MITSUKO ITO

Research Assistant, Japanese collection

Mitsuko Ito staff photo

Contact
Email: mitsuko.ito@ashmus.ox.ac.uk
ORCID: 0000-0002-4976-762X

Biography

Mitsuko Ito is a Research Assistant for the Japanese collection in the Department of Eastern Art at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, with a focus on Japanese prints and Kabuki-related art and material culture.

Mitsuko has been involved in the research and display of the Ashmolean’s Japanese print collections since 2001. In 2001 she assisted with the exhibition Hiroshige’s Views of Mount Fuji and contributed to the accompanying catalogue. In 2003 she helped to curate the exhibition Kuniyoshi’s Heroes of China and Japan and co-authored the accompanying catalogue with Oliver Impey.

She also helped to research and curate the exhibitions Legend and Landscape: Japanese Paintings (2003) and Japanese Works of Art: Acquisitions from the Story Fund, 1985-2002 (2002).

In 2005 she curated the exhibition Beauties of the Four Seasons and wrote the accompanying catalogue. In 2015 she co-authored, with Clare Pollard, Hiroshige: Landscape, Cityscape: Woodblock Prints in the Ashmolean Museum.

From 2008 to 2015, Mitsuko served as Assistant Director of the Oxford Centre for Asian Archaeology, Art and Culture at the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford.

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Mitsuko’s research interests centre on Japanese art, with particular emphasis on woodblock prints of the Edo period (1603–1867). She is also fascinated by the art of Kabuki theatre, exploring its change and continuity over time as one of the most significant and enduring forms of Japanese art and cultural expression.

Mitsuko also has an interest in the archaeology and material anthropology of ancient Japan, especially the Jōmon and Kofun periods, with a focus on childhood and the material culture associated with children. In addition, she is interested in the role museums play in shaping representations of culture and identity, particularly how perceptions of Japan and its culture are constructed through literary sources and museum objects.

 

Japan; Japanese art; Japanese prints; Japanese woodblock prints; Japanese tea ceremony; Japanese Archaeology; Japanese Anthropology; Tokyo, Edo; Hiroshige; kabuki; material culture 

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