A Companion to Asian Art and Architecture presents a collection of 26 original essays from top scholars in the field that explore and critically examine various aspects of Asian art and architectural history.* Brings together top international scholars of Asian art and architecture* Represents the current state of the field while highlighting the wide range of scholarly approaches to Asian Art* Features work on Korea and Southeast Asia, two regions often overlooked in a field that is often defined as India-China-Japan* Explores the influences on Asian art of global and colonial interactions and of the diasporic communities in the US and UK* Showcases a wide range of topics including imperial commissions, ancient tombs, gardens, monastic spaces, performances, and pilgrimages.

List of Illustrations viiiNotes on Contributors xivAcknowledgments xxPart I Introduction 11 Revisiting "Asian Art" 3Rebecca M. Brown and Deborah S. HuttonPart II Objects in Use 212 The Material Facts of Ritual: Revisioning Medieval Viewing through Material Analysis, Ethnographic Analogy, and Architectural History 23Kevin Gray Carr3 Textiles and Social Action in Theravada Buddhist Thailand 48Leedom Lefferts4 Functional and Nonfunctional Realism: Imagined Spaces for the Dead in Northern Dynasties China 70Bonnie Cheng5 The Visible and the Invisible in a Southeast Asian World 97Jan MrázekPart III Space 1216 Building Beyond the Temple: Sacred Centers and Living Communities in Medieval Central India 123Tamara I. Sears7 Urban Space and Visual Culture: The Transformation of Seoul in the Twentieth Century 153Kim Youngna8 Unexpected Spaces at the Shwedagon 178Elizabeth Howard Moore9 The Changing Cultural Space of Mughal Gardens 201James L. Wescoat Jr.Part IV Artists 23110 Old Methods in a New Era: What Can Connoisseurship Tell Us about Rukn-ud-Din? 233Molly Emma Aitken and Shanane Davis, with technical analysis by Yana van Dyke11 Convergent Conversations: Contemporary Art in Asian America 264Margo Machida12 The Icon of the Woman Artist: Guan Daosheng (1262-1319) and the Power of Painting at the Ming Court c. 1500 290Jennifer Purtle13 Diasporic Body Double: The Art of the Singh Twins 318Saloni MathurPart V Challenging the Canon 33914 Re-evaluating Court and Folk Painting of Korea 341Kumja Paik Kim15 Conflict and Cosmopolitanism in "Arab" Sind 365Finbarr Barry Flood16 In the Absence of the Buddha: "Aniconism" and the Contentions of Buddhist Art History 398Ashley Thompson17 On Maurya Art 421Frederick AsherPart VI Shifting Meanings 44518 Art, Agency, and Networks in the Career of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) 447Morgan Pitelka19 Shiva Nataraja: Multiple Meanings of an Icon 471Padma Kaimal20 Sifting Mountains and Rivers through a Woven Lens: Repositioning Women and the Gaze in Fourteenth-Century East Java 486Kaja M. McGowan21 Dead Beautiful: Visualizing the Decaying Corpse in Nine Stages as Skillful Means of Buddhism 513Ikumi Kaminishi22 In the Name of the Nation: Song Painting and Artistic Discourse in Early Twentieth-Century China 537Cheng-hua WangPart VII Elusive, Mobile Objects 56123 Chinese Painting: Image-Text-Object 563De-nin Deanna Lee24 Locating Tomyoji and Its "Six" Kannon Sculptures in Japan 580Sherry Fowler25 The Unfired Clay Sculpture of Bengal in the Artscape of Modern South Asia 604Susan S. Bean26 Malraux's Buddha Heads 629Gregory P. A. LevineIndex 655