<Article>Okakura Tenshin's Renaissance: Between Action and Contemplation

Abstract

The present article explores the representation of the Renaissance in one of the main intellectual figures of Meiji era Japan, Okakura Tenshin, who became famous worldwide as the defender of Japanese and Asian cultural traditions. The article analyses the relationship Okakura established with his former mentor Ernest Fenollosa and the exchanges he had later on with the Bengali independentist artistic and intellectual community, as well as with the circle of collectors and patrons of the arts which gathered around Isabella Stewart Gardner and included the famous Renaissance art expert Bernard Berenson. Through this different and varied company he took, we flesh out Okakura's peculiar cultural and symbolic perspective on renaissance, spanning ethnic and nationalist desires for regeneration and awakening, as well as the aesthetic cult of European fine arts.