial Architecture in Taiwan,” at the 2019 North American Taiwan Studies Association (NATSA) Conference at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Valerie Zinner visited the Minneapolis Institute of Art where Aaron Rio, the Andrew W. Mellon Associate Curator of Japanese and Korean Art, assisted her in viewing scrolls by the Sumiyoshi and Tosa Schools in storage, and escorted her through the current exhibition Love Affairs: The Tale of Genji in Japanese Art.

Research trip to Taipei, Taiwan and Shenyang, Liaoning Province, to see important exhibitions and historic sites – Another Look at National Treasures: Select Masterpieces of Painting and Calligraphy in the Museum Collection and Pure Offerings of a Myriad Plants: Paintings on Flower Vases and Potted Scenes (Taipei National Museum); Paintings in Ancient China, Chinese Ancient Calligraphy, Kesi and Embroidery in Ancient China (Liaoning Provincial Museum).

Traveled to Osaka to see the exhibitions, Tosa School and Sumiyoshi School: The Majesty and Wit of Yamato-e (Kubosō Memorial Museum of Art) and Tosa Mitsuyoshi: Yamato-e Painter in the Warring States Period (Sakai City Museum), with Professor Akira Takagishi and his students; also visited Sumiyoshi Shrine and Rozanji.

Completed the Advanced Japanese Summer Program at the Inter-University Center in Yokohama; also visited exhibitions such as Japan in Architecture: Geneaologies of Its Transformation (Mori Art Museum), Foujita: A Retrospective (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum), and others.

Carrie Cushman traveled to France to see the exhibition, “Japan-ness: Architecture and Urbanism in Japan since 1945,” held at the Centre Pompidou-Metz. The exhibition featured two large-scale murals that the photographer Miyamoto Ryūji made for the Japan Pavilion at the 1996 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Attended events in Oslo, Norway, to see works by Fujiko Nakaya (of Video Hiroba), and her father, the scientist Ukichirō Nakaya, including exhibition of Ukichirō’s photographs and films (Oslo Kunstforening); rooftop performance (National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, under construction); a temporary outdoor fog sculpture (National Museum and a now-permanent installation at Ekebergparken).