GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN TO HONOR / Prof. Miyeko Murase
November 3, 2010
November 3rd, 2010--- Miyeko Murase, Professor Emerita of Columbia University will be honored with the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon for her outstanding contributions to the promotion of Japanese culture through Japanese art.
The conferment ceremony for Professor Murase will take place in New York on November 30, 2010. The ceremony will be held by invitation only.
Prof. Miyeko Murase
Miyeko Murase began her career as an assistant professor in Columbia University's Department of Art History and Archaeology in 1962. In addition to her field of specialization, Japanese paintings, scrolls and screens, she has also researched Japanese sculpture, decorative arts and architecture. Thanks to her efforts, permanent coursework in Japanese art history at Columbia University was established.
She became a full professor in 1975, and until her retirement in 1996 was responsible for guiding and training a generation of young scholars, thus contributing greatly to the spread of Japanese culture and wider knowledge of Japanese art in the United States.
Her students include Emily Sano, former director of the San Francisco Museum of Oriental Art (Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, Spring 2008) and Mary Griggs Burke, whose "Burke Collection" is considered one of the finest private collections of Japanese art outside Japan (the Order of the Sacred Treasures, Gold and Silver Star, Spring 1987).
In addition to lecturing, Professor Murase actively planned major exhibitions and catalogs. Important exhibitions curated by her include "Byobu: Japanese Screens from New York Collections" (Asia Society, 1971), and "Japanese Arts: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection" (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975).
In addition, Professor Murase’s many lectures in Japan helped introduce the current state of U.S. scholarship on Japanese art and served to build strong bridges of academic exchange and mutual understanding between the two countries.
After retiring from Columbia, Professor Murase was appointed Special Consultant at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she planned special exhibitions, negotiated with outside museums and collectors, engaged in fundraising and created catalogs. Recent successful exhibitions curated by her for The Metropolitan Museum of Art include "Bridge of Dreams: the Mary Burke Collection of Japanese Art" (2000), "Japanese Calligraphy" (2002 - 2003), and "Oribe - Japanese Art in the Transitional Period" (2003 - 2004).
