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From the Kotan to the Gallery: Ainu Woodcarving as Modern Art

Kivel, Mia C
http://orcid.org/0009-0004-0677-7600
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1712499628665407

Abstract Details

2024, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, History of Art.
James Clifford’s Art-Culture System, first published in 1988, establishes a clear differentiation between “tourist art,” and artworks worthy of the museum through a semiotic square of authenticity and multiplicity. Through this system, Clifford delineates the criteria by which Western art historians, critics, and curators ascribe value to different kinds of objects. This thesis deploys Clifford’s Art-Culture System as a framework for examining the work of Ainu artists trained in tourist villages whose oeuvres oscillate between the categories of “tourist art” and “fine art” in a way that problematizes clear distinctions between the two. Of particular interest are Bikky Sunazawa (1931-1989) and Fujito Takeki (1934-2018), both woodcarvers raised in Asahikawa who began working in the tourist industry to support their families at young ages. However, while both artists challenge the categories of Clifford’s system, they do so in markedly different ways: Bikky produced modernist sculptures for museum exhibition that were devoid of overtly Ainu symbology alongside smaller carvings for the tourist industry, while Fujito remained devoted to the basic practices of Ainu tourist woodcarving throughout his life but has risen to prominence in the broader Japanese art world because of the unique ways in which he has elevated particular motifs, most notably that of the bear. By using these two artists to problematize reflexive categorization of artworks along a hierarchal scale—with “tourist art” at the bottom and “fine art” at the top—this thesis will advocate for new ways of thinking about the Ainu tourist village as a place of legitimate, culturally-specific education for Ainu themselves rather than as a mere ludic space for the enjoyment of outsiders.
Sampada Aranke (Committee Member)
Namiko Kunimoto (Advisor)
71 p.
Art History; Asian Studies; Museum Studies
Ainu; Art History; Woodcarving; Indigeneity; Indigenous Art; Modernism; Authenticity; Bikky Sunazawa; Fujito Takeki;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kivel, M. C. (2024). From the Kotan to the Gallery: Ainu Woodcarving as Modern Art [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1712499628665407

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kivel, Mia. From the Kotan to the Gallery: Ainu Woodcarving as Modern Art. 2024. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1712499628665407.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kivel, Mia. "From the Kotan to the Gallery: Ainu Woodcarving as Modern Art." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2024. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1712499628665407

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1712499628665407
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© 2024, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.