Iconology of Fuji Painting

The first scientific-iconological survey ever on the most traditional and most topicalized genre in Japanese arts, Fuji Painting, from its origin in antiquity in the 9th century, through the Middle Ages (Sansui-Painting in especial), to its apex in Edo Ukiyoe Painting (Hiroshige and Hokusai). It facilitates you to acquire a substantial and concise perspective not only on the Japanese art history but above all on the Japanese psyche in most impressive features. The author’s style is sufficient both for specialists and for the friends of Japanese culture in general.

The first scientific-iconological survey ever on the most traditional and most topicalized genre in Japanese arts, Fuji Painting, from its origin in antiquity in the 9th century, through the Middle Ages (Sansui-Painting in especial), to its apex in Edo Ukiyoe Painting (Hiroshige and Hokusai). It facilitates you to acquire a brilliant and concise perspective not only on the Japanese art history but above all on the Japanese psyche in most impressive features. The author’s style is sufficient both for specialists and for the friends of Japanese culture in general. As to the methodical peculiarities it is to be noted that the author’s iconological point of view, based upon its main stream from Warburg and Gombrich is quite new and innovative to the study of Japanese art history. The combination of ‘icon’, i.e. visual representations, and ‘logos’, i.e. historical documents, is quite apt especially for this particular genre of Fuji Painting, for it formed the rich tradition of kaleidoscopic-manifold arts on the one hand, and the deep strata of Japanese psyche expressing itself in animism, shamanism, which has been synthesized in the mountain worship of Fuji.

Yoshihiko MAENO male Japanese Date and place of Birth: April 29, 1953 in Fukuoka, Japan MA, Cultural theory, University of Tokyo, 1977 Ph.D. (Dr.phil.), Philosophy, University of Stuttgart (with collaboration of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute at the London University), 1984 (cum laude) Iconologist, Philosopher (Cultural Philosophy) and Artist (especially during the 1990s) Director of a private research institute, Bunka-Kigou-Juku (the Institute for Semiotic Studies in Culture), from 2007 (http://bunkakigoujyuku.org/index.asp） Research Concentrations： Cultural Philosophy Iconology: The background in this field was formed during my research stay at the Warburg and Courtauld Institute, University of London, from 1981-82. It was related to my doctoral thesis about Warburg’s cultural theory, which I accomplished under the personal tutelage of Sir Ernst Gombrich. Semiotics Japanology: Specialized in cultural history with regard to general survey, iconology of Japanese culture Publications: 1. Der Begriff der Kultur bei Warburg, Nietzsche und Burckhardt, Königstein/Ts., Hain Verlag bei Athenäum, 1985. Dissertation. by Yoshihiko MAIKUMA (my former name) 2. Touyouteki sensei to sogai (East Asian Despotism and Social Alienation; A Critical Survey on East Asian Institutionalism as a Propaedeutic into the Cultural History of Common People), private edition, 1987 3. Gengo-kigoukei to shutai (Semiotic Interaction between Language and Subject: A New Approach to the Integrated Theory of Culture), Gensou-sha, 2006, Tokyo 4. Sanpo no bunkagaku 1; homo ambulans no tanjyou (Cultural Essay on Walking 1; the Birth and Rebirth of homo ambulance), Housei University Press, 2009 5. Sanpo no bunkagaku 2; Touyouteki toshikeiken no shinsou (-- 2: the Deep Structure of the Urban Experience in East Asia), Housei University Press, 2009 6. Jiken no genshougaku 1 (Phenomenology of Urban Happenings 1: Orientational Structure of Contingency in Unseen Cities), Housei University Press, 2009 7. Jiken no genshougaku 2 ( -- 2: Pathos Formulae of Nidana Tie and Heavenly Mandate as the Axes of East Asian Orientation), Housei University Press, 2009 8. Keijijyou no Chūsei toshi (Civitas metaphysica in the Middle Ages: Cultural Essay on Walking 3), Housei University Press, 2010 9. Chūsei teki shura to shisei no benshouhou (Pathos Formulae of the Middle Ages and Dialectics of Life and Death: Phenomenology of Urban Happenings 3), Housei University Press, 2011