| Japanese Art
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Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media,
including ancient pottery, sculpture in wood and bronze, ink painting on
silk and paper and more recently manga, cartoon, along with a myriad of
other types of works of art. It also has a long history, ranging from
the beginnings of human habitation in Japan,
sometime in the 10th millennium BC, to the present.
Historically, Japan has been subject to sudden invasions of new and
alien ideas followed by long periods of minimal contact with the outside
world. Over time the Japanese developed the ability to absorb, imitate,
and finally assimilate those elements of foreign culture that
complemented their aesthetic preferences. The earliest complex art in
Japan was produced in the 7th and 8th centuries A.D. in connection with Buddhism.
In the 9th century, as the Japanese began to turn away from China and
develop indigenous forms of expression, the secular arts became
increasingly important; until the late 15th century, both religious and
secular arts flourished. After the Ōnin
War (1467-1477), Japan entered a period of political, social, and
economic disruption that lasted for over a century. In the state that
emerged under the leadership of the Tokugawa shogunate, organized religion played a much less
important role in people's lives, and the arts that survived were
primarily secular.
Painting
is the preferred artistic expression in Japan, practiced by amateurs
and professionals alike. Until modern times, the Japanese wrote with a brush
rather than a pen,
and their familiarity with brush techniques has made them particularly
sensitive to the values and aesthetics
of painting. With the rise of popular culture in the Edo
period, a style of woodblock prints called ukiyo-e
became a major art form and its techniques were fine tuned to produce
colorful prints of everything from daily news to schoolbooks. The
Japanese, in this period, found sculpture
a much less sympathetic medium for artistic expression; most Japanese
sculpture is associated with religion,
and the medium's use declined with the lessening importance of
traditional Buddhism.
Japanese ceramics are
among the finest in the world and include the earliest known artifacts
of their culture. In architecture, Japanese preferences for
natural materials and an interaction of interior and exterior space are
clearly expressed.
Today, Japan rivals most other modern nations in its contributions to
modern art, fashion and architecture, with creations of a truly modern,
global, and multi-cultural (or acultural) bent. History of
Japanese art
[edit] Jōmon art
Statuette with Snow Glasses, Jōmon Era
The first settlers of Japan, the Jōmon people (c 11000?–c 300 BC), named for the cord markings
that decorated the surfaces of their clay vessels, were nomadic
hunter-gatherers who later practiced organized farming and built cities
with population of hundreds if not thousands. They built simple houses
of wood and thatch set into shallow earthen pits to provide warmth from
the soil. They crafted lavishly decorated pottery storage vessels, clay
figurines called dogu, and crystal jewels.
[edit] Yayoi art
The next wave of immigrants was the Yayoi people, named for the district in Tokyo where
remnants of their settlements first were found. These people, arriving
in Japan about 350 BC, brought their knowledge of wetland rice
cultivation, the manufacture of copper weapons and bronze bells (dōtaku),
and wheel-thrown, kiln-fired ceramics.
[edit] Kofun art
The third stage in Japanese prehistory, the Kofun, or Tumulus,
period (c AD 250–552), represents a modification of Yayoi culture, attributable either to internal
development or external force. In this period, diverse groups of people
formed political alliances and coalesced into a nation. Typical
artifacts are bronze mirrors, symbols of political alliances, and clay
sculptures called haniwa which were erected outside tombs.
[edit] Asuka and Nara art
Pagoda and Kondō at Hōryū-ji,
8th century
During the Asuka and Nara
periods, so named because the seat of Japanese government was
located in the Asuka Valley from 552 to 710 and in the city of Nara
until 784, the first significant invasion by Asian continental culture
took place in Japan.
The transmission of Buddhism provided the initial impetus for
contacts between China, Korea and Japan. The Japanese recognized the facets of Chinese culture that could profitably be incorporated into
their own: a system for converting ideas and sounds into writing; historiography; complex theories of
government, such as an effective bureaucracy;
and, most important for the arts, new technologies, new building
techniques, more advanced methods of casting in bronze,
and new techniques and media for painting.
Throughout the 7th and 8th centuries, however, the major focus in
contacts between Japan and the Asian continent was the development of
Buddhism. Not all scholars agree on the significant dates and the
appropriate names to apply to various time periods between 552, the
official date of the introduction of Buddhism into Japan, and 784, when
the Japanese capital was transferred from Nara. The most common
designations are the Suiko period, 552–645; the Hakuhō period, 645–710, and the Tenpyō period, 710–784.
