Mavo's Conscious Constructivism

Abstract

AbstractIt has often been noted that one of the defining factors of Japan's entry into the modern era was an emergent ideology of individualism (kojinshugi) inspired by Western philosophical and political thought.1 Widely ranging interpretations of individualism, however, were spawned in relation to changing social and political conditions as Japan went from being a newly established nation-state to a thriving imperialist power during the period from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the be ginning of the war in China in the early 1930s. In its various manifestations, the continually evolving discourse on the individual had profound consequences for art and literature. Additional informationNotes on contributorsGennifer WeisenfeldGENNIFER WEISENFELD is a graduate student in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University and a predoctoral fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery.