Transitioning to a new specialization for grad school (Classics to East Asian)

[asruk]

Hi everyone! I have a bit of a strange question and I am wondering if anyone might be able to offer some advice.

I majored in classics and minored in art history, graduated in 2018. I intended to pursue a graduate degree in classical art history/archaeology. However, during my final semester, my personal life got turned upside down by health and family issues. As a result, I never got the chance to go off to grad school as planned. In the interim, I did some traveling and read up on lots of new topics. Long story short, I took a month-long trip to Japan and that sparked my interest in East Asian art.

Since then, I've begun learning Japanese and familiarizing with the field. Thus far, I've self-studied the equivalent of about 4 semesters of Japanese (based on syllabi I've found from a couple universities) and I am intending on taking classes or finding a tutor next year. I've read 2 or 3 introductory texts and I've picked up a more specific books on topics that interest me.

I have a general idea of which programs might suit me and which professors I'd like to work with (not that there are many options!!) I'd either like to teach or go into curation, so I'm likely going to apply to PhD programs.

So... My questions are, has anyone else transitioned into East Asian art, particularly Japanese art, without a formal background? What sort of preparation did you do prior to graduate school? How advanced were your language abilities upon application? And any other advice is welcome!

[Bronte1985]

Changing specializations is not uncommon but you will almost certainly need to get a MA in East Asian art first. Committees will want to make sure you're actually ready to make a scholarly contribution to the field, so you'll need to show them that you can actually read advanced Japanese texts (and preferably speak near-fluently as well) and that you have a good understanding of the field. Without a couple of years of formal training and an MA thesis in East Asian art, I'm afraid few PhD committees will be convinced that you're ready.