The earliest Japanese sculptures of the Buddha are dated to the 6th
and 7th century.[1]
They ultimately derive from the 1st-3rd century CE Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara,
characterized by flowing dress patterns and realistic rendering, on
which Chinese and Korean artistic traits were superimposed.[2]
These indigenous characteristics can be seen in early Buddhist art in Japan and some early
Japanese Buddhist sculpture is now believed to have originated in Korea,
particularly from Baekje, or Korean artisans who immigrated to Yamato
Japan.[3]
Particularly, the semi-seated Maitreya form was adapted into a highly
developed Korean style which was transmitted to Japan as evidenced by
the Kōryū-ji Miroku
Bosatsu and the Chūgū-ji Siddhartha
statues. Although many historians portray Korea as a mere transmitter
of Buddhism, the Three Kingdoms, and particularly Baekje, were
instrumental as active agents in the introduction and formation of a
Buddhist tradition in Japan in 538 or 552.[4]
They illustrate the terminal point of the Silk Road
transmission of Art during the first few centuries of our era. Other
examples can be found in the development of the iconography of the
Japanese Fūjin
Wind God,[5]
the Niō guardians,[6]
and the near-Classical floral patterns in temple
decorations.[7]
The earliest Buddhist structures still extant in Japan, and the
oldest wooden buildings in the Far East
are found at the Hōryū-ji
to the southwest of Nara. First built in the early 7th century as the
private temple of Crown Prince Shōtoku, it consists of 41 independent buildings.
The most important ones, the main worship hall, or Kondō (Golden
Hall), and Gojū-no-tō (Five-story Pagoda),
stand in the center of an open area surrounded by a roofed cloister. The
Kondō, in the style of Chinese worship halls, is a two-story structure of
post-and-beam construction, capped by an irimoya,
or hipped-gabled roof of ceramic tiles.
Inside the Kondō, on a large rectangular platform, are some of
the most important sculptures of the period. The central image is a
Shaka Trinity (623), the historical Buddha flanked by two bodhisattvas,
sculpture cast in bronze by the sculptor Tori
Busshi (flourished early 7th century) in homage to the recently
deceased Prince Shōtoku. At the four corners of the platform are the Guardian Kings of the Four Directions, carved in
wood around 650. Also housed at Hōryū-ji
is the Tamamushi Shrine, a wooden
replica of a Kondō, which is set on a high wooden base that is
decorated with figural paintings executed in a medium of mineral
pigments mixed with lacquer.
Temple building in the 8th century was focused around the Tōdai-ji
in Nara. Constructed as the headquarters for a network of temples in
each of the provinces, the Tōdaiji is the most ambitious religious
complex erected in the early centuries of Buddhist worship in Japan.
Appropriately, the 16.2-m (53-ft) Buddha (completed 752) enshrined in
the main Buddha hall, or Daibutsuden, is a Rushana Buddha,
the figure that represents the essence of Buddhahood, just as the
Tōdaiji represented the center for Imperially sponsored Buddhism and its
dissemination throughout Japan. Only a few fragments of the original
statue survive, and the present hall and central Buddha are
reconstructions from the Edo
period.
Clustered around the Daibutsuden on a gently sloping hillside are a
number of secondary halls: the Hokke-dō
(Lotus Sutra Hall), with its principal image, the Fukukenjaku
Kannon (the most popular bodhisattva), crafted
of dry lacquer (cloth dipped in lacquer and shaped over a wooden
armature); the Kaidanin
(Ordination Hall) with its magnificent clay statues of the Four Guardian Kings; and the storehouse, called the Shōsōin.
This last structure is of great importance as an art-historical cache,
because in it are stored the utensils that were used in the temple's
dedication ceremony in 752, the eye-opening ritual for the Rushana
image, as well as government documents and many secular objects owned by
the Imperial family.
[edit] Heian art
Bandainagon Ekotoba, Tokiwa Mitsunaga, 12th century
In 794 the capital of Japan was officially transferred to Heian-kyō
(present-day Kyoto),
where it remained until 1868. The term Heian period refers to the years between 794
and 1185, when the Kamakura shogunate was established at the end of the Genpei
War. The period is further divided into the early Heian and the
late Heian, or Fujiwara era, the pivotal date being 894, the
year imperial
embassies to China were officially discontinued.
Early Heian art: In reaction to the growing wealth and power
of organized Buddhism in Nara, the priest Kūkai
(best known by his posthumous title Kōbō Daishi, 774-835) journeyed to
China to study Shingon, a form of Vajrayana
Buddhism, which he introduced into Japan in 806. At the core of Shingon
worship are mandalas, diagrams of the spiritual universe, which
then began to influence temple design. Japanese Buddhist architecture
also adopted the stupa, originally an Indian architectural form, in its
Chinese-style pagoda.
The temples erected for this new sect were built in the mountains,
far away from the Court and the laity in the capital. The irregular
topography of these sites forced Japanese architects to rethink the
problems of temple construction, and in so doing to choose more
indigenous elements of design. Cypress-bark roofs replaced those of
ceramic tile, wood planks were used instead of earthen floors, and a
separate worship area for the laity was added in front of the main
sanctuary.
The temple that best reflects the spirit of early Heian Shingon
temples is the Murō-ji (early 9th century), set deep in a stand of
cypress trees on a mountain southeast of Nara. The wooden image (also
early 9th c.) of Shakyamuni, the "historic" Buddha, enshrined
in a secondary building at the Murō-ji,
is typical of the early Heian sculpture, with its ponderous body,
covered by thick drapery folds carved in the hompa-shiki
(rolling-wave) style, and its austere, withdrawn facial expression.
