The Sociocultural Context of the Main Themes in Surrealistic Pieces by Independent Artists Seen in Contemporary Popular Art of Japan

This thesis explores contemporary popular art in Japan. The aim of the work is to identify the main motifs and the imagery seen within the works of Japanese illustrators specializing in creation of surrealistic drawings, and then to analyze their societal and cultural roots. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were performed: the works were defined and analyzed; statistics of motifs and imagery were compiled; the most frequent ones were analyzed from a sociocultural perspective. As a result of analyzing 112 illustrations by 12 authors, research objectives were successfully fulfilled. This research employs mixed-methods. Structural analysis was combined with the semiotic and logical methods in order to carry out the analysis of the contents of illustrations. In order to determine the reasons for the motifs’ employment most objectively, additional sources of data concerning the worldview of the authors, such as their statements in social networks and personal websites, were analyzed. The first chapter of the thesis reviews the areas of Japanese art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that are relevant to the study. The field of illustration, which has increased in popularity in the past years, is argued to be a logical successor to the mass art of post-war Japan. Also, many distinctive features of Japanese surrealism can be discerned in the contemporary surrealistic illustration. Chapter Two explains the principle behind the choice of authors. Afterwards, a formal analysis of the illustrations is performed. The results are presented in Chapter Three. The most characteristic imagery and motifs of the surrealistic painting are identified and the socio-cultural analysis is carried out. The aspects were considered from the perspectives of Japanese society and culture, as well as the genres that the works are pertinent to. Keywords: surrealism, illustration, popular art of Japan, semiotics, sociocultural analysis