Professor Sei'ichi Yamaguchi
Professor Yamaguchi, who retired from the professorship of art history at Saitama National University four years ago, is the author of numerous books on the interaction between Eastern and Western art in Meiji Japan. His major field of study has been Fenollosa and his circle, on which subject his books include: 'Ernest F. Fenollosa: A Life Devoted to the Advocacy of Japanese Culture', 2 vol., 1982; 'Fenollosa's Writings on Art', 1988; and 'Fenollosa's Writings on Sociology', 2000. But he has also developed an interest in the late Edo, early Meiji painter Kawanabe Kyosai, whom he considers to have been overshadowed by the successful artistic movement inaugurated by Fenollosa and Okakura Tenshin. On this topic he has written two books: 'Caricatures of Kawanabe Kyosai' (Iwanami Bunko, 1988) and 'Kyosai's Caricatures' (Tokyo Shoseki, 1992). He has also translated, among other works, Josiah Conder's 'Studies and Paintings of Kawanabe Kyosai' (1984) and Aurel Stein's 'Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan' (1999). Professor Yamaguchi currently lectures on art history at Jissen Women's University, and is an advisor to the Nagoya-Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Urawa City Museum.