The focus of this talk will be on Japanese medieval portrait painting around the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the periods that are known as the Kamakura and Nanbokuchō eras. The genre of the period is highly appreciated in Japanese art history.

Since Japanese portraiture is not well known to English-speaking world, he will discuss some of the basic aspects of portrait making in medieval Japan. They are:

・The Motivations for the Production of Portraiture
・Who Made Them? Who Owned Them?
・Formal analysis of Japanese Medieval Portraits
・The Formal Schema of Portrait Painting

and he will examine how the artists of the periods presented the subjects following the visual convention of the day.

Michio Yonekura is an art historian specializing in Japanese painting. After he received his MA at the Tokyo National Institute of Fine Arts and Music, he joined the Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties, where he engaged in research and study of Japanese art for twenty-five years, serving as Director of the Department of Archives from 1998 to 2001. He then became professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Sophia (Jōchi) University in Tokyo, and taught Japanese art history there until 2011. He has been a visiting professor and given lectures on medieval Japanese portraiture and narrative painting at Heidelberg University, Waseda University, and Harvard University.

Professor Yonekura's primary field of research is medieval Japanese painting. By focusing on the visual representation of the subjects in portraiture, landscape, and narrative paintings of the 13th and 14th century (Kamakura-Nanbokuchō periods), he has sought to re-examine traditional master narratives of Japanese art history. His research has been published in books and articles on the iconic Jingoji portraits and illustrated biographies of renowned Buddhist monks. His main current research topic is the late 13th century Illustrated Biography of Ippen.