Discovering the Arts of Japan is an image-driven history of Japanese art from the Jomon period (ca

10,500bc to 400bc) through the Meiji era (1868 to1912). Each chapter covers a chronological historical
period, discussing art forms within the context of major historical events and the social and political
background. In each period, art is examined under the subheadings of Architecture, Sculpture, Painting,
Calligraphy, Textiles, Lacquer Ware, Ceramics and Metal Ware. The book is amply illustrated with over
two hundred black and white photographs from important museums, temples and rare private
collections, with captions placed beside each photo for ease of reference. A map of Japan is provided,
and a chronology and time line with other cultures will help readers compare periods and developments
in other countries.

Discovering the Arts of Japan is a concise handy reference book for those interested in Japanese art but
who are not specialists, and will appeal equally to art history students, tourists visiting Japan and the
general public with an interest in art. Providing a comprehensive overview of the major trends in art
throughout the history of Japan, this book will provide a valuable springboard to further in-depth study
of specific periods and art forms.

“A long-needed presentation of Japanese art that concisely offers inclusive coverage from prehistoric
times to the twentieth century.” ―Choice

The uniqueness of Japanese culture rests on the fact that, throughout its history, Japan has continually
taken, adapted, and transformed diverse influences―whether from Korea, China, and the South Seas, or
Europe and America―into distinct traditions of its own. This book, an authoritative and provocative
survey of the arts of Japan from the prehistoric period to the present, brings together the results of the
most recent research on the subject. In this expanded and updated edition, a new chapter explores
Japanese art from the 1980s to the new millennium. Profusely illustrated with examples from a range of
arts as well as an extensive bibliography, Japanese Art is a concise, thought-provoking overview of a
fascinating culture. 185 illustrations, 50 in color

Japanese art
Previous (Japanese architecture)
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, calligraphy, ceramics, architecture, oil painting,
literature, drama and music. The history of Japanese art begins with the production of ceramics
by early inhabitants sometime in the tenth millennium B.C.E. The earliest complex art is
associated with the spread of Buddhism in the seventh and eighth centuries C.E. The arts in
Japan were patronized and sustained for centuries by a series of imperial courts and aristocratic
clans, until urbanizationand industrialization created a popular market for art. Both religious and
secular artistic traditions developed, but even the secular art was imbued with Buddhist
and Confucian aesthetic principles, particularly the Zen concept that every aspect of the
material world is part of an all-encompassing whole.
Over its long history, Japanese art absorbed many foreign artistic traditions and carried on
intermittent exchanges with China and Korea. When Japan came into contact with the Western
world during the 19th century, Japanese woodblock prints, paintings and ceramics had a
considerable influence on European art, particularly on cubism and impressionism. Japanese
aesthetic principles of simplicity and understatement influenced Western architecture and
design during the 20th century. Japanese artists also absorbed Western techniques and
materials and gained international audiences. Contemporary Japanese art is concerned with
themes such as self-identity and finding fulfillment in a world dominated by technology. Since
the 1990s, Japanese animation, known as anime, has become widely popular with young
people in the West.

