Japanese Literary Awards

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Atsushi Okada

おかだ あつし

Okada Atsushi

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1954-12-01 （Mihara, Hiroshima, Japan）
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese
Residence History
Mihara, Hiroshima, Japan → Kyoto, Japan

Career

Occupations
Western art historian, Art historian, Professor, Translator, Critic
Active Years
1978-
Affiliations
Okayama University, Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Professor Emeritus, Kyoto University, Professor, Faculty of Art, Kyoto Seika University
Influenced By
Roberto Longhi, Giorgio Agamben, Ernst Gombrich, Kenneth Clark

Education

Kyoto University, Faculty of Letters
Faculty of Letters / Department of Philosophy (Aesthetics and Art History)
Degree: 学士
Period: 1974-1978
Year of Graduation: 1978
Country: Japan
Kyoto University Graduate School of Letters
Graduate School of Letters / Doctoral program (withdrew)
Period: 1980-1985
Year of Graduation: 1985
Country: Japan
Left doctoral program in 1985

Awards

Pico della Mirandola Prize
2000
Work: Translation of Roberto Longhi's collected art essays (2 vols.)
Result: 受賞
Yoshida Shuwa Prize
2003
Work: Morandi and His Era
Result: 受賞
60th Yomiuri Literary Prize (Criticism/Biography Award)
2008
Work: Freud's Italy
Category: 評論・伝記賞
Organization: Yomiuri Shimbun
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Morandi and His Era

2003 Art history

A study of the Italian painter Giorgio Morandi, examining his works and the historical and cultural context of his time.

MorandiStill lifeModern Italian art

Freud's Italy

2008 Criticism/Biography

Examines Freud's connections with Italy through travel, art, and psychoanalytic perspectives. Recipient of the Yomiuri Literary Prize (Criticism/Biography).

FreudPsychoanalysisItalian culture

Mary Magdalene: The Saint of Eros and Agape

2005 Religious / Cultural history

An art-historical and cultural study of the figure of Mary Magdalene, discussing the dual themes of eros and agape.

Religious imageryFemale figuresChristian culture

Another Renaissance

1994 Art history

An essayistic reassessment of the Renaissance from alternative perspectives.

RenaissanceArt historyCultural critique

Film Like Painting: Stillness, Movement, Time

2015 Film studies / Art theory

Explores the relationship between film and painting, reflecting on stillness, movement, and temporality.

Film and paintingTemporalityVisual culture

The Anthropocene and Art

2024 Art theory / Contemporary thought

Reconsiders the role and present condition of art from the perspective of the Anthropocene.

AnthropoceneRole of artEnvironment and culture

Bibliography

  • Another Renaissance (Jinbun-shoin) 1994
  • Beauty in the Renaissance (Jinbun-shoin) 1997
  • Beyond Mimesis: Questioning the Unconscious of Art History (Keiso Shobo) 2000
  • Morandi and His Era (Jinbun-shoin) 2003
  • Mary Magdalene: The Saint of Eros and Agape (Chuko Shinsho) 2005
  • The Birth of Venus: An Invitation to Visual Culture (Misuzu Shobo) 2006
  • Art (Ars) and Biopolitics (Bios): Problems of Contemporary Thought (Heibonsha) 2006
  • The Virgin Conception (Chuko Shinsho) 2007
  • An Invitation to Italian Contemporary Thought (Kodansha) 2008
  • Freud's Italy (Heibonsha) 2008
  • The Enigma of Portraits (Iwanami Shoten) 2008
  • The Body of Christ (Chuko Shinsho) 2009
  • The Aesthetics of Translucency (Iwanami Shoten) 2010
  • The Grand Tour: Travel to 18th-century Italy (Iwanami Shinsho) 2010
  • Giorgio Morandi: The Man and His Art (Heibonsha Shinsho) 2011
  • Reading Agamben (Heibonsha) 2011
  • Death Mask (Iwanami Shinsho) 2011
  • Adam and Eve (Chuko Shinsho) 2012
  • Rainbow History of Western Art (Chikuma Primer Shinsho) 2012
  • Apocalypse: Sources of the Image (Iwanami Shinsho) 2014
  • Italian Theory (Chuko Publishing) 2014
  • Toward the Roots of Image (Jinbun-shoin) 2014
  • Film Like Painting (Iwanami Shoten) 2015
  • What is an Angel? (Chuko Shinsho) 2016
  • Film and Christ (Misuzu Shobo) 2017
  • The Gestures of Agamben (Getsuyo-sha) 2018
  • Film, Art, and Life (Chikuma Shobo) 2018
  • Film and the Apocalypse (Misuzu Shobo) 2019
  • The Prism of Italian Art (Heibonsha) 2020
  • Western Art and Racism (Chikuma Primer Shinsho) 2020
  • Neorealism: Postwar Italy and Film (Misuzu Shobo) 2022
  • The Last Judgment (Chuko Shinsho) 2022
  • Anti-war and Western Art (Chikuma Shinsho) 2023
  • Christ and Sexuality (Iwanami Shinsho) 2023
  • The Anthropocene and Art (Chikuma Sensho) 2024
  • The Latent Power of Art (Kyowakoku) 2024
  • Freud in Love with Film (Jinbun-shoin) 2025

Translations by Author

  • Kenneth Clark, The Art of Humanism (Hakusuisha) 1987
  • Roberto Longhi, Collected Art Essays Vol.2 (Chuo Koron Bijutsu Shuppan) 1999
  • Giorgio Agamben, Stanze: Words and Images in Western Culture (Arina Shobo) 1998
  • Ernst Gombrich, Norm and Form: Renaissance Art (co-translated) 1999
  • Jonathan Crary, Suspensions of Perception (editor/translator) 2005

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Interdisciplinary and theoretical proseEssayistic style combining art history with philosophy and film studiesClear, critical argumentation
Recurring Motifs
Italian artReligious and sacred imageryRelations between film and paintingDeath and memory

Legacy

A leading Japanese scholar of Western art history who has influenced art-historical and cultural discourse in Japan through studies and translations of Italian thought. Known for work on Morandi and Freud; recipient of awards including the Yomiuri Literary Prize.

Trivia

  • By August 2014, 'Mary Magdalene' had exceeded 60,000 copies (13th printing).
  • In 2020 he retired from Kyoto University as Professor Emeritus and in the same year became a professor at Kyoto Seika University.