Acknowledgments
This publication would never have been realized without the enormous support of many colleagues, friends, and professionals from around the globe. It is our hope that this collection of essays will benefit scholars, students, and enthusiasts of Japanese art and will fuel further explorations into the fascinating area of transcultural art history.
Our heartfelt thanks goes, first and foremost, to all the authors and commentators of the four parts making up this volume. Their enthusiasm, brilliant insights, and immeasurable patience were pivotal in finalizing this manuscript. Inge Klompmakers, formerly of Brill Publishers, supported us from the outset through a long, and at times interrupted, editorial journey. Her professional, and always supportive, advice guided us through the various editing phases. We would also like to thank Wendy Logeman and Patricia Radder and Manon Vrolijk at Brill who took over the project and brought it to completion. Amy Reigle Newland, our experienced, dedicated, and understanding editor, aided us significantly with her meticulous work and her professional oversight.
Margó Krewinkel, Karolin Randhahn, and Vincent Wang, all graduate students of the Institute of East Asian Art History at Heidelberg University, contributed their diligence, acuity, and vigor in streamlining conventions of the revised manuscripts. Dinah Zank and Sebastian Vogt, also of the Institute, offered invaluable assistance regarding the management of digital technology.
Naoko Gunji aided us enormously with her translation of Komine Kazuaki’s essay. We would also like to extend our gratitude to Radu Leca for posting a detailed summary and favorable review of the international conference, Histories of Japanese Art and their Global Contexts: New Directions, held from October 22 to 24, 2015, at Heidelberg University upon which this publication is based. We thank the anonymous peer reviewers for their exceptionally helpful comments and suggestions.
We are especially indebted to Ishibashi Hiroshi, President of the Board of Directors, the Ishibashi Foundation, Tokyo; Nishijima Taiji, Managing Director; and Suzuki Mariko of the Ishibashi Foundation. They all generously supported our 2015 academic conference and this publication. We also would like to express our appreciation to the Metropolitan Center for Far Eastern Art Studies for its support of this volume. In addition, our gratitude also goes to Kiyota Tokiko, then the head of the Japan Foundation in Cologne, which also contributed funds to underwrite the conference. Finally, thanks are due to the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), another sponsor of the conference.
Melanie Trede
Mio Wakita
Christine M.E. Guth