Dr. Naho Onuki
Dr. Naho ONUKI is a researcher in aesthetics and art theory who teaches at Japanese university. She was the first person in the world to receive a doctorate in artistic and ideological research on traditional Japanese tattoos.
She has been researching the artistic uniqueness of tattoos and body modification, starting from the question of what makes a person a medium/media different from paintings/drawings on canvas/paper. Her research has two perspectives: the past and the future. The first is how to position and consider tattoos, which have existed since ancient times as “pictures into the body”;. The second is what kind of modified body, including tattoos, and the human sensibilities that result from them are like. With reference to posthumanism theory, she is exploring how our changing bodies are ideologically open to the future.
In these research, she analyzed what was written in old books, ukiyo-e, and Japanese fine art relating to traditional Japanese tattooing from ancient times to before the WWⅡ, clarifying their artistic characteristics and ideological background and now she writing a book containing this content. Meanwhile, she was part of a Japanese translation team for Rosi Braidotti’s ”The Posthuman,”an important text on posthumanism, which was published.
Class 2025:
