Copying and Theory in Edo-Period Japan

What is it about?

This paper challenges the stereotypical ideas attached to utsushi, while reconsidering the issues of reproduction, allusion, adaptation, transculturation, and pedagogy in the Japanese art tradition, through case studies of the Tokugawa-era (1615-1868) literati painters, Nakayama Kōyō (1717-1780) and Nakabayashi Chikutō (1776-1853), who copied the Chinese paintings.

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