This paper examines the political, socio-economic, and cultural aspects of Japanese decorative tiles or the so-called majolica tiles widely diffused in colonial South Asia in the early twentieth century. A tile became a popular building material in European countries by the first half of the nineteenth century, and European tiles spread over the world with the expansion of colonialism. Japan in the making of a modern nation established domestic manufacturing of tiles mainly after British models, and the industry’s rapid development was helped by the First World War (1914–1918) and the Great Kanto Earthquake (1923). The Japanese tile industry successfully entered into foreign markets, among which India was the largest and most important market that resulted in developing a variety of new Indian or Hindu designs associated with the rise of nationalism and mode of consumption. Not only within India, tiles, however, also played a crucial role in formulating cosmopolitan identities of migrant mercantile networks exemplified by the Chettiar architecture in South and Southeast Asia. However, in the late 1930s, cosmopolitanism shared by different communities in colonial urban settings became overwhelmed by nationalisms as seen in Sri Lanka where Japanese majolica tiles were differently used as a means to express religiously-regulated nationalisms in the Chettiar and Sinhalese Buddhist architecture. Thus, the analysis reveals visual politics of different religious nationalisms symbolized by Japanese majolica tiles in the interwar period that still structure the present visualscapes.

The examination of modernity in Asia is often accompanied by the evaluation of the colonial experience and its refl ection onpostcoloniality. Among Asian experience of colonialism, that of India may have infl uenced highly on the awakening of identity indiff erent levels of the world. Of various facets of colonial experience of India, this paper focuses on the mercantile community of India called Marwari. The recent development of Indian economy highly owed to conglomerates, among which not a few leading fi rms such as Birlas and Bajajs are from this community. Their ancestors left their homes in the barren region of Shekhawati in north India, and made their fortunes in the nineteenth-century colonial cities. From the early twentieth century, they gradually entered into industry and developed into conglomerates. While the preceding studies on the Marwari community have been led mainly by the fi elds of economic history and anthropology, aiming to understand the characteristics of their moral economy, this paper argues on their cultural practices from an art-historical perspective, particularly on their residential mansions called havelis.Living in humble style in colonial cities or their economic headquarters, the Marwaris spent their fortunes for philanthropicdeeds in the form of architectural projects such as havelis, temples, and wells in their hometowns of Shekhawati, dating between the1830s and 1930s. Famous for their colourful mural paintings, it has been generally considered that havelis were the visual spectacles of the Marwaris to show off their economic success to the eyes of their hometowns. It may be likely that havelis were cultural devices that were strategically created for self-representation of the Marwaris in thecolonial economy. However, it may be questionable to see the haveliconstruction of the Marwaris continued on the basis of a single intention for about a hundred years, even though colonial Indiaduring this period experienced drastic changes from British high imperialism to national movement. This paper attempts to see those changes through mural representations of havelis, thereby the characteri stics of colonialityin Asia and its refl ection on postcoloniality are substantiallyunderstood. The paper fi rstly defi nes as to who the Marwaris are. Secondly, the reason why the Marwaris invested their fortunes in the hometowns rather than the economic headquarters is argued. Thirdly, the mural paintings on havelis are analysed according to their subject matters, and those mural paintings and its relationwith contemporary visual culture are discussed. And lastly, the making of identity of the Marwari community in diff erent stages of colonial India is revealed.

The mercantile community Marwaris built their residential mansions called havelis in their hometowns of the Shekhawati region during the 1830s and 1930s. Most of the havelis are decorated with mural paintings that are divided into two phases-prior/posterior to 1900. It is generally considered that the murals prior to 1900 retain indigenous tradition while most of the murals after 1900 are inferior copies of prints, destructing indigenous tradition.<br> The iconographical analysis of the murals prior to 1900 suggests that they were influenced by contemporary popular culture such as Kalighat painting and Battala woodprint that were common in the colonial port city of Calcutta where the Marwaris had their economical strongholds. A perspective, in which pre-1900 murals are considered indigenous and traditional, can be indeed traced back to the cultural administration of the colonial power.<br> The murals after 1900, on the other hand, are dominated by the copies of newly emerged prints such as oleograph and chromolithograph. In terms of the impact of popular art, the haveli murals both prior/posterior to 1900 are stylistically continuous rather than disconnection of tradition/modernity. This stylistic development may also reflect the changing identity of the Marwaris from merchants to industrialists in colonial India

