Message from the Dean (Yoshitaka Mōri)
It has been 10 years since the MA Program in the Graduate School of Global Arts (GA) was established in 2016, and this year marks its 10th anniversary. We have prepared several projects to celebrate this milestone.
GA has attracted a diverse group of students from Japan and abroad, producing professionals in the fields of art management, curating, and research who are engaged in the arts, culture, media, and higher education. Since establishing our doctoral program in 2018, we have been cultivating even more highly specialized professionals who are active both domestically and internationally as researchers and practitioners leading the next generation.
Furthermore, GA has achieved significant results not only in education but also in practical research projects, including practical projects in the globalizing fields of art and culture, community-based art projects, and theoretical research and surveys adapted to the new era.
At the same time, a quarter of a century has passed since the start of the 21st century, and the state of our world is undergoing significant change.
When the graduate school was established in 2016, the term “Global Arts”—which forms the name of the graduate school—carried, despite some criticism, an overall positive and optimistic connotation. This reflected the arrival of a new era of globalization following the collapse of the Cold War structure triggered by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. At that time, there were high hopes for a new future in which the transnational movement of people, goods, money, culture, and the arts across borders would accelerate. The development of digital media technologies, epitomized by the internet, and the expansion of global transportation networks were believed to be creating a new global culture—Global Arts.
However, this era of optimistic globalization is coming to an end. The internet has brought division rather than integration. While the internet is flooded with fake news and hate speech, it seems to be governed by the ruthless principles of capitalism. The COVID-19 pandemic has played a significant role in making us aware of the side effects of globalization. The ongoing uncertainty surrounding the situation in Iran, conflicts and wars exemplified by those in Ukraine and Palestine, the spread of genocide, the rise of authoritarian states and militarism worldwide, xenophobic racism, fundamentalism, sexism, poverty, and the escalation of environmental issues and natural disasters are all threatening the very foundations of modern democracy.
Can art serve any purpose in this era? What is the role of culture in a world dominated by military power, technology, capitalism and conflict?
Here, within the East Asian context, I would like to recall the concept of “bun” (文). The character “bun,” used in Japanese in compound words such as “bunka” (文化＝culture), “bunmei” (文明＝civilization), “Jinbun” (文系=liberal art), and “jinbun” (人文学=humanities), is a concept derived from Chinese. While many of the terms mentioned above were coined after the Meiji modernization, their origins encompassed concepts that were untranslatable into European languages such as English.
"Bun（文）" originally meant "tattoo," or "body art." According to the linguist and ancient Chinese literature specialist, Shizuka Shirakawa白川静, “bun” was a term that “refers to the order and values created by humans.”
Put simply, it was a term that stood in opposition to “bu” (武), denoting the art of governing people through culture, art, and the magical forces that underpin them—without relying on military force. It was the counterpart to “bu,” and even today, it remains in the Japanese language in the phrase “bunbu ryodo” (文武両道, though its meaning has completely shifted).
In the ancient cultural sphere of East Asia, the power of “bun” (arts/literature/culture) constituted an autonomous system distinct from the power of “bu” (military might). Today, it seems the world has been overwhelmed by the power of “bu.” How can we reclaim the power of “bun” in this era? People from diverse backgrounds are gathering at GA. We would like to explore this together with our students. I strongly hope that we can discuss this further in our program.
Dean, Graduate School of Global Arts
Yoshitaka Mōri
April 2, 2026
