International Conference Genji, the shining prince.

The conference entitled Genji, the shining prince. A thousand years of elegance in Japan has been organised by the Giorgio Cini Foundation “Venice and the East” Institute and Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, to mark a thousand years of the most important classic novel in the history of Japanese literature: the Genji monogatari. Written in 1008 by Murasaki Shikibu, a lady-in-waiting at court, the Genji is a compendium of court culture
and aesthetics in the Heian period (794-1185), and the finest expression of the women’s literary current in the “vernacular”. A great number of paintings have been dedicated to illustrating the chapters of the Genji. The first was made on a scroll around a hundred years after the novel had been written, while contemporary transpositions
include films and a manga version.

The speakers at the conference will include: leading expert on Japanese culture Donald Keene, Professor Emeritus at Columbia University; John Carpenter, lecturer in the History of Japanese Art at the SOAS, University of London, calligrapher and scholar of calligraphy; Gillo Dorfles, leading expert on aesthetic studies on European art, fashion, design; Gian Carlo Calza, lecturer in the History of Eastern Asian Art at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, an internationally acknowledged organiser of events and publications on Japanese art.

Leading figures from the Italian literary world, such as Nadia Fusini, have also been invited to speak and exchange views on themes such as women’s writing, while experts such as Giorgio Amitrano have been invited to speak on the popularising of major literary works and contemporary transpositions in illustrated books, manga, films and plays of such an important classic work as the Genji. There will be a special contribution on the relationship between architecture and nature in classic and contemporary Japan from the botanist Ohba Hideaki, who will be hosted in the Japanese Pavilion at the 11th Biennale International Architecture Exhibition, due to open at the same time as the conference.

Furthermore, Director of Hitachi Digital Images Division Takayuki Morioka will present a replica of original Genji illustrated scroll, on display during the conference days. During the conference, on the occasion of a thousand years of Genji, the illustrated volume Genji.
The shining prince, by Gian Carlo Calza, published by Electa, will also be presented.

Venice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
10 – 11 September 2008

Free entrance

Contacts

tel. +39 041 2710402
email marketing@cini.it