Zen Violence: The Legacy of Nantenbō Tōjū’s Calligraphy in the Postwar Avant-Garde

Bogdanova-Kummer, Eugenia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7704-3514 (2023) Zen Violence: The Legacy of Nantenbō Tōjū’s Calligraphy in the Postwar Avant-Garde. Journal of Japanese Studies, 52 (1). ISSN 1549-4721 (In Press)

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Abstract

Rinzai Zen priest Nantenbō Tōjū (1839–1925), an important figure in modern Japanese Buddhism, was also a prominent calligrapher. His eccentric large-scale works inspired avant-garde artists of the Gutai and Bokujinkai groups, and reverberated globally in postwar abstract art. Known for his close ties with the Meiji military, particularly General Nogi Maresuke (1849–1912), Nantenbō promoted the values of “Imperial-Way Zen.” This article shows how Nantenbō’s calligraphy, which channeled the militarist ideology of the Japanese Empire, fed into the postwar avant-garde and complicated Zen’s role in the politically charged art of the cultural Cold War.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sdg 16 - peace, justice and strong institutions ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/peace_justice_and_strong_institutions
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Interdisciplinary Institute for the Humanities
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	21 Apr 2023 13:30
Last Modified:	21 Apr 2023 13:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/91858
DOI:

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