"'Art in Korea' in 1900-1910: Focusing on Research and Ideas of Sosaburo Yagi" by JUN Tongwon (PhD Candidate, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies "TUFS") held on Fri. Nov.11, 2011

This workshop traced the activities of Sosaburo Yagi (1866 - 1942), an anthropologist from the Tokyo Imperial University Science College Anthropology Department who embarked on a survey of cultural assets in the Korean Peninsula in 1900. By applying his research method of organization and classification to the cultural assets and art in Korea, Yagi was able to "visualize" and "objectify" them as modern academic research items. Of course, "visibility" and "objectivity" meant that the cultural assets and art were taken out of the Korean peninsula context and subsumed under a Japanese one. From anthropological survey, to archaeological survey, to cultural assets and art survey, Yagi's footsteps traced the development process of "imperial knowledge." As seen in the published series "Academic Discourses of Empire in Modern Japan" from Iwanami Shoten, imperialism and the development of modern knowledge even in East Asia are inseparable. In that sense, the significance of this presentation to research on empires and knowledge in the future is certain to be huge.

(Tsutomu Tomotsune)

Hand out ( PDF )

Photo gallery ( PDF )

Poster ( PDF )