User:Justindbeach/gap analysis

Gap analysis

 * What is the title of the article in which you identified a gap. If no article exists at all, what should the title be?

Mayumi Oda


 * Document the gap you found, describe how you identified it, and analyze its impact on knowledge.

There is simply no article for the artist, Mayumi Oda. This is a significant gap, for her artistic vision in silkscreen prints is significant not only for its beautiful ascetic quality, but also for its transnational roots. A Japanese artist who, in her twenties moved to the east coast of the U.S. and participated in the Women’s Liberation Movement, Oda both built and played off of the ancient Japanese practice of woodblock printing. This is especially significant as woodblock printing in earlier centuries influenced prominent Western artists such as Eduard Manet and Vincent Van Gogh due to easy accessibility, and the interest in such art that brought an insight into Japanese culture. While Oda’s work has been associated to Manet’s, her dedication to an ancient style that held sway over his work adds fresh perspectives to transnational discourses of influence and asks us to reconsider Eurocentric ways of relating female artists of color to famous white, male artists. It is also imperative for audiences to learn of Oda’s life and work as she grew up in a defining period in Japan’s history. Born in the year 1941, the year of Pearl Harbor, Oda’s artistic sensibilities were affected by the newly constructed gender roles in post-war modernizing Japan, based partly on class and gender. An active presence in the W.L.M. in the U.S., Oda may bring new perspectives to a movement seen largely as a white, middle class struggle. Her involvement in the movement would be a fascinating area of further research as it might challenge accepted notions that most foreign feminist movements take their cues from the white U.S. reformers of the 1970s.


 * Propose a paragraph of new or substantially edited content based on reliable sources. (If you are editing existing content, post the current version along with your edited version, and clearly mark which is which.)

Mayumi Oda is a renowned Japanese artists whose silk-screen prints have been featured in such establishments as the Museum of Modern Art and the Yoshii Gallery in Tokyo, was born on June 2, 1941, the year Pearl Harbor was bombed. The style of her most prominent work, including depth, composition and content, was influenced by the ancient practice of Japanese woodblock prints, a form that has Buddhist roots dating back to the eighth century. Mayumi Oda’s family had Buddhist ties (the name Mayumi is Buddhist) and she began to practice Zen Meditation in the late 1970s. Oda’s work received great acclaim beginning in the late 1960’s and remained popular, internationally, during the 70’s and 80’s. Oda’s work may be partially seen as a counter to Japanese prints of the 17th and 18th centuries whose feminine subjects were predominantly prostitutes and women whose livelihoods revolved around pleasure. Their representation was less attuned to reality than male fantasy at the time. Oda’s prints of playful feminine goddesses, seen as graceful and independent, often in the open realm of nature, is also certainly an expression of her involvement in the U.S. Women’s Liberation Movement of the late 60’s and 70’s (the same time Japan had its own Liberation Movement). As she writes in her book Godesses, it was this movement that caused her to reapproach Japanese feminist idea to clarify her complex passions for female liberation. She was moved by the old Buddhist themes of self-possessed strength in women. Her goddesses, often round and curvy, are depicted as tranquil, wise and poised. The scenes of her work thus project feelings of freedom while blending the earthly and surreal, symbolizing a knowing power in women.


 * List the reliable sources that could be used to improve this gap. (You can use the Cite tool from the editing toolbar above to input and format your sources.)


 * Basu, Amrita.  “Globalization of the Local/Localization of the Global: Mapping Transnational Women’s Movements.” (2000). Mackie, Vera.  Feminism in Modern Japan. “Introduction.” Oda, Mayumi. Godesses. Lancaster-Miller Publishers: Berkeley (1981).  Stevenson, Lesley. Manet.  Brompton Books Corp: New York, (1992).   Ulak, James T. “Japanese Prints.  Abbeville Press Publishers: New York (1995).