Art into everyday life: department stores as purveyors of culture in modern Japan

This study examines the artistic practices of Japanese department stores, which have been obscured in the discursive realm of modern Japanese art history despite their pronounced and lasting manifestations in the praxis of modern Japanese art history. Since the turn of the twentieth century, when department stores first emerged in Japan, prominent artists of the day have engaged in various artistic projects of the stores, ranging from window displays to advertising to building design. The department stores also have constituted primary venues for displaying works of art since Mitsukoshi department store established its art section in 1907, motivated by the inauguration of the official annual salon Monbushō Bijutsu Tenrankai (Ministry of Education Art Exhibition) in the same year. From established artists to fledging ones, from central figures of the art establishment to avant-gardists challenging it, a diverse range of artists showcased their works at the department stores. Indeed, by stimulating public interest in art, the department stores contributed significantly to cultivating an audience for art in modern Japan. ❧ Nonetheless, the critical role that the department stores have played in the production, circulation, and consumption of art has not been a focus of research in the literature of modern Japanese art history. The main reason for this disregard is neither that the caliber of the artists and works that department stores sponsored was not high enough, nor is it that department stores were not valued enough as cultural institutions, but rather that the official inclusion of department store artistic practices in art history would undermine the concept of “fine art” which the modern institution of art has been predicated upon. The discipline of modern Japanese art history, under the sway of the notion of aesthetic autonomy, has been reluctant to look at artistic realities in which art was extensively involved in commercial interests, works of art became objects of conspicuous consumption, and the aesthetic autonomy of art itself was commodified. The artistic practices of the department stores epitomized the very aspects of art that the modern institution of art has attempted to efface in its history, exposing the meanings and functions that were assigned to art by bourgeois capitalist society but that were cloaked in the discourse of “fine art.” ❧ The goal of this dissertation is not to recuperate the department stores as pivotal agents within the history of modern Japanese art, but to dismantle the false topos of “fine art,” which constructed and manipulated the language, categories, and values that still structure our understanding of art, through a close examination of department store art practices that have been virtually ignored in the course of the formation of modern Japanese art history.

本研究聚焦日本百货公司的艺术实践——尽管其在日本现代艺术的实践活动中有着显著且持久的表现，却长期在日本现代艺术史的话语体系中被遮蔽。自二十世纪初日本百货公司诞生以来，当时的知名艺术家便投身于百货公司的各类艺术项目，范畴涵盖橱窗陈列、广告设计乃至建筑设计。1907年，三越（Mitsukoshi）百货设立艺术部门，同年官方年度展览文部省美术展览会（Monbushō Bijutsu Tenrankai，即教育部美术展览）正式揭幕，此后百货公司便成为艺术作品展示的核心场所之一。从资深艺术家到初出茅庐的新锐创作者，从美术界的核心人物到挑战既有体系的先锋派艺术家，各类创作者均曾在百货公司展出作品。事实上，百货公司通过激发公众的艺术兴趣，极大助力了日本现代艺术受众群体的培育。

然而，百货公司在艺术的生产、流通与消费环节所发挥的关键作用，却未成为日本现代艺术史研究的关注焦点。学界对此忽视的核心原因，并非百货公司赞助的艺术家与作品水准不足，亦非百货公司作为文化机构的价值未获认可，而是若将百货公司的艺术实践纳入艺术史范畴，将动摇现代艺术制度所依托的"纯美术（fine art）"概念。受审美自律观念的支配，日本现代艺术史学科一直不愿直面这样的艺术现实：艺术深度卷入商业利益、艺术作品成为炫耀性消费的对象，而艺术自身的审美自律性亦被商品化。百货公司的艺术实践，恰恰集中体现了现代艺术制度在其发展历程中试图抹去的那些面向，揭露了资产阶级资本主义社会赋予艺术的意义与功能——这些内涵曾被"纯美术"话语所遮蔽。

本论文的目的并非将百货公司重塑为日本现代艺术史中的核心主体，而是通过细致考察日本现代艺术史建构进程中几近被完全忽视的百货公司艺术实践，解构"纯美术"这一虚假的固有论题，该论题构建并操控着至今仍塑造我们对艺术的认知的话语、范畴与价值。