ABSTRACT
Visual culture as an interdisciplinary field draws upon many other disciplines such as art history, media studies, cultural studies, and philosophy, as well as anthropology and social sciences. This text focuses on how visual culture both as an everyday phenomenon as well as a site for art production contribute to and reflect gender identity formation and negotiation. After a short description of the emergence of visual culture as a research field in Japan studies, the text focuses on four large fields of visual culture in Japan and presents examples of topics in which gender plays a significant role, including art works and cultural productions as well as references to research contributions with in the area in question. Gender issues are present within the visual culture of everyday life such as popular culture and mass media, many parts of which are gendered already in the stage of production and circulation. Gender issues have appeared in art history research in Japan as part of a “new art history” and a re-evaluation of cultural systems and modes of representation. Examples of gender in contemporary visual arts reflect the continuous negotiations and transformations of gender roles and perceptions in Japanese society.