Overview
Historically, Japan has been subject to sudden introductions of new and alien ideas
followed by long periods of minimal contact with the outside world during which foreign
elements were assimilated, adapted to Japanese aesthetic preferences, and sometimes
developed into new forms.
Like China and Korea, Japan developed both religious and secular artistic traditions.
The earliest complex art in Japan was produced in the seventh and eighth
centuries C.E. in connection with Buddhism. In the ninth century, as the Japanese began
to turn away from China, and indigenous forms of expression were developed, the
secular arts became increasingly important. A social and intellectual elite refined ink
painting, calligraphy, poetry, literature and music as forms of self-expression and
entertainment. Until the late fifteenth 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 became primarily secular. 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.
During the sixteenth century, the emergence of a wealthy merchant class and urban
areas centered around industries such as the production of textiles created a demand
for popular entertainment and for mass-produced art such as wood block prints and
picture books. In the Edo period (1603 – 1868), a style of woodblock prints called ukiyo-
e became an important art form, used to produce colorfully printed post cards, theater
programs, news bulletins and text books.
Painting is the preferred artistic expression in Japan, practiced by amateurs and
professionals alike. Ink and water color painting were an outgrowth of calligraphy; until
modern times, the Japanese wrote with a brush rather than a pen. Oil painting was
introduced when Japan came into contact with the West during the sixteenth century,
along with Western aesthetic concepts such as the use of perspective in landscapes.
Contemporary Japanese painters work in all genres including traditional ink and water
color painting, classical oil painting, and modern media.
Japanese ceramics are among the finest in the world and include the earliest known
artifacts of Japanese culture. In architecture, Japanese preferences for natural materials
and an interaction of interior and exterior space are clearly expressed.
Japan's contributions to contemporary art, fashion and architecture, are creations of a
modern, global, and multi-cultural (or acultural) bent.
History of Japanese art
Jōmon art
The first settlers of Japan, the Jōmon people (c 11,000?–c 300 B.C.E.), 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 substantial
populations. They built simple houses of wood and thatch set into shallow earthen pits
to provide warmth from the soil, and crafted lavishly decorated pottery storage vessels,
clay figurines called dogu, and crystal jewels.

Statuette with Snow Glasses, Jōmon Era

Yayoi art
The Yayoi people, named for the district in Tokyo where remnants of their settlements
first were found, arrived in Japan about 350 B.C.E., bringing their knowledge of wetland
rice cultivation, the manufacture of copper weapons and bronze bells (dōtaku), and
wheel-thrown, kiln-fired ceramics. Dōtaku (|銅鐸), smelted from relatively thin bronze
and richly decorated, were probably used only for rituals. The oldest dōtaku found date
from the second or third century B.C.E. (corresponding to the end of the Yayoi era).
Historians believe that dōtaku were used to pray for good harvests because they are
decorated with animals such as the dragonfly, praying mantis and spider, that are
natural enemies of insect pests that attack paddy fields.


A Yayoi period dōtaku, third century.

 

A Yayoi jar, first-third century, excavated in Kugahara, Ota, Tokyo, Tokyo National Museum.

Kofun art
The third stage in Japanese prehistory, the Kofun, or Tumulus, period (ca. 250–
552 C.E.), (named for the tombs) 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.


Haniwa soldier.

Haniwa horse statuette, complete with saddle and stirrups, sixth century
Asuka and Nara art

Bodhisattva, Asuka period, seventh 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 introduction of Asian continental culture took place in
Japan.
The transmission of Buddhism provided the initial impetus for contacts between
China, Korea and Japan. The earliest Japanese sculptures of the Buddha are dated to
the sixth and seventh century. In 538, the ruling monarch of Baekche, King Sông, sent
an official diplomatic mission to formally introduce Buddhism to the Japanese court, and
presented Buddhist images and sutras to the emperor.[1]
During the second half of the sixth century, Korean priests played an important role in
the propagation of Buddhism, and the influence of Korean sculptors can be traced in
Buddhist works of the Asuka period(538–710) from the Nara area.[2] After defeating the
anti-Buddhist Mononobe and Nakatomi Clans in a battle in 587, the leader of the Soga
Clan, Soga no Umako, ordered the construction of the first full scale
Buddhist monastery in Japan, the Asuka-dera. An entry from the year 588 in the Nihon
Shoki, a Japanese historical chronology, describes the numerous craftsmen who came
from Baekche to Japan to supervise work on the Asuka-dera.[3]
During this period the Japanese adapted other foreign concepts and practices which
had a profound effect on Japanese culture, including the use of Chinese written
language; historiography; complex theories of centralized government with an
effective bureaucracy; the use of coins; and the standardization of weights and
measures. New technologies, new building techniques, more advanced methods of
casting in bronze, and new techniques and media for painting brought about innovations
in Japanese art.

