Do medieval narratives and their pictorializations matter today? In 2008, a scandal at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco involved a 1389 handscroll of the Hachiman narrative, raising questions regarding the relevance of history, the veracity of images, and the politics of display. Beginning with a disciplinary critique and methodological explorations, Trede’s paper examines the influential history of the Hachiman legend and its visualizations. Drawing on thick descriptions of three pre-modern handscrolls and popular imagery of the 1870s and 1880s, she argues that the repeated textual and pictorial reinventions were imperative in devotional, individual, institutional and political times of crisis.
Sponsored by the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, the Department of Art, Art History, and Visual Studies, the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and the Triangle Center for Japanese Studies.
DATE: April 6, 2012
LOCATION: East Duke 204B, East Campus, Duke
TIME: 3:00-4:30pm
"Picturing Hachiman: Using the Past to Serve the Present" – Melanie Trede, University of Michigan
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