A Letter from the President
At the end of the 8th century, in 794, Heian-Kyo, the capital of Japan, was established here in Kyoto. Since that time, the city has seen the development and blossoming of a culture unique to Japan. Kyoto now retains the precious treasury of Japanese culture as she continues to inherit the tradition of artistic creation into the new millennium.
In the middle of the 19th century, in 1858, after more than two hundred years of self-imposed isolation, Japan finally opened her doors to the outside world. The raging billows of western civilization, carrying the experience of the Ages of Renaissance and of Revolution, surged over these secluded islands. Soon, in 1868, Japan moved its Emperor and capital from Kyoto to Edo, which was renamed Tokyo, or the East Capital.
In 1880, a new school of art was established in Kyoto and this was the beginning of what is now Kyoto City University of Arts as described in this prospectus. One hundred and twenty years of its history have been a continuous innovation in the higher education of art. In the future as in its past, an abiding pursuit of the creation of art based on the eternal love of beauty will continue to heighten the special quality of art education here in Kyoto, the cultural capital of Japan.
Watching young students on campus earnestly devoting themselves to the making of art and faculty encouraging the spirit of genuine creation, these lines from the poem Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot came to mind:
Time present and time pastCome visit us at Kyoto City University of Arts.
Are both perhaps present in time future
And the time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
 |
| Dr. Yasunori Nishijima |