This course investigates modern dimensions of globality--globalism, modernism, colonialism, and imperialism, among others--through the lens of nihonga, the so-called native tradition within modern Japanese painting. We will consider how, in a global context based on uneven relations of power, generations of contemporary artists navigated conceptions of history and geography--as well as race and ethnicity--in their artworks, sometimes in response to Japan's unusual status as an empire on the periphery. Close attention will be paid to the materials and facture of objects as well as their reception by multiple audiences.