Art History

Theoretical research on art at Japanese universities has been carried out in departments such as art history departments and philosophy departments in the Faculty of Letters. From the mid-20th century onwards, along with the spread of education and research that included the production of figurative works, there was a deepening tendency to emphasize concreteness and demonstrativeness.

In Europe and the United States, theoretical research on art developed in an empirical direction, and the position of ``art studies'' that ``beauty'' can be most accurately and concretely expressed through ``art'' was established from an early stage. .
The first place in Japan to introduce an ``art major'' in this sense into university education was the Department of Art, established in 1949 at Tokyo University of Education, the predecessor of the University of Tsukuba.We at the Art History Laboratory have directly inherited this tradition.

In the ``Art History Area,'' an art specialty school provided by the Art History Laboratory, students learn about art from various eras and Areas of studys, from ancient times to the present day, and learn about the fundamental question of ``What is art?'' The goal is to develop the specialized ability to empirically solve a wide variety of problems.

Students in this field will deepen their understanding of artistic creation while studying alongside students involved in the production of plastic arts and design practice. With faculty members with experience as museum curators (Teramon Rintaro and Hayashi Michiko) and faculty members with experience in excavating and conducting field surveys of cultural assets (Mizuno Hirofumi and Takeda Kazufumi), students can learn practical art history backed by theoretical research, focusing primarily on art as an object. Students will view paintings, sculptures, and artworks at art museums, temples, shrines, and artists' studios in Japan and abroad, research related literature, and incorporate the results of their research into their graduation thesis before departing for society as specialists in art theory.

Students who are interested in pursuing more specialized research beyond their graduation research proceed to graduate school.At our graduate school, many graduate students who have completed the master's program and doctoral program in the art history field are on the path to becoming researchers or highly skilled professionals.