Exhibitions
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The propaganda textiles in this exhibition are mainly incorporated into the traditional clothing; kimono, haori and juban and more. Designed with vivid creativity they display the full pantheon of propaganda imagery over a 40 year period and thus provide a fascinating narative of the time.
This online exhibition is the abridged version of the real thing which was staged at the Caskey Lees, Arts of Pacific Asia Show in San Francisco in February 2011. There were 150 pieces on display, all drawn from the MHJ collection. The exhibition was curated by Alan Marcuson, Diane Hall and Erik Jacobsen. The ink-on-paper catalogue, the exhibition in San Francisco and this online version represent a work in progress and we are still in the early days of studying the collection in depth.
For the San Francisco exhibition we published a 40 page, colour catalogue with a specially commissioned essay in it by Dr Barak Kushner, Associate Professor of Japanese History at Cambridge University in England entitled The Drive to Mobilize Wartime Society in which he illuminates the historical, political and social context in which these extraordinary textiles were made. Dr Kushner is the author of “The Thought War: Japanese Imperial Propaganda”.
DREAMS OF EMPIRE
JAPANESE PROPAGANDA TEXTILES
The beautifully produced, 44 page limited edition, catalogue of the exhibition with 39 colour illustrations and Barak Kushner’s essay, The Drive to Mobilize Wartime Society is only available from this website.
$25 plus $10 postage to buy the catalogue
“...wonderfully produced, congratulations. Besides being really beautiful it is also very impressive and a great addition to our library.” Doug Dawson
“I just wanted to thank you for sending me a copy of your beautiful catalogue of Japanese Propaganda Textiles. Congratulations on a superb collection and a fascinating insight into this very unusual material.” John Eskenazi
“These textiles are so compelling, both visually and intellectually, and your collection is fascinating. I certainly do hope it leads to a larger publication.” Anna Jackson, Keeper, Asian Department, Victoria and Albert Museum