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Leaders, Lecturers & Tour Managers

Dr Mark Erdmann

Mark is a Lecturer in Art History at the University of Melbourne. He received his doctorate in Japanese art and architectural history from Harvard University and has studied at University of London SOAS as well as the University of Tokyo, Gakushuin, Kindai University, and Osaka University. He lived for 15 years in Japan and is a specialist in Japanese pre-modern architecture. His research has focused on castles, master carpenters, as well as artistic exchange with Jesuit missionaries.

Mark first joined ASA in 2023 as lecturer for our tour entitled “Art, Architecture and History of Japan”.

Palaces, Temples and Castles in Premodern Japan – lecture by Dr Mark Erdmann

Publications
  • Performing Hegemony: Oda Nobunaga and Azuchi Castle [book in preparation]. 2026.
  • “Nebuchadnezzar’s Draw: Revisiting Philips van Winghe’s Sketches of Azuchi Castle.” Ars Orientalis 55 (2025).
  • “Azuchi Castle and Sengoku Ideology,” Beyond the Southern Barbarians: Repositioning Japan in the First Global Age, edited by Anton Schweizer Mimi Yiengpruksawan, and Mark Erdmann. Leiden: Brill. 2025.
  • co-authored with Éliane Roux. “Recent Research on the Azuchi Screens.” Journal of Asia Humanities at Kyushu University 9, no. Spring (2024): 1-23. https://catalog.lib.kyushu-u.ac.jp/opac_download_md/7172598/009_p001.pdf
  • “Japanese Art in the Hamilton Gallery” and catalogue entries in Hamilton Gallery 60th Anniversary, Hamilton: Hamilton Gallery. 2021.
  • “Symbols of Failure, of Success: Samurai Culture and Martial Architecture.” In Samurai Transformed: Warrior, Culture, Class, Commodity, edited by Rusty Kelty, Adelaide: Art Gallery of South Australia, Japan Foundation, 2020. https://www.agsa.sa.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/samurai/.
  • “Imagining ‘Southern Barbarians’: The Birth and Reception of Nanban Art in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Japan.” In The Gates of Paradise, edited by Hiroshi Sugimoto and Yukie Kamiya. New York: Japan Society New York, 2017.
Past Tours

Mark first joined ASA in 2023 and has led the following tours:

  • Art, Architecture and History of Japan (2023-2024)
Upcoming tours