Fujiwara art: In the Fujiwara
period, Pure Land Buddhism, which
offered easy salvation through belief in Amida (the Buddha of the Western Paradise),
became popular. This period is named after the Fujiwara family, then the most powerful
in the country, who ruled as regents for the Emperor, becoming, in
effect, civil dictators. Concurrently, the Kyoto nobility developed a
society devoted to elegant aesthetic pursuits. So secure and beautiful
was their world that they could not conceive of Paradise as being much
different. They created a new form of Buddha hall, the Amida hall, which
blends the secular with the religious, and houses one or more Buddha
images within a structure resembling the mansions of the nobility.
The Hō-ō-dō (Phoenix Hall, completed 1053) of the Byōdōin, a temple in Uji
to the southeast of Kyoto, is the exemplar of Fujiwara Amida halls. It
consists of a main rectangular structure flanked by two L-shaped wing
corridors and a tail corridor, set at the edge of a large artificial
pond. Inside, a single golden image of Amida (c. 1053) is installed on a
high platform. The Amida sculpture was executed by Jōchō,
who used a new canon of proportions and a new technique (yosegi),
in which multiple pieces of wood are carved out like shells and joined
from the inside. Applied to the walls of the hall are small relief
carvings of celestials, the host believed to have accompanied Amida when
he descended from the Western Paradise to gather the souls of believers
at the moment of death and transport them in lotus blossoms to
Paradise. Raigō paintings on the wooden doors of the
Hō-ō-dō, depicting the Descent of the Amida Buddha, are an early example
of Yamato-e,
Japanese-style painting, and contain representations of the scenery
around Kyoto.
E-maki: In the last century of the Heian period, the
horizontal, illustrated narrative handscroll, known as e-maki (絵巻, lit. "picture scroll"), came to
the fore. Dating from about 1130, the illustrated 'Tale of Genji' represents one of the high points
of Japanese painting. Written about the year 1000 by Murasaki Shikibu, a lady-in-waiting to the Empress Akiko, the
novel deals with the life and loves of Genji and the world of the Heian
court after his death. The 12th-century artists of the e-maki
version devised a system of pictorial conventions that convey visually
the emotional content of each scene. In the second half of the century, a
different, livelier style of continuous narrative illustration became
popular. The Ban Dainagon Ekotoba (late 12th century), a
scroll that deals with an intrigue at court, emphasizes figures in
active motion depicted in rapidly executed brush strokes and thin but
vibrant colors.
E-maki also serve as some of the earliest and greatest
examples of the otoko-e
(Men's pictures) and onna-e
(Women's pictures) styles of painting. There are many fine differences
in the two styles, appealing to the aesthetic preferences of the
genders. But perhaps most easily noticeable are the differences in
subject matter. Onna-e, epitomized by the Tale of Genji
handscroll, typically deals with court life, particularly the court
ladies, and with romantic themes. Otoko-e, on the other hand,
often recorded historical events, particularly battles. The Siege of the Sanjō Palace (1160),
depicted in the "Night Attack on the Sanjō Palace" section of the Heiji Monogatari handscroll is a
famous example of this style.
[edit] Kamakura art
In 1180 a war broke out between the two most powerful warrior clans,
the Taira and the Minamoto; five years later the Minamoto emerged
victorious and established a de facto seat of government at the seaside
village of Kamakura, where it remained until 1333.
With the shift of power from the nobility to the warrior class, the arts
had to satisfy a new audience: men devoted to the skills of warfare,
priests committed to making Buddhism available to illiterate commoners,
and conservatives, the nobility and some members of the priesthood who
regretted the declining power of the court. Thus, realism, a
popularizing trend, and a classical revival characterize the art of the Kamakura period. In the Kamakura period, Kyoto and Nara
remained the centers of artistic production and high culture.
Sculpture: The Kei
school of sculptors, particularly Unkei,
created a new, more realistic style of sculpture. The two Niō guardian images (1203) in the Great South
Gate of the Tōdai-ji in Nara illustrate Unkei's dynamic
supra-realistic style. The images, about 8 m (about 26 ft) tall, were
carved of multiple blocks in a period of about three months, a feat
indicative of a developed studio system of artisans working under the
direction of a master sculptor. Unkei's polychromed wood sculptures
(1208, Kōfuku-ji, Nara) of two Indian sages, Muchaku and Seshin, the legendary founders of the Hossō sect, are among the most
accomplished realistic works of the period; as rendered by Unkei, they
are remarkably individualized and believable images. One of the most
famous works of this period is an Amitabha Triad (completed in 1195), in Jōdo-ji in Ono, created by Kaikei,
Unkei's successor.
Calligraphy and painting: The Kegon Engi
Emaki, the illustrated history of the founding of the Kegon sect,
is an excellent example of the popularizing trend in Kamakura painting.
