February 21, 2018/ 4:30 PM - 5:45 PM

6275 Bunche Hall

Colloquia with Brij Tankha, Professor Emeritus at the University of Delhi

In this talk, Professor Tankha looks at the work of Miyatake Gaikotsu (1867-1955) as an editor and publisher, a collector and cultural critic who through his varied activities, built an alternative discourse that celebrated the ‘everyday’ to undermine state centred authoritarian ideologies.

In particular, Professor Tankha will examine the magazine Konohana, which Gaikotsu published in 1909. This was the first magazine on ukiyoe published by a Japanese. The magazine was short lived but between 1909-1912 Gaikotsu published some forty books on ukiyoe. Foreigners had been publishing and writing about ukiyoe decades earlier but Gaikotsu’s approach differs from theirs, for his recovery of the people’s past through ukiyoe, popular magazines, postcards, and other ‘minor’ art, was grounded in a critique of an authoritarian state at a time when such ideas were marginalised.

About the Speaker

Brij Tankha retired as Professor of Modern Japanese History, University of Delhi. At present he is Honorary Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi. His research interests centre on nationalism, religion and Japan’s interactions with Asia. One current project is the history of the commune in East Asia.  Amongst his publications are, a translation of Sato Tadao, Mizoguchi Kenji no Sekai (The World of Mizoguchi Kenji) Kenzo Mizoguchi and The Art of Japanese Cinema (Berg Publishers, 2008),  A Vision of Empire: Kita Ikki and the Making of Modern Japan (Sampark, Kolkatta, New Delhi, 2003, and Global Oriental, London, 2006).

Download file: Tankha,-Brij-Lecture_02212018-2n-0vl.pdf