Horyu-ji
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
seventh century as the private temple of Crown Prince Shotoku, it consists of 41
independent buildings. The most important ones, the main worship hall,
or Kondo (Golden Hall), and Goju-no-to (Five-story Pagoda), stand in the center of an
open area surrounded by a roofed cloister. The Kondo, 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 Kondo, 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 seventh century) in homage to the recently deceased
Prince Shotoku. 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 Kondo, which is set on a high wooden base that is
decorated with figural paintings executed in a medium of mineral pigments mixed with
lacquer.


Pagoda and Kondo at Horyu-ji, eighth century

The Pagoda has certain characteristics unique to Hōryū-ji

 

Replica of Kudara Kannon in the British Museum, Hōryū-ji, late seventh century

Tōdai-ji
Constructed in the eighth century as the headquarters for a network of temples in each
of the provinces, the Tōdai-ji in Nara 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 Hokkedo (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 Shosoin. This last structure is of great importance as a historical cache, because
contains 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.


Nio Guardian at the Todai-ji, Unkei, 1203

Tōdai-ji: Openwork playing fluteBodisatva in Octagonal Lantern Tower, eighth century

 

Daibutsu of Tōdai-ji.The famous Daibutsu of Todaiji. To provide some perspective, each

finger is the size of a human.

Heian art
In 794 the capital of Japan was officially transferred to Heian-kyo (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, which began in 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 began to influence temple design. Japanese Buddhist
architecture also adopted the stupa, originally an Indian architectural form, in the style of
a 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 Muro-ji
(early ninth 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 Muro-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.

Byodoin Phoenix Hall

Nageire-dou, Tottori, eleventh century

The Ho-o-do (Phoenix Hall, completed 1053) of the Byodoin, 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 Jocho, 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 (来迎,
"welcoming approach") paintings and sculptures, depicting Amida Buddha descending
on a purple cloud at the time of a person’s death, became very popular among the
upper classes.Raigo paintings on the wooden doors of the Ho-o-do, 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, the e-maki, became well-established. 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
twelfth-century artists of the e-maki version devised a system of pictorial conventions
that visually convey 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 twelfth 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.

Emaki:Bandainagon Ekotoba, Tokiwa Mitsunaga, twelfth century

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. Of the many fine differences
in the two styles intended to appeal to the aesthetic preferences of each gender, the
most easily noticeable are the differences in subject matter. Onna-e,epitomized by
the Tale of Genji handscroll, typically dealt 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 painting
"Night Attack on the Sanjō Palace" is a famous example of this style.

PanelPictorial scroll of the Tale of Genji, 1130

Heian literature: The term “classical Japanese literature” is generally applied to

literature produced during the Heian Period. The Tale of Genji is considered the pre-
eminent masterpiece of Heian fiction and an early example of a work of fiction in the
form of a novel. Other important works of this period include the Kokin
Wakashū (905, Waka Poetry Anthology) and The Pillow Book (990s), an essay about
the life, loves, and pastimes of nobles in the Emperor's court written by Sei Shonagon.
The iroha poem, now one of two standard orderings for the Japanese syllabary, was
also written during the early part of this period. During this time, the imperial court
patronized poets, many of whom were courtiers or ladies-in-waiting, and editing
anthologies of poetry was a national pastime. Reflecting the aristocratic atmosphere,
the poetry was elegant and sophisticated and expressed emotions in a rhetorical style.
Kamakura art

Portrait of Minamoto no Yoritomo, twelfth century

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 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.
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 suprarealistic 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 Hosso sect, are
among the most accomplished realistic works of the period.
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 temple 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). The Kegon Engi Emaki combines passages of text, written in easily
readable syllables, and illustrations with the dialog 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 more conservative work 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.

Muromachi art

Ginkaku-ji, Kyoto, 1489

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. ZenBuddhism, the Ch'an sect traditionally thought to have been
founded in China in the sixth century C.E., 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 are generally only in 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 fifteenth 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 fifteenth
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 Shubun and
Sesshu. Shubun, 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. Sesshu, unlike most artists of the period, was able to journey to China and
study Chinese painting at its source. The Long Handscroll is one of Sesshu's most
accomplished works, depicting a continuing landscape through the four seasons.

