About the Tang Center

Andrew M. Watsky specializes in the arts of Japan, with a research focus on the 16th century. Professor Watsky’s current work centers on chanoyu, the Japanese practice of drinking tea and appreciating the diverse objects employed in its consumption, such as ceramic, lacquer, and metal vessels, paintings, calligraphies, and incense. His previous book, Chikubushima: Deploying the Sacred Arts in Momoyama Japan, examined warrior patronage of the sacred realm in the late 16th–early 17th century and, in turn, how numinous meaning was expressed in the diverse yet interconnected mediums then most highly valued; it won both the John Whitney Hall Book Prize and the Shimada Prize in 2006. He has received numerous fellowships: from the Japan Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He has an interest, as well, in recent Japanese art, which stems from an earlier career at a contemporary art gallery in Tokyo. He served as Tang Center director from 2016 to 2024.