Objects, Displays, and Edible Arts in Historical Japan and Japanese-American Seattle

This project studies objects displayed, crafted, and consumed in a wide range of historical and modern contexts in Japan and in Asian-American communities.

This focus on technologies of display will engage a UW seminar together with local arts and cultural organizations in a relatively unexplored area of both Japanese cultural history and Seattle history.

The seminar will foster collaboration and exchange between students; visiting faculty from Japan; a cultural anthropologist; professional staff from the Wing Luke Museum of the Pacific Asian American Experience and other museums; Japanese and Japanese-American Seattle-based artists; businesses and organizations in Seattle’s Nihonmachi (the historical Japanese-American area of today’s International District)—including shops, confectioners, Japanese-American churches, temples, and galleries.