The Kegon sect, one of the most important in the Nara period, fell on
hard times during the ascendancy of the Pure Land sects. After the Genpei War
(1180-1185), Priest Myōe of Kōzan-ji
sought to revive the sect and also to provide a refuge for women
widowed by the war. The wives of samurai had been discouraged from
learning more than a syllabary system for transcribing sounds and ideas
(see kana),
and most were incapable of reading texts that employed Chinese
ideographs (kanji).
Thus, the Kegon Engi
Emaki combines passages of text, written with a maximum of
easily readable syllables, and illustrations that have the dialogue
between characters written next to the speakers, a technique comparable
to contemporary comic strips. The plot of the e-maki, the lives
of the two Korean priests who founded the Kegon sect, is swiftly paced
and filled with fantastic feats such as a journey to the palace of the
Ocean King, and a poignant love story.
A work in a more conservative vein is the illustrated version of Murasaki Shikibu's diary. E-maki
versions of her novel continued to be produced, but the nobility,
attuned to the new interest in realism yet nostalgic for past days of
wealth and power, revived and illustrated the diary in order to
recapture the splendor of the author's times. One of the most beautiful
passages illustrates the episode in which Murasaki Shikibu is playfully
held prisoner in her room by two young courtiers, while, just outside,
moonlight gleams on the mossy banks of a rivulet in the imperial garden.
[edit] Muromachi art
During the Muromachi period (1338-1573), also called
the Ashikaga period, a profound change took place in Japanese culture.
The Ashikaga clan took control of the shogunate and moved its
headquarters back to Kyoto, to the Muromachi
district of the city. With the return of government to the capital,
the popularizing trends of the Kamakura period came to an end, and
cultural expression took on a more aristocratic, elitist character. Zen Buddhism,
the Ch'an sect traditionally thought to have been
founded in China in the 6th century CE, was introduced for a second time
into Japan and took root.
Painting: Because of secular ventures and trading missions to
China organized by Zen temples, many Chinese paintings and objects of
art were imported into Japan and profoundly influenced Japanese artists
working for Zen temples and the shogunate. Not only did these imports
change the subject matter of painting, but they also modified the use of
color; the bright colors of Yamato-e yielded to the monochromes of painting in the Chinese manner,
where paintings generally only have black and white or different tones
of a single color.
Typical of early Muromachi painting is the depiction by the
priest-painter Kao (active early 15th century) of the
legendary monk Kensu (Hsien-tzu in Chinese) at the moment he achieved
enlightenment. This type of painting was executed with quick brush
strokes and a minimum of detail. 'Catching a Catfish with a Gourd'
(early 15th century, Taizo-in, Myoshin-ji, Kyoto), by the priest-painter Josetsu
(active c. 1400), marks a turning point in Muromachi painting. Executed
originally for a low-standing screen, it has been remounted as a hanging
scroll with inscriptions by contemporary figures above, one of which
refers to the painting as being in the "new style." In the foreground a
man is depicted on the bank of a stream holding a small gourd and
looking at a large slithery catfish. Mist fills the middle ground, and
the background mountains appear to be far in the distance. It is
generally assumed that the "new style" of the painting, executed about
1413, refers to a more Chinese sense of deep space within the picture
plane.
The foremost artists of the Muromachi period are the priest-painters Shūbun and Sesshū. Shūbun, a monk at the Kyoto temple of Shokoku-ji, created in the painting Reading
in a Bamboo Grove (1446) a realistic landscape with deep recession
into space. Sesshū, unlike most artists of the period, was able to
journey to China and study Chinese painting at its source. Landscape
of the Four Seasons (Sansui Chokan; c. 1486) is one of
Sesshu's most accomplished works, depicting a continuing landscape
through the four seasons.
[edit] Azuchi-Momoyama art
In the Momoyama period
(1573-1603), a succession of military leaders, such as Oda
Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, attempted to bring peace and political
stability to Japan after an era of almost 100 years of warfare. Oda, a
minor chieftain, acquired power sufficient to take de facto
control of the government in 1568 and, five years later, to oust the
last Ashikaga shogun. Hideyoshi took command after Oda's death, but his
plans to establish hereditary rule were foiled by Ieyasu, who
established the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603.
Painting: The most important school of painting in the
Momoyama period was that of the Kanō
school, and the greatest innovation of the period was the formula,
developed by Kano Eitoku, for the
creation of monumental landscapes on the sliding doors enclosing a room.
The decoration of the main room facing the garden of the Juko-in, a
subtemple of Daitoku-ji (a Zen temple in Kyoto), is perhaps
the best extant example of Eitoku's work. A massive ume
tree and twin pines are depicted on pairs of sliding screens in
diagonally opposite corners, their trunks repeating the verticals of the
corner posts and their branches extending to left and right, unifying
the adjoining panels. Eitoku's screen, 'Chinese Lions', also in Kyoto,
reveals the bold, brightly colored style of painting preferred by the
samurai.
