Political ecology of art and architecture in Japan: 100 years ago and now

What does it mean to discuss ‘political ecology’ in art and architecture now in the East Asian context? I investigate this through the historiography of Japan, re-examined in the light of present-day practices of art and architecture. It will consider how alternative notions of ecology, art and architecture there became neglected about 100 years ago in the shadow of the society’s hurried western modernization, and how their resurgence now may cast a new light on our contemporary crisis. Concurrently, it will provide a new theoretical reading of ‘socially engaged art’ that derives from buried intellectual currents of Japan, alternative to dominant Euro-American theories.