The Influence of Japanese Art, Culture, and Aesthetics on the Birth of Cinema, 1860-1910

FAIN: FT-229538-15

Daisuke Miyao
Regents of the University of California, San Diego (La Jolla, CA 92093-0013)

Summer research and writing on East Asian Studies and Film History and Criticism.

This is a new book project that examines the connections between Japonisme and the emergence of cinema. By doing so, the primary goal of this project is to clearly describe the complicated power relations among France, the United States, and Japan in the late nineteenth century to early twentieth century. In this sense, this is a perfect project that responds to NEH's Bridging Cultures initiative. I would argue that Japonisme--the influence of the Japanese art, culture and aesthetics on European and American art, roughly between the 1860s and 1910s--also had a significant impact on the emergence of cinema in Europe, the US, and East Asia. The book, tentatively titled Japonisme and the Birth of Cinema, has three parts with six chapters. I seek support from NEH Summer Stipends to conduct research in Japan for the second and the third parts.

Associated Products

“Lumière! Cinéma Inventé.” (Article)
Title: “Lumière! Cinéma Inventé.”
Author: Daisuke Miyao
Abstract: Critical review essay of a 2015 exhibition, “Lumière! Cinéma Inventé.”
Year: 2015
Primary URL: http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/autumn15/miyao-reviews-lumiere-le-cinema-invente
Access Model: open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide
Publisher: Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide

“Japonisme and the Birth of Cinema: A Transmedial and Transnational Analysis of the Lumière Brothers’ Films.” (Article)
Title: “Japonisme and the Birth of Cinema: A Transmedial and Transnational Analysis of the Lumière Brothers’ Films.”
Author: Daisuke Miyao
Abstract: In this essay, I examine the connection between Japonisme and the films of the Lumière brothers. Lumière films have been considered to be “actuality films” or documentary. By focusing on Japonisme that is observed in these films, I locate them in a broader field of media interactions among such cultural products as painting and photography. One of my focuses is on the conflict and negotiation between the camera eye and the physicality of the human eyes and hands that can be witnessed in Lumière films. Moreover, considering the questions posed in Marxist, subaltern, and postcolonial theory about the relationship between center and periphery in formations of modernity, this essay attempts to reveal the process of conflict and negotiation encountered by France and Japan during the period of emerging cinema as a new global visual medium.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: http://www.brill.com/products/journal/journal-japonisme
Access Model: Subscription only
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Journal of Japonisme
Publisher: Brill

Japonisme and the Birth of Cinema (Book)
Title: Japonisme and the Birth of Cinema
Author: Daisuke Miyao
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=1478008539
Primary URL Description: WorldCat entry (1478008539)
Publisher: Duke University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 1478008539

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