Hasegawa Tohaku, a
contemporary of Eitoku, developed a somewhat different and more
decorative style for large-scale screen paintings. In his 'Maple Screen',
now in the temple of Chishaku-in,
Kyoto, he placed the trunk of the tree in the center and extended the
limbs nearly to the edge of the composition, creating a flatter, less
architectonic work than Eitoku, but a visually gorgeous painting. His
sixfold screen, 'Pine Wood', is a
masterly rendering in monochrome ink of a grove of
trees enveloped in mist.
[edit] Art of the Edo period
The Tokugawa shogunate gained undisputed
control of the government in 1603 with a commitment to bring peace and
economic and political stability to the country; in large measure it was
successful. The shogunate survived until 1867, when it was forced to
capitulate because of its failure to deal with pressure from Western
nations to open the country to foreign trade. One of the dominant themes
in the Edo period was the repressive policies of the shogunate and the
attempts of artists to escape these strictures. The foremost of these
was the closing of the country to foreigners and the accoutrements of
their cultures, and the imposition of strict codes of behavior affecting
every aspect of life, the clothes one wore, the person one married, and
the activities one could or should not pursue.
In the early years of the Edo
period, however, the full impact of Tokugawa policies had not yet
been felt, and some of Japan's finest expressions in architecture and
painting were produced: Katsura Palace in Kyoto and the paintings of Tawaraya Sōtatsu, pioneer of the Rimpa school.
Sudden Shower at the Atake Bridge, Hiroshige,
1856
Architecture: Katsura Detached
Palace, built in imitation of Genji's palace, contains a cluster of shoin buildings that
combine elements of classic Japanese architecture with innovative
restatements. The whole complex is surrounded by a beautiful garden with
paths for walking. Many of powerful Daimyo
(feudal lords) built a Circuit style Japanese garden in the territory country, and
competed for the beauty.
Painting: Sōtatsu evolved a superb decorative style by
re-creating themes from classical literature, using brilliantly colored
figures and motifs from the natural world set against gold-leaf
backgrounds. One of his finest works is the pair of screens The Waves at
Matsushima in the Freer Gallery in
Washington, D.C. A century later, Korin reworked Sōtatsu's style and
created visually gorgeous works uniquely his own. Perhaps his finest are
the screen paintings of red and white plum blossoms.
Sculpture The Buddhist monk Enkū
carved 120,000 Buddhist images in a rough, individual style.
Woodblock prints and Bunjinga: The school of art best known in
the West is that of the ukiyo-e paintings and woodblock prints of the demimonde, the world of the kabuki
theater and the brothel district. Ukiyo-e prints began to be produced in
the late 17th century, but in 1764 Harunobu produced the first
polychrome print. Print designers of the next generation, including Torii Kiyonaga and Utamaro,
created elegant and sometimes insightful depictions of courtesans. In
the West, erotic woodblock "prints" became popular because the material
was not otherwise available. In that sense, such niche prints did more
to promote Japanese art in the West than art studies.
In the 19th century the dominant figure was Hiroshige,
a creator of romantic and somewhat sentimental landscape prints. The
odd angles and shapes through which Hiroshige often viewed landscape,
and the work of Kiyonaga and Utamaro, with its emphasis on flat planes
and strong linear outlines, had a profound impact on such Western
artists as Edgar Degas and Vincent van Gogh.
Another school of painting contemporary with ukiyo-e was Bunjinga, a style based on paintings executed by
Chinese scholar-painters. Just as ukiyo-e artists chose to depict
figures from life outside the strictures of the Tokugawa shogunate,
Bunjin artists turned to Chinese culture. The exemplars of this style
are Ike no Taiga, Yosa
Buson, Tanomura Chikuden, and Yamamoto
Baiitsu.
[edit] Art of the Prewar
period
When Emperor of Japan regained ruling power in 1868, Japan
was once again invaded by new and alien forms of culture. During the Prewar period, The introduction of Western cultural values
led to a dichotomy in Japanese art, as well as in nearly every other
aspect of culture, between traditional values and attempts to duplicate
and assimilate a variety of clashing new ideas. This split remained
evident in the late twentieth century, although much synthesis had by
then already occurred, and created an international cultural atmosphere
and stimulated contemporary Japanese arts toward ever more innovative
forms.
By the early 20th century, European art forms were well introduced
and their marriage produced notable buildings like the Tokyo Train Station and the National Diet Building that still
exist today.
A lot of artistic new Japanese gardens were built with Jihe Ogawa.
Manga
were first drawn in the Meiji period, influenced greatly by English and
French political cartoons.
Architecture: Tokyo Station, a building of Giyōfū architecture, full of bricks and
pseudo-European style. This style buildings were built in urban area.
Painting: The first response of the Japanese to Western art
forms was open-hearted acceptance, and in 1876 the Technological
Art School was opened, employing Italian instructors to teach
Western methods. The second response was a pendulum swing in the
opposite direction spearheaded by Okakura Kakuzo and the American Ernest Fenollosa, who encouraged Japanese artists to
retain traditional themes and techniques while creating works more in
keeping with contemporary taste. Out of these two poles of artistic
theory developed Yōga (Western-style painting) and Nihonga
(Japanese painting), categories that remain valid to the present day.
