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Sandy Kita
No. 32: Japanese Printmaking, 1615-1868
26-30 July 1999
1) How useful were the pre-course readings?
1: The pre-course readings would have been excellent - most of them were out of print, or too large to be checked out from my available sources. No time when I arrived for the course, alas!
2: I found The Enduring Art of Japan (for pre-course reading) unhelpful and tedious.
3: Very helpful, but hard to locate.
4: Very.
6: Did not care for The Enduring Art of Japan. The author’s style is old-fashioned and rambling. I would have preferred a concise, fact-based text.
7: Very useful. I would have been lost without them, since this was a totally new area for me.
9: Great, but maybe too much.
2) Were the course syllabus and other materials distributed in class useful (or will they be so in the future, after you return home)?
1: Yes.
2: The notes given to us in the first class outlined the lectures, and were extremely helpful. I used them to prepare for the next day’s lecture, and to review the current day’s lecture.
3: Yes!
4: Excellent materials. I will refer to them in the future.
5: useful for reviewing concepts and artists.
6: The course notes provided were most impressive and useful.
7: SK’s course workbook was excellent, and I will reread it when I get home.
8: Yes. I reviewed each evening the material that was taught. 9: Excellent.
3) Was the intellectual level of the course content appropriate?
1: Yes, if not too high and too rushed. Did we try to cover too much?
2-5: Yes.
6: Yes. I felt I gained an understanding of the material, which is so much better than a recitation of facts and dates.
7-9: Yes.
4) If your course had field trips, were they effective?
1: Absolutely.
2: Very well spent!
3: An exceptional opportunity!
4: Yes.
5: Yes. Looking at real prints is fundamental to understanding the styles and problems with them.
6: The museum sessions were invaluable, and the best part of the class.
7: We spent one session each day at the Bayly Art Museum, and it was the highlight of each day.
8: Yes. We visited the Bayly Art Museum the last period of each day. It is very important to view the prints themselves.
9: Yes.
5) Did the actual course content correspond to its RBS brochure description and Expanded Course Description (ECD)? Did the course in general meet your expectations?
1-6: Yes.
7: Yes. Less on actual techniques used than I expected, though.
8: Almost. The second day of class was devoted almost entirely to the history of Japan - very much necessary for an understanding of the prints.
9: Yes.
6) What did you like best about the course?
1: The patience of the professor - to make me look, and deduce my decisions, based on the instructions given (in class exercises).
2: Probably the time spent at the museum - but the entire course was excellent!
3: SK and the Bayly Art Museum.
4: Comparing the lectures, the slides, and the actual prints. I especially liked the tie-in to Japanese history, and how it affected different art movements.
5: The integration of the history of Japan with the history of the art. It gave a fuller understanding of Ukiyo-e.
6: The museum sessions.
7: Exploring a totally new subject area for me. The course was broad-ranging: history, art, techniques, personalities. Loved it.
8: SK’s ability to teach very well - to explain all of the intricacies of this complex art, and to learn (with a connoisseur’s eye) how to evaluate real from fake prints.
9: The teacher was first-class.
7) How could the course have been improved?
1: Only if I could have taped every moment, and then played it back more slowly. The acoustics were poor.
2: I was completely happy with the course.
3: The slide projector.
4: Not possible.
5: OK as is.
6: A chronological listing of periods and pronunciation guide for artists.
7: A better room arrangement in Peabody. The folks in the back had trouble seeing the slides, I think.
8: Perhaps slightly less lecture time and additional museum time - slightly by a half hour or more each day. Also, more time for questions in each class.
9: Being slightly deaf, the sound of the projector made hearing difficult. Microphone, maybe?
8) We are always concerned about the physical well-being both of the BAP’s teaching collections and of materials owned by UVa’s Special Collections. If relevant, what suggestions do you have for the improved classroom handling of such materials used in your course this week?
1: I would have benefited from the time between classes by looking at the books, which were displayed but locked up in the intervals.
4: The Bayly Art Museum prints were used. There could be more prints of some of the artists.
7: The Bayly prints were treated with respect.
9) Please comment on the quality/enjoyability of the various RBS activities in which you took part outside of class, eg Sunday afternoon tour, Sunday night dinner and videos, evening lectures, Bookseller Night, tour of the Alderman digital/electronic centers, &c.
1: Excellent.
3: Monday evening lecture was excellent. Bookseller Night was a great opportunity. Didn’t know when the hand-press demonstrations and the Electronic Text Center open house were offered.
4: I enjoyed all of the activities in which I participated.
5: Outside activities were pleasant, but of course, work was all-consuming. Interaction with students taking other courses was useful.
7: Excellent, as usual.
8: Sunday Night Dinner should be better for the cost of $12.00 per person. Videos were fun and the evening lectures were good.
9: Enjoyed all of the evening events. I went bankrupt Tuesday night, but with pleasure.
10) Any final thoughts? Did you get your money's worth?
1: Absolutely [got my money’s worth].
2: I would highly recommend this course to anyone interested in Japanese prints. The lectures gave excellent background information on Japanese paintings and prints, and the hands-on experience at the museum provided great visual information. I wish I had a professor like SK when I was an Art History major. He was knowledgeable and interesting - just great!
3: Please keep SK’s class at twelve members.
4: I’ve told everyone I met on coffee breaks to be sure to take this course. Of course I got my money’s worth.
5: If one has an interest in Japanese prints, this is a marvelous introduction. Well worth the cost.
6: Absolutely great. I can’t praise professor SK highly enough. I loved the connoisseurship focus.
7: Definitely got my money’s worth, but a very different subject matter and discipline than the other courses I’ve taken at RBS. A good way to learn a lot about Japanese history and culture, as well as prints.
8: Yes, I got more than my money’s worth, and I would return for another course with SK.
9: "In spades": I would recommend this course to anyone, but do most of the reading before class.
Number of respondents: 9
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