The trans/national legacy of the Mingei movement

The Mingei movement, started by Yanagi Soetsu (1889-1961), had a lot in common with William Morris's Arts and Crafts movement in England - and the Englishman Bernard Leach was an immensely influential figure in the Mingei movement, and in Western views of Japanese ceramics.

Mingei means 'folk craft' - it highlighted the beauty of ceramics made for ordinary people in times past, and supported these styles in the early part of the 20th Century.

My current research interest is on modernities in art and design in East Asia. The postcolonial cultural debate has shifted from the binary relations of West over East, to inter-relations between East and West, followed by, more recently, East within East and the transnational.

The third conference devoted to the art of Japan and Polish-Japanese art relations in Poland is designed as a general meeting of art historians, restorers of art works, theater and film researchers (interested in audio-visual culture) from Japan and Poland. The organizers also invite to participate researchers from all American, Asian and European centers.

The conference is intended to delineate the present situation in this area of research in the world and to outline the most important directions of research development. It is also designed to be a forum for exchange and presentation of the results of the participants` own research. The conference is expected to be a discussion and networking place for all interested academics, researchers and professionals.

In the research field of participants of Krakow Conference some important topics appear which are supposed to prevail in conference contributions: History of ancient Japanese art and architecture; Art and artistic taste in Japan; Japonerie and Japanisms - the European and American visions of Japan; Japanese music and theatre in relations to fine arts; Modern and contemporary art of Japan; Art relations between Poland and Japan; Collections of Japanese art in Europe and America with special regard to Feliks "Manggha" Jasienski`s collection in Krakow; Restoration of art works.

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