ABSTRACT
This chapter gives critical consideration to the ‘Heisei-style’ Symbol Emperor System through examination of Tenran bijutsu: The Art with Emperor, a group exhibition held in Kyoto and Tokyo in 2020. Curated by Okamoto Mitsuhiro, one of the artists who participated in the controversial ‘After “Freedom of Expression?”’ in the Aichi Triennial (2019), the exhibition claimed to examine the elusive ‘airy’ nature of the Heisei-Style Emperor System on the occasion of Naruhito's enthronement, as well as respond to the increasingly oppressive cultural environment in Japan. Of particular focus are the two Nihonga (Japanese-style paintings) created by Kimura Ryōko for the exhibition: The Prince of Chrysanthemum, the portrait of Akihito, which both Kimura and Okamoto call ‘contemporary goshin'ei,’ and Happy Chrysanthemum, the hanging scroll featuring a double image of the imperial flower of chrysanthemum and the anus. Referring to recent scholarship in affect theory and queer studies, the chapter investigates the particular ways in which the display of ‘contemporary goshin'ei’ and ‘anal chrysanthemum’ invited the viewers to reconceive their relationships with Emperor Akihito not only via phallic symbolism but also via anal eroticism, and thereby gives us a glimpse of the elusive affective nature of Heisei-style Emperor-hood and its political power.
