2019 DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion Research Grants for Academic Studies Relating to Graphic Design and Graphic Art: Selected Research Topics
Screening Process and Results
In 2019, the DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion research grants program attracted a total of 95 applications, including 79 from within Japan and 16 from overseas. This unprecedentedly large response demonstrates that research scholars today have become well aware of this program' s existence.
Starting this year, the previous Category B, which had called for research relating to graphic designer Ikko Tanaka, was revised to invite research concerning archives pertaining to graphic design and graphic art. In its new incarnation, Category B this year attracted 24 applications from scholars worldwide. This high level of interest vividly indicates the importance attached globally to archives as a fundamental base of research.
As in previous years, the grant winners for 2019 were decided in a two-part screening process: the first part consisting of evaluation of the application documents, and the second part a final evaluation session attended by the complete judging panel. After lengthy discussions of the merits of the finalists, ultimately the judges selected a total of 11 research topics to receive new grant awards: 9 in Category A, encompassing a broad array of research topics relating to graphic design or graphic art, and 2 in the redefined Category B concerning archives. In addition, 10 of the grant winners of 2018 had requested continuation of support for a second year, and after a review of these grantees' interim reports the judges approved ongoing assistance for all 10.
In evaluating the submitted applications, the judges carefully considered their respective merits from a variety of perspectives including novelty, originality, social or scholastic significance, and appropriateness as a research project. This year, in choosing the grant recipients relatively greater weight was placed on each topic' s appropriateness as a research project in terms of its intended timetable and planned usage of the grant funds. As a result, I think the applications selected this year tended to be those that involve solid, well-planned projects to be executed using sound research methods.
We wish the newly selected grant winners the greatest success in carrying out their research, and we look forward to learning of their significant results.
Hiroshi Kashiwagi
Screening Committee Chairman
DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion
Application Overview
Application Period: May 1 through July 17, 2019
Number of Applications
| Subtotal | Breakdown | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic | Overseas | ||
| Category A | 71 | 62 | 9 |
| Category B | 24 | 17 | 7 |
| Total | 95 | 79 | 16 |
2019 Selected Research Topics
| Category | Research Topic | Applicant Affiliated Institution |
Grant Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
A |
Large-scale questionnaire survey for the creation and utilization of effective medical illustrations in providing cancer information to citizens |
HARAGI Makiko Associate Professor, School of Health and Social Services, Department of Health Sciences, Saitama Prefectural University, |
500,000 JPY |
A |
A study of the social position of illustrators and the arbitrary illustration discourse of the 1980s |
TSUKADA Yutaka Teaching Associate, Department of Painting (Oil Painting), Tama Art University |
350,000 JPY |
A |
Graphic Culture in Urban Space: Research on Linguistic Landscapes in Scene Districts |
IKEDA Mariko Assistant Professor, Faculty of Art and Design, University of Tsukuba |
500,000 JPY |
A |
Research on the Works of Kamei Brothers (Shiichi/Takejiro) for the Advanced Studies of the Lithography in Modern Japan |
NAKAYAMA Eri Curator, Koriyama City Museum of Art |
500,000 JPY |
A |
Paper Gallery: Japan-U.S. Exchanges through Publication-Based Art |
HIRO, Rika Dornsife Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow, Department of Art history, University of Southern California |
500,000 JPY |
A |
Study related to Sugiura Hisui's Wartime Evacuation in Kawagoe |
ORII Takae Group Manager, Kawagoe City Art Museum |
500,000 JPY |
A |
Study on the Understanding of Duplication in the Practice of Calotype and Ambrotype in the Dawn of Japanese Photography |
ANDO Chihoko Doctoral Student, Kyoto Institute of Technology |
500,000 JPY |
A |
An economic historical study of script reform movements in early twentieth-century Japan and Germany |
KAWASHIMA Toshiki Ph.D. candidate, University of Pennsylvania |
500,000 JPY |
A |
Graphic designer and society in Italy after the Second World War: a study on Albe Steiner |
OHTA Taketo Part-time Lecturer, Chiba University |
500,000 JPY |
B |
Designing Policies and Guidelines to Enable Photographs in Private Archives to be Used by the Public: A Case Study of Photographers who Took Pictures of Women and Children |
AKUTSU Miki Assistant Professor, Department of Childhood Education and Welfare, Mejiro University |
500,000 JPY |
B |
Copyright process and procedures of the poster images open to the public in AWAZU Kiyoshi Archive |
ISHIGURO Reiko Archivist, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa |
500,000 JPY |
2019 Continuation Grants (2018 Selected Research Topics)
| Category | Research Topic | Applicant Affiliated Institution |
Grant Amount 2018 Grant Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
A |
Image, typography and ideology: constructivism in Korea in colonial era (1920-30s) |
Suna JEONG Doctoral Course, Seoul National University |
250,000 JPY 400,000 JPY |
A |
Study on Connections between Visual Culture Studies and Biology or Biomedia: Through Analysis of Graphics Created by Microorganisms |
HASEGAWA Shiho Part-time Researcher of Industry-Government-Academia Collaboration, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Saitama University |
500,000 JPY 500,000 JPY |
A |
A Study on the Ancient Mediterranean Graphic Art as a Mediator of Planar and Spatial Expressions: A Focus on the Ancient Egyptian Design Method |
YASUOKA Yoshifumi Superlative Postdoctoral Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, The University of Tokyo |
500,000 JPY 500,000 JPY |
A |
The protection of design including a graphic image: consideration of the necessity for enhanced protection by Design Act |
ASO Tsukasa Assistant Professor, Faculty of Design, Kyushu University |
500,000 JPY 500,000 JPY |
A |
Grasp of custom color name recognition by experimental psychology method and evaluation of adaptation to color systems |
YOSHIZAWA Yosuke Associate Professor, National Institute of Technology, Kisarazu College |
350,000 JPY 500,000 JPY |
A |
Phototypesetting and Optics-based Design: A Study on the History and Development of Japanese Typesetting and Book Design from the Late 1950s to the Early 1990s |
ABE Takuya Associate Professor, Faculty of Creation and Representation, Aichi Shukutoku University |
300,000 JPY 500,000 JPY |
A |
Function and Decoration of Books: A Study on the Legal Manuscripts of the Early Middle Ages |
ANDO Sayaka Research Assistant, Department of Aesthetics and Art History, Tokyo University of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts |
500,000 JPY 250,000 JPY |
A |
Transition of Media from Magazines to Original photographs in Modern Japanese Photography: Through Archiving the letters to Gallerist Etsuro Ishihara |
AOTA Yumi Etsuro Ishihara and ZEIT-FOTO SALON Archives |
500,000 JPY 500,000 JPY |
A |
Japonisme in the German-Speaking World: Focusing on the Color Woodcut by Walther Klemm and Carl Thiemann |
AOKI Kanae Curator, The Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama |
500,000 JPY 500,000 JPY |
A |
A Study of the Expression Technique Present in Ladakh's Buddhism Wall Paintings from a Graphic Viewpoint, Based on the Archives of Takao Inoue's Photographic Materials |
YAMASHITA Kohei Adjunct Lecturer, Kyoto City University of Arts |
500,000 JPY 500,000 JPY |