[edit] Art of the Postwar
period
After the end of World War II in 1945, many
artists began working in art forms derived from the international scene,
moving away from local artistic developments into the mainstream of
world art. But traditional Japanese conceptions endured, particularly in
the use of modular space in architecture, certain spacing intervals in
music and dance, a propensity for certain color combinations and
characteristic literary forms.
Art from 1603
to 1945
(Edo period and Prewar period) were supported by merchants. Counter to
Edo period and Prewar period, art of Postwar
period was changed to the art which is supported by people as
consumers. The wide variety of art forms available to the Japanese
reflect the vigorous state of the arts, widely supported by the Japanese
people and promoted by the government. In the 1950s and 1960s, Japan's
artistic avant garde included the internationally
influential Gutai group, which originated or anticipated
various postwar genres such as performance art, installation art, conceptual art, and wearable
art.
American art and architecture greatly influenced Japan. Though fear
of earthquakes severely restricted the building of a skyscraper,
technological advances let Japanese build larger and higher buildings
with more artistic outlooks.
As Japan has always made little distinction between 'fine art' and
'decorative art', as the West is first beginning to do, it is important
to note Japan's significant and unique contributions to the fields of
art in entertainment, commercial uses, and graphic design. Cartoons
imported from America led to anime that
at first were derived exclusively from manga stories. Today, anime
abounds, and many artists and studios have risen to great fame as
artists; Hayao Miyazaki and the artists and animators
of Studio Ghibli are generally regarded to be among the best
the anime world has to offer. Japan also flourishes in the fields of graphic
design, commercial art (e.g. billboards, magazine advertisements),
and in video game graphics and concept art.
[edit] Contemporary art in
Japan
Japanese modern art takes as many forms and expresses as many
different ideas as modern art in general, worldwide. It ranges from
advertisements, anime, video games, and architecture as already
mentioned, to sculpture, painting, and drawing in all their myriad
forms.
Many artists do continue to paint in the traditional manner, with
black ink and color on paper or silk. Some of these depict traditional
subject matter in the traditional styles, while others explore new and
different motifs and styles, while using the traditional media. Still
others eschew native media and styles, embracing Western oil paints or
any number of other forms.
In sculpture, the same holds true; some artists stick to the
traditional modes, some doing it with a modern flair, and some choose
Western or brand new modes, styles, and media. Yo Akiyama is
just one of countless modern Japanese sculptors. He works primarily in
clay pottery and ceramics, creating works that are very simple and
straightforward, looking like they were created out of the earth itself.
Another sculptor, using iron and other modern materials, built a large
modern art sculpture in the Israeli
port city of Haifa,
called Hanabi (Fireworks).
Takashi Murakami is arguably one of the
most well-known Japanese modern artists in the Western world. Murakami
and the other artists in his studio create pieces in a style, inspired
by anime, which he has dubbed "superflat".
His pieces take a multitude of forms, from painting to sculpture, some
truly massive in size. But most if not all show very clearly this anime
influence, utilizing bright colors and simplified details.
[edit] Performing arts
A remarkable number of the traditional forms of Japanese music,
dance, and theater have survived in the contemporary world, enjoying
some popularity through reidentification with Japanese cultural values.
Traditional music and dance, which trace their origins to ancient
religious use - Buddhist, Shintō,
and folk
- have been preserved in the dramatic performances of Noh, Kabuki,
and bunraku
theater. Ancient court music and dance forms deriving from continental
sources were preserved through Imperial household musicians and temple
and shrine troupes. Some of the oldest musical instruments in the world
have been in continuous use in Japan from the Jōmon period, as shown by finds of stone and clay flutes and zithers
having between two and four strings, to which Yayoi
period metal bells and gongs were added to create early musical ensembles. By
the early historical period (sixth to seventh centuries CE), there were a
variety of large and small drums, gongs, chimes,
flutes, and stringed instruments, such as the imported mandolin-like biwa and the
flat six-stringed zither, which evolved into the thirteen-stringed koto. These instruments formed the
orchestras for the seventh-century continentally derived ceremonial
court music (gagaku), which, together with the accompanying bugaku (a
type of court dance), are the most ancient of such forms still performed
at the Imperial court, ancient temples, and shrines. Buddhism
introduced the rhythmic chants, still used, that underpin Shigin,
and that were joined with native ideas to underlay the development of
vocal music, such as in Noh.
[edit] Aesthetic concepts
Calligraphy of Bodhidharma, “Zen points directly to the human
heart, see into your nature and become Buddha”, Hakuin
Ekaku, 17th century
Japanese art is characterized by unique polarities. In the ceramics
of the prehistoric periods, for example, exuberance was followed by
disciplined and refined artistry. Another instance is provided by two
16th-century structures that are poles apart: the Katsura Detached
Palace is an exercise in simplicity, with an emphasis on natural
materials, rough and untrimmed, and an affinity for beauty achieved by
accident; Nikkō Tōshō-gū is a rigidly symmetrical structure
replete with brightly colored relief carvings covering every visible
surface. Japanese art, valued not only for its simplicity but also for
its colorful exuberance, has considerably influenced 19th-century
Western painting and 20th century Western
architecture.
