抄録
Among the various artworks installed in public spaces as public art, sculptures featuring nude female bodies
have recently come under increasing debate over their social appropriateness, particularly from a feminist
perspective. This paper examines the question of why nude statues are installed in public spaces. Realistic nude
statues that are not in the style of Greek mythology installed in public spaces are rare even around the world,
making this public art unique to Japan. In this paper, I investigated the history of the installation of each of the
earliest eleven nude statues installed in the early 1950s.
The installation of nude statues in public spaces, which began in the early 1950s, was not influenced by Western
countries or the creative conditions of sculptors at the time, but rather was a proactive choice to depict nude
statues. One of the factors that made this possible was that, unlike other countries such as Europe and the United States, in Japan, nude bodies and nude statues in public spaces are not rejected on religious grounds. Furthermore,
it can be inferred that there was a desire for expression involving nudity, which had not been permitted freely
since the Meiji period due to censorship and oppression.
Having thus clarified the premise, I have made four observations.