Contribution: Chapter 15 "Foreword" (p.563), "Exposition and Art Administration" (pp.588-589), "Photography" (p.599), "Art and Multiculturalism" (p.600)

The project analyzed architecture of the Chettiars, the Hindu migrant merchants from Tamil Nadu who became prominent in the clonial period. Their mansions in Tamil villages and Hindu temple buildings in the migrant regions reflect the changes of the Chettiar's caste identity and nationalistic perceptions in their mural paintings and other decorative elements.

“Modern concepts of religion” have long been criticized as modern Western constructs subsequently imposed on the rest of the world. At the same time, however, we need to note that this critique holds the risk of neglecting the agency the non-Western world exerted in shaping modernity. This research project examines the agency of the non-Western world in constructing modern concepts of religion, with particular focus on the discourses on the religious and the secular by Neo-Vedanta and M. K. Gandhi, and figurative expressions in modern India, such as tile decoration, paintings, and tombstones of British cemeteries. The important findings were that their religious/secular discourses were neither a simple consumption nor rejection of Western concepts, but were quite uniquely, yet globally, developed, and that new religious figurative expressions came about due to global economic changes, beyond the East/West and tradition/modernity dichotomies.

In this study, researchers with different disciplines; art history, Hindi literature, religious studies, social anthropology, and economic history got together and discussed how groups of migrant traders from Rajasthan became a community called "Marwari" which shared a common identity and culture in 1920-30s. It was shown how important were the influence given and role played by the Marwari in the formation of 'Indian modernity' and how the Marwari exercised their power and position when they were adopting modern economic, political and law system.

This study reconsidered the Marwari, one of the most successful business communities in India. Previous studies have discussed on the strength of Marwaris in Indian industry and explored the reason for their disproportionate success, but have not understood them in a historical context of the native towns from which they migrated. Based on the field works in towns of Shekhawati, politics of identity and representations of Marwairis are discussed in this study.

本研究課題は、インド西部マハーラーシュトラ州に分布する仏教石窟寺院のうち、先行研究によって看過されてきた同州南半部の造営例を研究対象として、実地調査による最新の現状記録を行い、基礎資料を再整備することを主旨とするものである。 3年目となる平成23年度は、前年度までの基礎資料の整備という成果を踏まえて明らかとなった課題-すなわち、英領インド期の初期調査成果の言説を再検討するという課題-に取り組んだ。 この課題を遂行するにあたって実施したのは、英領インド期に集成された文献群の重点調査である。その対象は、インドの石窟寺院を実見したイギリス人の紀行文や講演録、スケッチ、写真といった記録の刊行本および未刊行史料、18世紀以降にイギリスを含む西欧で好古主義やオリエンタリズムの興隆を反映して発刊された定期刊行物、さらに英領インド最盛期に編纂・刊行された調査報告書や地誌事典である。さらに、当時のイギリスが植民地において収集した文物を、知識体系としてどのようにその支配に応用しようとしたのかを明らかにするため、植民地インド博覧会をはじめとする文化行政の目録や関連刊行物についても調査を実施した。 さらに、イギリスにおける文献調査の成果と前年度までのフィールド調査での成果を照合するため、平成24年3月にインドを訪問し、石窟寺院周辺からの出土品、あるいは石窟寺院の造営と同時期に編年される遺物を所蔵する、ニューデリー国立博物館およびチャトラパティ・シヴァージー博物館を訪問して資料調査を実施した。さらに、英領インドにおいて開催された内国博覧会の出品作を所蔵するジャイプル市博物館および付属図書館、ムンバイ市博物館において、所蔵品と当時の博覧会出品目録を調査した。