Autumn Landscape, by Sesshu Toyo

Azuchi-Momoyama art
In the Momoyama period (1573-1603), a succession of military leaders, including 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. Kanō painters often worked on a large scale, painting nature scenes of
birds, plants, water, or other animals on sliding doors or screens, covering the
background with gold leaf. The school is equally renowned for its monochrome ink-on-
silk landscapes, flat pictures that balance impeccably detailed realistic depictions of
animals and other subjects in the foreground with abstract, often entirely blank, clouds
and other background elements. 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.


Chinese Lions (Karajishi), at the Museum of the Imperial Collections

Trees on sliding doors,

Cypress Tree Byōbu,Kano Eitoku, 1590

Maple, Chishaku-in, 1593

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.

Shōrin-zu byōbu, Hasegawa Tohaku

Art of the Edo period

The Siege of Osaka Castle, seventh century.

The Tokugawa shogunate of the Edo period gained undisputed control of the
government in 1603 and was largely successful in bringing peace and economic and
political stability to the country. 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, including the clothes that could be worn, the choice of a marriage
partner, and the activities that could be pursued by members of each social class.
In the early years of the Edo period, before the full impact of Tokugawa policies had
been felt, 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.
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.


Inside the Shonkin-tei at Katsura Detached Palace

Katsura Imperial Villa in Spring

Painting: The Rimpa (琳派), also romanized as Rinpa, one of the principal schools of
Japanese decorative painting, was created by the calligrapher and designer Hon'ami
Kōetsu (1558-1637) and the painter Tawaraya Sōtatsu (died c. 1643). Kōetsu’s painting
style recalled the flamboyant aristocratic genre of the Heian period. Tawaraya Sōtatsu
evolved a superb decorative style by re-creating themes from classical literature.
Sōtatsu and Kōetsu collaborated to revive Yamato-e with contemporary innovations,
creating richly embellished, intimate depictions of simple natural subjects like birds,
plants and flowers, on a background of gold leaf. Many of these paintings were used on
the sliding doors and walls (fusuma) of noble homes.
Sōtatsu popularized a technique called tarashikomi, which was carried out by dropping
one color onto another while the first was still wet. He also developed an original style of
monochrome painting, where the ink was used sensuously, as if it were color. Roughly
50 years later, the style was consolidated by brothers Ōgata Kōrin and Kenzan. The
Rimpa school reached its peak during the Genroku period (1688-1704).


Spring Landscape,unknown Rimpa school painter, eighteenth century, six-screen ink

and gold on paper.


 風神雷神図（Fūjin and Raijin）by Tawaraya Sōtatsu

Red Prunus, a pair of Screens, by Ogata Kōrin

Sculpture The Buddhist monk Enkū wandered all over Japan, carving 120,000
wooden statues of the Buddha in a rough, individual style. No two were alike. Many of
the statues were crudely carved from tree stumps or scrap wood with a few strokes of a
hatchet. Some were given to comfort those who had lost family members, others to
guide the dying on their journeys to the afterlife. Thousands of these wooden statues
remain today all over Japan, especially in Hida and Gifu.

