Japanese garden is often regarded as the quintessential symbol of traditional culture in Japan, representing the purest form of Japaneseness. However, once we start to examine its history in detail, it becomes clear that in many cases the Japanese garden assumes a clearly transnational character. We will focus on the development of modern Japanese garden from mid-19th to mid-20th century in their transnational context and explore what all this means. Examples will range from an exquisite private garden in Kyoto, a colonial Japanese public park in Hong Kong, remains of gardens created at a Japanese-American internment camp during World War II in California to a garden expressing post-war democracy in Takamatsu, Japan and a range of East European Japanese gardens mostly created more recently.

Lecture at 2 p.m.
Q&A at 3 p.m.

SPONSORED BY THE PHIPPS CONSERVATORY AND THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH’S NATIONAL CONSORTIUM FOR TEACHING ABOUT ASIA, ASIAN STUDIES CENTER, AND GLOBAL STUDIES CENTER