Arte y nación. El discurso de la historia del arte en el Japón Meiji, by Daniel Sastre de la Vega. 2019. Originally published in Spanish in Editions Bellaterra. ISBN:978-84-7290-931-1

Abstract

In Arte y Nación, El discurso de la historia del arte en el Japón Meiji (2019), Daniel Sastre de la Vega offers us a tour of the history of art in this country. Taking the archipelago's second encounter with the West as the starting point for his analysis during the restoration of the Meiji era, between 1868 and 1912, he argues that art was one of the fundamental pillars of the beginning of a historical discourse. In particular, this allowed the new imperial government to forge one of the bases of its national identity. In this context, the role of the intellectual officials of the government during this historical period - within Okakura Kakuzo stands out- which will have an artistic historical narrative as the main axis of the construction of Japanese identity.