Japan's aesthetic conceptions, deriving from diverse cultural
traditions, have been formative in the production of unique art forms.
Over the centuries, a wide range of artistic motifs developed and were
refined, becoming imbued with symbolic significance. Like a pearl, they
acquired many layers of meaning and a high luster. Japanese aesthetics
provide a key to understanding artistic works perceivably different from
those coming from Western traditions.
Within the East Asian artistic tradition, China has
been the acknowledged teacher and Japan the devoted student.
Nevertheless, several Japanese arts developed their own style, which can
be differentiated from various Chinese arts. The monumental,
symmetrically balanced, rational approach of Chinese art forms became
miniaturized, irregular, and subtly suggestive in Japanese hands.
Miniature rock gardens, diminutive plants (bonsai),
and ikebana
(flower arrangements), in which the selected few represented a garden,
were the favorite pursuits of refined aristocrats for a millennium, and
they have remained a part of contemporary cultural life.
The diagonal, reflecting a natural flow, rather than the fixed
triangle, became the favored structural device, whether in painting,
architectural or garden design, dance steps, or musical notations. Odd
numbers replace even numbers in the regularity of a Chinese master
pattern, and a pull to one side allows a motif to turn the corner of a
three-dimensional object, thus giving continuity and motion that is
lacking in a static frontal design. Japanese painters used the devices
of the cutoff, close-up, and fade-out by the twelfth century in yamato-e,
or Japanese-style, scroll painting, perhaps one reason why modern
filmmaking has been such a natural and successful art form in Japan.
Suggestion is used rather than direct statement; oblique poetic hints
and allusive and inconclusive melodies and thoughts have proved
frustrating to the Westerner trying to penetrate the meanings of
literature, music, painting, and even everyday language.
The Japanese began defining such aesthetic ideas in a number of
evocative phrases by at least the tenth or eleventh century. The courtly
refinements of the aristocratic Heian period evolved into the elegant
simplicity seen as the essence of good taste in the understated art that
is called shibui. Two terms originating from Zen Buddhist
meditative practices describe degrees of tranquility: one, the repose
found in humble melancholy (wabi),
the other, the serenity accompanying the enjoyment of subdued beauty (sabi).
Zen thought also contributed a penchant for combining the unexpected or
startling, used to jolt one's consciousness toward the goal of
enlightenment. In art, this approach was expressed in combinations of
such unlikely materials as lead inlaid in lacquer and in clashing poetic
imagery. Unexpectedly humorous and sometimes grotesque images and
motifs also stem from the Zen koan (conundrum). Although the arts have
been mainly secular since the Edo
period, traditional aesthetics and training methods, stemming
generally from religious sources, continue to underlie artistic
productions.
[edit] Artists
Traditionally, the artist was a vehicle for expression and was
personally reticent, in keeping with the role of an artisan or
entertainer of low social status. The calligrapher, a member of the Confucian
literati class, or noble samurai class in Japan, had a higher status, while
artists of great genius were often recognized in the Kamakura period by receiving a name from a feudal lord and
thus rising socially. The performing arts, however, were generally held
in less esteem, and the purported immorality of actresses of the early Kabuki
theater caused the Tokugawa government to bar women from the stage; female
roles in Kabuki and Noh thereafter were played by men.
After World War II, artists typically gathered in arts associations,
some of which were long-established professional societies while others
reflected the latest arts movement. The Japan
Artists League, for example, was responsible for the largest number
of major exhibitions, including the prestigious annual Nitten (Japan
Art Exhibition). The P.E.N. Club of Japan (P.E.N. stands for prose,
essay, and narrative), a branch of an international writers'
organization, was the largest of some thirty major authors'
associations. Actors, dancers, musicians, and other performing artists
boasted their own societies, including the Kabuki Society,
organized in 1987 to maintain this art's traditional high standards,
which were thought to be endangered by modern innovation. By the 1980s,
however, avant-garde painters and sculptors had eschewed all groups and
were "unattached" artists.
[edit] Art schools
There are a number of specialized universities for the arts in Japan,
led by the national universities. The most important is the Tokyo Arts University, one of
the most difficult of all national universities to enter. Another
seminal center is Tama
Arts University in Tokyo, which produced many of Japan's late
twentieth- century innovative young artists. Traditional training in the
arts, derived from Chinese traditional methods, remains; experts teach
from their homes or head schools working within a master-pupil
relationship. A pupil does not experiment with a personal style until
achieving the highest level of training, or graduating from an arts
school, or becoming head of a school. Many young artists have criticized
this system as stifling creativity and individuality. A new generation
of the avant-garde has broken with this tradition,
often receiving its training in the West. In the traditional arts,
however, the master-pupil system preserves the secrets and skills of the
past. Some master-pupil lineages can be traced to the Kamakura period,
from which they continue to use a great master's style or theme.
