ART a Legacy Spanning Two Millennia
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For more detailed information on Japanese government policy and other such matters, see the following home pages. Ministry of Foreign Affairs Website http://www.mofa.go.jp/ Web Japan http://web-japan.org/ ART A legacy spanning two millennia Scroll painting A scene from the 12th-century Tale of Genji Scrolls (Genji monogatari emaki), which portray events from the 11th-century novel Tale of Genji. National Treasure. © Tokugawa Art Museum iverse factors have contributed to the the beginning of the era, manufactured copper Ddevelopment of Japanese art. Both weapons, bronze bells, and kiln-fired ceramics. technologically and aesthetically, it has for Typical artifacts from the Kofun (Tumulus) many centuries been influenced by Chinese period (approximately A.D. 300 to A.D. 710) styles and cultural developments, some of that followed, are bronze mirrors, and clay which came via Korea. More recently, Western sculptures called haniwa, which were erected techniques and artistic values have also added outside of tombs. their impact. The simple stick figures drawn on dotaku, However, what emerged from this history bells produced in the Yayoi period, as well as of assimilated ideas and know-how from other the murals adorning the inside walls of tombs cultures is an indigenous expression of taste in the Kofun period, represent the origins of that is uniquely Japanese. Japanese painting. Haniwa Haniwa are unglazed earthenware sculptures The Influence of Buddhism that were paced on Ancient Times and around the great and China mounded tombs (kofun) The first settlers of Japan, the Jomon people of Japan's rulers during the 4th to 7th centuries. (roughly 10,000 B.C. to 300 B.C.), crafted Painting began to flourish in the sixth © Tokyo National Museum clay figurines called dogu, many of which century, when the ruling class took great represented women. Afterwards, the Yayoi interest in Buddhism and Buddhist culture, people (approximately 300 B.C. to A.D. 300), which had arrived from Korea and China. whose core was a different immigrant group in Paintings preserved from the late seventh and ART 1 early eighth centuries were executed in styles developed in China in the late period of the Six Dynasties (222–589). They illustrate the life of Buddha and depict other Buddhist deities. After the tenth century, painting became increasingly influenced by Jodo Shinko (Pure Land Buddhism). With impetus from the ruling class, temples A group of gilt-bronze and monastic compounds were constructed gate of Todaiji and the wooden sculptures of figurines in various locations from the late sixth to the two Indian sages, Muchaku and Seshin, at The miraculous birth of the historical Buddha early seventh century. Notable examples are Kofukuji. from the sleeve of Queen Asukadera, Shitennoji, and Horyuji. In the Zen Buddhism, which spread in the Maya (second from right). interior of these temple complexes, specially thirteenth century, introduced architecture Early 7th century. Height (of Queen Maya) 17 cm. the halls and chapels, a substantial amount of and artistic works significantly different Shijuhattai Butsu Buddhist art was commissioned. The murals from those of other sects. In the fourteenth (48 Buddhas) collection. © Tokyo National Museum in Horyuji’s Kondo (Golden Hall) are some of century, scroll painting largely gave way to the most important paintings of the period. We ink painting, which took root in the prominent can also see sculptures representing various Zen monasteries of Kamakura and Kyoto. Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and guardian deities Zen painters—and more importantly, their in these temples. Prime among them is the patrons—showed a preference for an austere Shaka Trinity, a sculpture housed at Horyuji. monochrome style, as introduced from Sung By the middle of the Heian period (794 (960–1279) and Yuan (1279–1368) China. By –1185), a clearly indigenous style, called the end of the 1400s, Zen painters and their yamato-e, had begun to replace Chinese modes patrons in Kyoto had developed a preference of painting. Yamato-e depicts the scenery for monochrome landscape painting, called around Kyoto, and its earliest examples are suibokuga. Among those Zen painters was seen on sliding and folding screens. Along Sesshu, a priest who went to China and with this new, native style came two new studied Chinese paintings. formats for painting: the album leaf and the Painting in the late sixteenth century illustrated handscroll, called emaki. The Tale was dominated by the Kano school, which of Genji Scrolls (ca 1120) are the most famous enjoyed the backing of powerful sovereigns emaki. such as Oda Nobunaga. It was a polychrome In the late twelfth century, although style that aimed for maximum effect in the power shifted remarkably from the nobility form of screen and wall painting. The most to the samurai class, the nobility, as well as remarkable figure of the school was Kano the