Dismissed as elegant fossils: Konoe Nobutada and the role of aristocrats in Early Modern Japan: 9 (Japonica Neerlandica) - Tapa dura

Konoe Nobutada (1565-1614) was a famous calligrapher and head of a high-ranking aristocratic family. Nobutada's contributions to the art and culture, have frequently been overlooked, largely because of the common misperception that aristocrats were too outdated, impoverished and powerless to be worthy of discussion. Dismissed as Elegant Fossils seeks to reinstate aristocrats as key players in the competition for political and artistic supremacy by examining Nobutada's calligraphy and painting, his turbulent relationship with Tokugawa Ieyasu, and his family's role in marital politics.

Lee Bruschke-Johnson Ph.D. (2002) studied at the Universities of Leiden, Kyoto, Kansas and Delaware. She formerly worked in the curatorial departments of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Galleries in Washington DC, and Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland and as a consultant for the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. In 2002 she successfully defended her doctoral dissertation entitled The Calligrapher Konoe Nobutada: Reassessing the Influence of Aristocrats on the Art and Politics of Early Seventeenth-Century Japan, which has been adapted for this publication. Dr. Bruschke-Johnson currently works as independent scholar in the Netherlands.