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Nodoka Odawara × Hiroki Yamamoto
After De-Imperializing “Japanese Art History”: Art and Legacies of Empire in Modern and Contemporary Japan—How Is De-Imperialization Possible in Japan?
Amid a global reconsideration of themes related to decolonization, efforts to reconsider modern Japan from the perspective of de-imperialization are becoming more evident in the discourses of art history and cultural representation. Published in Japanese by Getsuyosha in 2023, the edited volume De-Imperializing “Japanese Art History”: Art and Legacies of Empire in Modern and Contemporary Japan critically examines the very conventions and structures that underlie conventional narratives of Japanese art history, aiming to dismantle and reconstruct (or expand) these frameworks from the perspective of de-imperialization.
Here, “de-imperialization” does not merely refer to a political stance that opposes imperialist rule. Rather, it points to the practices of dismantling the imperialist thought structures that have underpinned Japanese art and society, as well as the exploration of alternative narratives and relations that transpire from such practices.
In this talk the coeditors of De-Imperializing “Japanese Art History”, sculptor and critic Nodoka Odawara and cultural studies scholar Hiroki Yamamoto, discuss the respective practices they have pursued since the publication’s release and the ongoing evolution of their perspectives on de-imperialization. Approaching the topic through the rubrics of modern Japan and art, they ultimately address the question “How is de-imperialization possible?”
Odawara Nodoka
Odawara Nodoka is a sculptor, researcher, critic. Born in Miyagi Prefecture, she holds a Doctor of Arts from Tsukuba University. Her exhibitions include Kindai o chōkoku/chōkoku suru Tsunagi and Minamata hen [Overcoming/Sculpting Modernity: Tsunagi and Minamata], a solo exhibition at Tsunagi Art Museum in 2024, and the Aichi Triennale 2019. Solo publications include: “Kindai o chōkoku/chōkoku suru” [Overcoming/Sculpting Modernity] (Kodansha, 2021) and “Monument Theory: Sculpture as an Ideological Challenge” (Seidosya, 2023).
Hiroki Yamamoto
Hiroki Yamamoto, born in Chiba in 1986, is Cultural Studies Scholar and Associate Professor at Jissen Women’s University. Yamamoto graduated in Social Science at Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo in 2010 and completed his MA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts (UAL), London in 2013. In 2018, he received a PhD from the University of the Arts London. After working at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the School of Design as a postdoctoral fellow and at Tokyo University of the Arts as Assistant Professor, he was Lecturer at Kanazawa College of Art until 2023. His single-authored publications are The History of Contemporary Art: Euro-America, Japan, and Transnational (Chuokoron-Shinsha, 2019), Art of the Post-Anthropocene (Bijutsu Shuppan-Sha, 2022), and Introduction to Contemporary Art (Bijutsu Shuppan-Sha, 2025).
