The nineteenth century encompasses three distinct fields within Japanese art history: Edo, Bakumatsu, and Meiji period art. This century further marks the separation of premodern and modern traditions. Yet rather than adhering to existing narratives of strict division, this class explores the art histories that emerge when we approach the developments of the “long nineteenth century” diachronically. The course will begin with the state of Japanese artmaking in the early nineteenth century and then examine how this both changed and persisted into the early twentieth century with new concepts, institutions, and pedagogical systems introduced from Europe and America. We will also survey technological developments in print culture, early experiments with photography, as well as the adoption of “craft” as a concept and its effects on existing material culture. Through a nuanced consideration of both the tumultuous changes and longstanding practices that define nineteenth-century Japanese visual culture, students will explore the potentials for art history beyond simplified models of continuity or rupture.