Woodwork and the Arts of Japan

Yukio Lippit, PhD, History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University and Johnson-Kulukundis Family Director of the Arts, Radcliffe Institute

Material culture in Japan is distinguished by its heavy reliance on wood in art-making. For over a millennium, the rich biomass heritage of the country has provided a foundation for the work of master carpenters and the emergence of a wide array of remarkable techniques for the wood-related arts. Yukio Lippit will examine how wood selection and the materiality of wood conditioned the development of these arts in a Japanese context. His lecture provides a lens into the man-nature relationship and wood artistry in Japan