JAPANESE BUDDHIST VISUAL CULTR

This course, designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of East Asian Studies, Religion, and Art History, examines the principal modes, media, and contexts of visual culture in Japanese Buddhist history. The course is not designed as a survey of Japanese Buddhist art either in terms of media or chronology but rather an exploration, through the analysis of selected case studies, of the modalities of perception, materiality, and reception that distinguish the form and function of visual media in Japanese Buddhist contexts.  Students are expected to have completed preliminary coursework in relevant areas of East Asian history, religion, or art history. The course is organized around selected objects in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and will include meetings at the Met for viewing and analysis of objects in the galleries and in storage.