Sudden Shower at the Atake Bridge, Hiroshige, 1856

Woodblock prints: The school of art best known in the West is that of the ukiyo-
e ("floating world") 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 seventeenth century, but the first polychrome print was produced by Harunobu in
1764. Print designers of the next generation, including Torii Kiyonaga and Utamaro,
created elegant and sometimes insightful depictions of courtesans and geisha, with
emphasis on their hair styles, makeup and fashion. Hokusai features scenic views such
as his 36 views of Mount Fuji. In the nineteenth 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.
Bunjinga: Another school of painting contemporary with ukiyo-e was Nanga (南画,
"Southern painting"), also known as Bunjinga (文人画, "literati painting"), a style based
on paintings executed by Chinese scholar-painters. Bunjin artists considered
themselves literati, or intellectuals, and shared an admiration for traditional Chinese
culture. Their paintings, usually in monochrome black ink, sometimes with light color,
and nearly always depicting Chinese landscapes or similar subjects, were patterned
after Chinese literati painting, called wenrenhua (文人画) in Chinese. Since the Edo
period policy of isolation (sakoku) restricted contact with China, the bunjin artists had
access only to Chinese woodblock-printed painting manuals and an assortment of
imported paintings ranging widely in quality. They developed their own unique form of
painting, defined to a great extent by its rejection of other major Japanese schools of
art, such as the Kano school and Tosa school. Bunjinga paintings almost always
depicted traditional Chinese subjects such as landscapes and birds and flowers,
and poetry or other inscriptions were also an important element.
Unlike other schools of art in which the founders passed on a specific style to their
students or followers, nanga concerned the individual painter’s attitude towards art and
his love of Chinese culture. Every bunjin artist displayed unique elements in his
creations, and many diverged greatly from the stylistic elements employed by their
forebears and contemporaries. The exemplars of this style are Ike no Taiga, Yosa
Buson, Tanomura Chikuden, and Yamamoto Baiitsu. As Japan became exposed to
Western culture at the end of the Edo period, bunjin began to incorporate stylistic
elements of Western art into their own, though they nearly always avoided Western
subjects.


Fish in Spring by Ike no Taiga.

Detail of Boating on the Inagawa river(1829) by Tanomura Chikuden.

Meiji art

Front view of National Diet Building

After 1867, when Emperor Meiji ascended the throne, the introduction of Western
cultural values led to a dichotomy in Japanese art between traditional values and
attempts to duplicate and assimilate a variety of new ideas. This division remained
evident in the late twentieth century, although much synthesis had already occurred,
and resulted in an international cultural atmosphere and ever-increasing innovation in
contemporary Japanese art.
By the early twentieth century, European architectural forms had been introduced and
their marriage with principles of traditional Japanese architecture produced notable
buildings like the Tokyo Train Station and the National Diet Building.
Manga were first drawn in the Meiji period, influenced greatly by English and French
political cartoons.
Painting: The first response of the Japanese to Western art forms was open
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 art critics 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.
The impetus for reinvigorating traditional painting by developing a more modern
Japanese style came largely from Okakura Tenshin and Ernest Fenollosa who
attempted to combat Meiji Japan's infatuation with Western culture by emphasizing to
the Japanese the importance and beauty of native Japanese traditional arts. These two
men played important roles in developing the curricula at major art schools, and actively
encouraged and patronized artists.
Nihonga (日本画) was not simply a continuation of older painting traditions. In
comparison with Yamato-e the range of subjects was broadened, and stylistic and
technical elements from several traditional schools, such as the Kano-
ha, Rinpa and Maruyama Okyo were blended together. The distinctions that had existed
among schools in the Edo period were minimized. In many cases Nihonga artists also
adopted realistic Western painting techniques, such as perspective and shading.
Nihonga are typically executed on washi (Japanese paper) or silk, using brushes. The
paintings can be either monochrome or polychrome. If monochrome,
typically sumi (Chinese ink) made from soot mixed with a glue from fishbone or animal
hide is used. If polychrome, the pigments are derived from natural ingredients: minerals,
shells, corals, and even semi-precious stones like garnets or pearls. The raw materials
are powdered into ten gradations from fine to sand grain textures and hide glue is used
as fixative. In both cases, water is used in the mixture. In monochrome nihonga, ink
tones are modulated to obtain a variety of shadings from near white, through grey tones
to black. In polychrome nihonga, great emphasis is placed on the presence or absence
of outlines; typically outlines are not used for depictions of birds or plants. Occasionally,
washes and layering of pigments are used to provide contrasting effects, and even
more occasionally, gold or silver leaf may also be incorporated into the painting.
Yōga (洋画) in its broadest sense encompasses oil painting, watercolors, pastels, ink
sketches, lithography, etching and other techniques developed in western culture. In a
more limited sense, Yōga is sometimes used specifically to refer to oil painting.
Takahashi Yuichi, a student of English artist Charles Wirgman, is regarded by many as
the first true Yōga painter.
In 1876, when the Kobu Bijutsu Gakko (Technical Art School) was established by the
Meiji government, foreign advisors, such as the Italian artist Antonio Fontanesi, were
hired by the government to teach Western techniques to Japanese artists, such as Asai
Chu. In the 1880s, a general reaction against Westernization and the growth in
popularity and strength of the Nihonga movement caused the temporary decline
of Yōga. The Kobu Bijutsu Gakko was forced to close in 1883, and when the Tokyo
Bijutsu Gakko (the forerunner of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music)
was established in 1887, only Nihonga subjects were taught. However, in
1889, Yōga artists established the Meiji Bijutsukai (Meiji Fine Arts Society), and in 1893,
the return of Kuroda Seiki from his studies in Europe gave fresh impetus to
the Yōga genre. From 1896, a Yōga department was added to the curriculum of
the Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko. Since that time, Yōga and Nihonga have been the two main
divisions of modern Japanese painting, reflected in education, the mounting of
exhibitions, and the identification of artists.