administrators of temples and shrines, Eitoku. The Kano school continued to expand continued to retain great wealth and remained its influence, and managed to establish itself as patrons of various genres of art. The as the painting academy of the Tokugawa Kamakura period (1185–1333), whose name Shogunate. Ogata Korin, who was active is taken from the place where the new seat of in the middle of the Edo period, was also government was established, is characterized a celebrated Kano painter, famous for his by two major trends: realism, which aimed intelligent composition and novel design. to satisfy the taste of the samurai class, and conservatism, which epitomized the nobility’s The Edo Period (1600–1868) taste in art. Realism is most manifest in the form of The Tokugawa Shogunate came to power sculpture. Unkei, the most noted sculptor of in 1600 and succeeded in bringing peace and the Kei school (creators of a realistic sculptural stability to Japan, both economically and style), has among his most accomplished politically. As the merchants in Edo (later works the two Nio guardian images at the Tokyo) and Kyoto became more and more ART 2 wealthy under its regime, they began to take control of cultural activities. Paintings from the period called Kan’ei (1624 –1644) depicted people from every class of society crowding the entertainment district beside Kyoto’s Kamogawa river. Similar districts existed in Osaka and Edo, where the uninhibited lifestyle of the ukiyo (floating world) transpired, that ultimately came to be glorified by the art genre known as ukiyo-e. These ukiyo-e, which often featured brothel districts and kabuki theater, gained popularity throughout the country. First produced in the form of paintings, by the early eighteenth Ukiyo-e print An 18th-century woodblock century ukiyo-e were most commonly print by Kitagawa Utamaro. produced as woodblock prints. © Tokyo National Museum Among the first types of printed ukiyo-e themes. Émile Gallé, a French artist and glass were sex manuals called shunga (pornographic designer, used Hokusai’s sketches of fish in the pictures). These books or albums showed decoration of his vases. very explicit love scenes. There were also With the advent of the Meiji period (1868– picture books with commentary that contained 1912) and its policy of Westernization, ukiyo-e, portraits of the leading prostitutes of the time, which had always been closely linked to the typically involved in some mundane activity culture from which it drew its themes and such as washing their hair. It is their poses or vitality, began to die out quickly. the draping of their kimono that provides the Meanwhile, European painting influenced main focus of these scenes. a growing number of Japanese painters By late in the century, the core activity of late in the Edo period. Major artists such as ukiyo-e had moved from the Kyoto-Osaka Maruyama Okyo, Matsumura Goshun, and area to Edo, where portrayals of kabuki Ito Jakuchu combined aspects of Japanese, actors became standard subject matter. The Chinese, and Western styles. public also showed great fondness for ukiyo-e featuring beautiful women. Modern Times By the late eighteenth century, ukiyo-e had entered its golden age. Feminine beauty, Culture in Japan underwent a rather and especially the tall, graceful women who dramatic transformation during the Meiji appeared in the work of Torii Kiyonaga, was a period, when Western technologies and dominant theme in the 1780s. After 1790 came concepts of government began to be studied a rapid succession of new styles, introduced and, where appropriate, adapted for the good by artists whose names are so well known of the nation. In the course of this program today: Kitagawa Utamaro, Toshusai Sharaku, of modernization, Western-style painting Katsushika Hokusai, Ando Hiroshige, and received official sanction, and the government Utagawa Kuniyoshi, to single out but a few. sent a number of painters overseas to study. For some Westerners, including the greatest After some decades of rivalry between artists in Europe in the late nineteenth century, traditional Japanese-style and the new ukiyo-e was more than merely an exotic art Western-style painting, the Taisho period (1912 form. Artists such as Edgar Degas and Vincent –1926) was one in which Western influence van Gogh borrowed its stylistic composition, on the arts expanded greatly. Painters such as perspectives, and use of color. Frequent use Umehara Ryuzaburo and Yasui Sotaro studied of themes from nature, which had been rare and promoted the styles of Paul Cezanne, in Western art, widened painters’ selection of Pierre Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro. ART 3 In the pre-World War II years, however, Yasui and Umehara cast off the mostly derivative character of Western-style painting in Japan. Umehara stands out for having brought to his work elements of Japanese style, an innovation reversal that encouraged other Western-style painters in Japan to Ink painting become more interpretative.