Keynote Speech

True grit to absorb other cultures

Mr. Toyojiro Hida
Director, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Japan
ProfileToyojiro Hida was born in Tokyo in 1950. From 1979 he worked for the Crafts
Gallery of the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, and became thePresident and Dean of Akita University of Art in 2007. Since 2016, he has been
the Director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, where he conducts
research on decorative arts to illuminate the cultural structures of modern andcontemporary Japan. Major exhibitions he organized include A New Centuryin European Design (1997) and The Domain of the Medium (1994). He is also
the author of Meiji Period Design Sketches for Export Crafts: A History ofKiriukosho Guaishia, the First Exporting Manufacturer in Japan (1987), The
Domain of Craft/Art: “Kogei” as Sentiments Related to Daily Life Sealed Deep
Within (2006), and many other publications.
1. Outline
The title of this year’s symposium is “Creating a Global Museum Community through the Arts of Japan.”This theme has taken on an important meaning during the current global pandemic. Museums across theworld are having their activities curtailed in similar ways by COVID-19. We need to face these difficult times
together like a community.
My biggest fear is of the current situation leading to a kind of introversion when it comes to art. With
international restrictions on movement lasting for several months now, our gaze has turned inwards when it
comes to art appreciation. Art is once again becoming parochial and confined to within our respective borders.
In Japan, for example, we have seen several exhibitions and projects that search for the roots of Japanese
art in Japan’s unique circumstances. In order to avoid treading down the path of “Japanese Art First,” wemust find the “true grit” to absorb other cultures while not bowing to pressure to conform with the times orwith domestic trends.
This kind of situation also occurred in Japan around 100 years ago. The art world at that time was buffeted
by two conflicting trends, namely the “inculcation of Western art” and “the self-containment of Japanese art.”
During this time, several painters studying in Paris began to create works based on subjects from classicalNortheast- Asian art. Yasui Sotaro used the European medium of oil paint to depict vessels from the Cizhou

kilns that had been unearthed in modern China, for example. He was convinced that the roots of artistic
inspiration lay in the absorption of other cultures.
Museums are charged with conserving cultural heritage. In principle, this mission was already susceptible
to the siren calls of nationalism. And then along came COVID-19. Yet now is the time for museums to show
true grit by forging international ties while courageously introducing histories and artworks created throughthe absorption of different cultures. I hope we can share such experiences in this area using the latest digitaltechnology.
2. Contents“Japanese art” and the art of other cultures
Many people have become more inward-looking during the COVID-19 crisis as they are required tospend more time at home. However, I warn myself not to cling too tightly to illusory notions of “Japan” and“Japanese” art. The roots of “Japanese” art cannot be uncovered by delving solely into the history of Japan.
Rather, they were formed through a mutual interaction with other cultures that was transmitted to thisarchipelago. These other cultures provided the components that created “Japanese” art and they also have thepower to expose how our concept of “Japanese” art is a modern myth.
Japan: A country with an “imported art”
Japan is a country with an “imported art.” For two
thousand years, art from China, the Korean peninsula andWesternEurope

wasimported

intoJapan

and“transplanted” into Japanese culture. Within each area,
though, art from the center tends to trickle down to theregions to be “consumed” as regional art. This was the casewith Japan too. Japan’s importation of overseas art wasperhaps too disorderly to be termed a “transplantation.”
Rather, you could say it simply occurred as a result ofJapanese people consuming the art of other cultures.

Keynote SpeechCompiling a history of “Japanese art”
In the 19th century, though, scholars began to conduct surveys of ancient artworks within Japan and theylinked these artworks together to create a history of “Japanese art.” Japanese people began to believe thatthey had neither transplanted foreign art wholesale along with its cultural background nor consumed this art
in a haphazard manner. Rather, they believed they had selectively “digested” this art and made it Japanese.
This thinking created a shared illusion of a uniquely “Japanese aesthetic” that acted as a kind of filter whenselecting which foreign art to digest and assimilate.

True grit to absorb other cultures
The 1920s saw the emergence of several artists who challenged this way of thinking. They knew thisnotion of “Japanese art” was a political construct created to unify Japan as a nation state. They found thisstate-manufactured “Japanese aesthetic” stifling. However, history then took an interesting turn. These artists
began to use “foreign art” as a means to criticize the notion of a Japanese aesthetic. They utilized this “foreignart” in novel ways. I call this the “true grit to absorb other cultures.”