Art and Religion – Ichio Ogura
Forward by Matthew Crowley
Once again The Shumei International Institute (SII) would like to invite the community to join in our celebration of gratitude for 5 wonderful years in this community. See our ad in this months Eagle for a complete schedule of events. This year no RSVP is required for any of the activities. We are pleased to announce our keynote presentation this year will be entitled “Art and Religion” and will be delivered by Mr. Ichio Ogura who SII will host from Japan for this event. The keynote address will take place following the buffet luncheon on Sunday. Mr. Ogura’s view is that that art will play a growing significance in the religions of this century. He will present his views on what art and religion will become in the 21st century from the viewpoint that beauty includes goodness and truth. He will use the artworks of Japanese painters as examples.
Mr. Ogura was born in 1948 and specialized in Japanese intellectual history in college. While in college, he was also involved with the creative department of a major ad agency and in 1975 launched a quarterly magazine called ”Edokko” (Tokyo-ite). Kawashima, another quarterly magazine he worked on in this period had a great impact on the architectural world at the time. His work on public relations magazines, earned him a number of national awards. After experience with a variety of publication activities he began to aim at creating a new form of communication outside the norms of advertising and publication.
In 2001 he became a professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design by special appointment and participated in creating a design network that was widely adopted in industry, government and academia. In 2003 Mr. Ogura was Director of the Shizuoka International Garden and Horticulture Exhibition, which included Japan’s “Showa Emperor Pavilion.” This year Mr. Ogura is delegated to work as producer for the world heritage “Mt. Fuji Project” that is expected to help shape Japan’s image for the 21st century.
