Japanese Art Traditions in Brazilian Contexts WITH Michiko Okano

June 24, 2021

This lecture presents an overview of Japanese-Brazilian, or Nikkei artists, in three sections. First, Michiko Okano discusses the brief history of Japanese immigration to Brazil. Second, Okano shares some places where one can appreciate Japanese traditional architecture and culture, and finally, Okano goes more in depth in an exploration of Japanese Brazilian artists. This last section aims to present the panoramic view of art relating to Japanese tradition in Brazil, its uniqueness, and diversity beginning from the first immigrants until the third-generation descendants.

Artworks

Kazuo Hanazono, Casarão do Chá (The Big Tea House), 1942

Sutemi Horiguchi, Japanese Pavillion at Ibirapuera Park, 1954

Manabu Mabe (1924–1997), Pastoral Poem, 1988. Oil on canvas, 142 x 191 cm.

Tomie Ohtake (1913–2015), Untitled, 1995. Acrylic painting, 130 x 200 cm.

Kazuo Wakabayashi (b. 1931), Untitled, 2012. Mixed media, 90 x 130cm.

Yutaka Toyota (b. 1931), Cosmic Space Monument, 1978. Sé Plaza

Tatewake Nio (b. 1971), Neo-Andina #31, 2015. El Alto, Bolívia (Freddy Mamani Sivestre’s architecture)

Atsuo Nakagawa (b. 1977), Dragon, 2016. In the exhibition UnCommon Gaze: Japan Revisited at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Curitiba, Paraná State, 2016

Oscar Oiwa (b. 1965), Blacksnowman, 2011. Oil on canvas, 90 x 175 in. In Transpacific Borderlands: The Art of Japanese Diaspora in Lima, Los Angeles, Mexico City, and São Paulo. Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, 2017/2018.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Michiko Okano, PhD in Communication and Semiotic, is a researcher on the Japanese-Western artistic dialogue, especially Japanese-Brazilian artists, and an associate professor of the history of Asian art at the Federal University of São Paulo. Okano is also a guest lecturer in the Graduate Program at the Japanese Studies Center of the University of São Paulo and coordinator of the GEEA (Asian Art Study Group). Okano is the author of Ma: in between spaces of art in Japan (2011) and Manabu Mabe (2013), and curator of Olhar InComum: Japão Revisitado (InCommom Gaze: Revisited Japan), at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (2016), and Transpacific Borderlands: The Art of Japanese Diaspora, Japanese American National Museum (2017-2018).