The purpose of this course is to examine the narrative art genre of the Nara ehon 奈良絵本 (“Nara picture book”) and to gain familiarity in reading and translating Japanese art-related texts. It will also be an exercise in the study of word and image relationships, in the important ways that images of the picture book relate to the written text.
We will work with an original and unique work of art, the Sumiyoshi no honji『住よしのほんち』in the Smith-Lesouëf Collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (acc. nr. SMJ 177, 1-3). The three-volume work, a small part of the famous collection of Asian works collected by the French scholar Auguste Lesouëf (1829-1906), has recently gained international attention and is considered to be a superlative example of the genre. In this class we will focus on one part of this book, and deal with the story of Hikohohodemi no Mikoto 彦火火出見尊, a narrative that has had important repercussions for the understanding of Japanese national identity.
The instructors for this course will be, in addition to Professor Thomsen, Professor Satomi Yamamoto of the Kyoritsu Women’s University of Tokyo. Professor Yamamoto is a leading scholar in the field of medieval Buddhist and narrative art, and in addition to her numerous publications, has taken part in numerous international conferences, including places such as Seattle, Heidelberg, Paris, and recently here at the University of Zurich. Using the Internet technology, she will teach and interact with UZH students every two weeks from her office in Tokyo, Japan.
The E-Learning platform was created by the IT expert, Chris von Waldkirch and his staff and was first developed for a KGOA E-Learning course in a previous semester, where scholars from around the world presented their work on a weekly basis. The program allows the instructor to present a PowerPoint presentation and lecture from the other side of the globe, with direct visual and audial contact between the lecturer and the audience. This course will be a further development in cutting-edge research for integrating Internet technologies into the university classroom.
It is the hope of the team assembled for the course, that the students will end the class with a deeper understanding of how narrative art works and of the complex relationships between words and images. By working with an original work of art – one that has not been fully researched – the students will have a chance to develop their own thoughts and ideas, and gain experience and confidence in working with other works of art in museum archives and research situations.
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The required course work, in addition to language requirements, weekly schedule, list of faculty and staff, and other information, are all listed in the following pages of the syllabus.
Teaching and Support Staff
Visiting E-Learning Instructor:
KGOA Instructor:
Tutor:
IT Chief:
IT Assistant:
KGOA Assistants (contact for administrative questions):