Japanese artists consider technical virtuosity as the sine
qua non of their professions, a fact recognized by the rest of
the world as one of the hallmarks of Japanese art.
The national government has actively supported the arts through the Agency for Cultural Affairs, set
up in 1968 as a special body of the Ministry of Education. The agency's budget for FY 1989 rose
to ¥37.8 billion after five years of budget cuts, but still represented
much less than 1 percent of the general budget. The agency's Cultural
Affairs Division disseminated information about the arts within Japan
and internationally, and the Cultural Properties Protection Division protected the
nation's cultural heritage. The Cultural Affairs Division is concerned
with such areas as art and culture promotion, arts copyrights, and
improvements in the national language. It also supports both national and
local arts and cultural festivals, and it funds traveling cultural
events in music, theater, dance, art exhibitions, and filmmaking.
Special prizes are offered to encourage young artists and established
practitioners, and some grants are given each year to enable them to
train abroad. The agency funds national museums of modern art in Kyoto
and Tokyo and the Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, which exhibit both
Japanese and international shows. The agency also supports the Japan
Academy of Arts, which honors eminent persons of arts and letters,
appointing them to membership and offering ¥3.5 million in prize money.
Awards are made in the presence of the Emperor, who personally bestows the highest accolade, the Cultural Medal.
[edit]
Private
sponsorship and foundations
Arts patronage and promotion by the government are broadened to
include a new cooperative effort with corporate Japan to provide funding
beyond the tight budget of the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Many other
public and private institutions participate, especially in the
burgeoning field of awarding arts prizes. A growing number of large
corporations join major newspapers in sponsoring exhibitions and
performances and in giving yearly prizes. The most important of the many
literary awards given are the venerable Naoki
Prize and the Akutagawa Prize, the latter being the equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize in the United States.
In 1989 an effort to promote cross-cultural exchange led to the
establishment of a Japanese "Nobel
Prize" for the arts, the Premium Imperiale, by the Japan
Art Association. This prize of US$100,000 was funded largely by the
mass media conglomerate Fuji-Sankei
and was awarded on a worldwide selection basis.
A number of foundations promoting the arts arose in the 1980s,
including the Cultural Properties Foundation set up to preserve historic
sites overseas, especially along the Silk
Road in Inner Asia and at Dunhuang
in China.
Another international arrangement was made in 1988 with the United
States Smithsonian Institution for
cooperative exchange of high-technology studies of Asian artifacts. The
government plays a major role by funding the Japan Foundation, which provides both institutional and
individual grants, effects scholarly exchanges, awards annual prizes,
supported publications and exhibitions, and sends traditional Japanese
arts groups to perform abroad. The Arts Festival held for two months
each fall for all the performing arts is sponsored by the Agency for
Cultural Affairs. Major cities also provides substantial support for the
arts; a growing number of cities in the 1980s had built large centers
for the performing arts and, stimulated by government funding, were
offering prizes such as the Lafcadio
Hearn Prize initiated by the city of Matsue. A number of new municipal museums were
also providing about one-third more facilities in the 1980s than were
previously available. In the late 1980s, Tokyo added
more than twenty new cultural halls, notably, the large Cultural
Village built by Tokyo
Corporation and the reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe
Theatre. All these efforts reflect a rising popular enthusiasm for
the arts. Japanese art buyers swept the Western art markets in the late
1980s, paying record highs for impressionist
paintings and US$51.7 million alone for one blue period Picasso.
- ^ metmuseum.org
- ^
"Needless to say, the influence of Greek art on Japanese Buddhist art,
via the Buddhist art of Gandhara and India, was already partly known in,
for example, the comparison of the wavy drapery of the Buddha images,
in what was, originally, a typical Greek style" (Katsumi Tanabe,
"Alexander the Great, East-West cultural contacts from Greece to Japan",
p19)
- ^ buddhapia.com
- ^ [1]
- ^
"The Japanese wind god images do not belong to a separate tradition
apart from that of their Western counter-parts but share the same
origins. (...) One of the characteristics of these Far Eastern wind god
images is the wind bag held by this god with both hands, the origin of
which can be traced back to the shawl or mantle worn by Boreas/ Oado." (Katsumi Tanabe, "Alexander the
Great, East-West cultural contacts from Greece to Japan", p21)
- ^
"The origin of the image of Vajrapani
should be explained. This deity is the protector and guide of the
Buddha Sakyamuni. His image was modelled after that of Hercules. (...)
The Gandharan Vajrapani was transformed in Central Asia and China and
afterwards transmitted to Japan, where it exerted stylistic influences
on the wrestler-like statues of the Guardina Deities (Niō)." (Katsumi
Tanabe, "Alexander the Great, East-West cultural contacts from Greece to
Japan", p23)
- ^
The transmission of the floral scroll pattern from West to East is
presented in the regular exhibition of Ancient Japanese Art, at the Tokyo National Museum.
[edit] See also
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