Join us for a talk with Ruth Starr, Assistant Professor of History of Japanese Art and Architecture at Trinity College Dublin. Responding to Just Another Human Experience by Atsushi Kaga, Starr will explore Japanese influences on Kaga’s work, including how the four seasons have been represented and evoked in Japanese arts across many periods and media. Paying particular attention to the Rinpa School of painting (from the Edo period, 1600– 1868), the talk will consider the tradition of anthropomorphism in Japanese art and explore these themes through the lens of religious belief systems, sociocultural practices, and related literary and artistic traditions.

Atsushi Kaga fuses elements from animé and manga with the work of painters from Hasegawa Tōhaku (1539-1610), Itō Jakuchū (1716–1800) and Ogata Korin (1658–1716) to James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) and Henry Darger (1892-1973).  Throughout the work Kaga uses gold leaf, taking inspiration from the Edo period Rinpa School of painting in Kyoto, known for using gilded layers of oil and gold to exalt themes inspired by nature and Japanese traditions.