Kuroda Seiki, Withered Field (Grez), c.1891, oil on canvas, Kuroda Memorial Hall, Tokyo


 Kuroda Seiki, Lakeside, 1897, oil on canvas, Kuroda Memorial Hall, Tokyo

Postwar period
After World War II, many artists moved away from local artistic developments into
international artistic traditions. 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. 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, an artistic movement and association of artists founded by Jiro
Yoshihara and Shozo Shimamoto in 1954. The manifesto for the Gutai group, written by
Yoshihara in 1956, expresses a fascination with the beauty that arises when things
become damaged or decayed. The process of damage or destruction is celebrated as a
way of revealing the inner "life" of a given material or object. The work of the Gutai
group originated or anticipated various postwar genres such as performance art,
installation art, conceptual art, and wearable art.

Contemporary art in Japan

Chiho Aoshima's Mujina, 2002-2003

Contemporary Japanese art takes many forms and expressions ranging from painting,
drawing, sculpture, architecture, film and photography to advertisements, anime, and
video games. The realities of life in modern Japan, which include intensely urbanized
areas in which millions of people live in tiny spaces and have little contact with nature,
and a vacuum caused by the gradual disappearance of traditional family structures and
religious practices, have produced a new context for art, and a new set of artistic
requirements and themes. Painters, sculptors, photographers and film makers strive to
give meaning to daily existence, or simply to give expression to the conflicts and
anxieties of modern life. Many attempt to reconcile traditional values with modern
realities, and some draw from ancient artistic principles to bring beauty and fulfillment
into modern urban life. Japanese designers, sculptors and architects are committed to
creating living environments in which the public can experience some kind of spiritual
satisfaction, or re-connect with nature in the midst of the city.
Artists continue to paint in the traditional manner, with black ink and color
on paper or silk. Some depict traditional subject matter, while others use traditional
media to explore new and different motifs and styles. Other painters work in oil and
eschew traditional styles. Japan’s rapid technological and economic advancement have
provided artists with an endless supply of new media and new concepts, and with the
financial resources to develop them. Contemporary Japanese artists have a worldwide
audience. Japanese artists also excel in the fields of graphic design, commercial art
(billboards, magazine advertisements), and in video game graphics and concept art.
Anime (アニメ), or Japanese animation, first appeared around 1917[4], inspired
by cartoons imported from America. During the 1930s, Osamu Tezuka adapted and
simplified Disney animation techniques to allow him to produce animated films on a tight
schedule with inexperienced staff. Animated films Anime and television shows
experienced a surge of popularity in Japan during the 1980s and adaptations for
Western audiences became highly successful in the 1990s. Anime studios abound in
Japan. Among the best known anime artists are Hayao Miyazaki and the artists and
animators of his Studio Ghibli.
Superflat, a self-proclaimed postmodern art movement influenced
by manga and anime[5], is characterized by flat planes of color and graphic images
involving a character style derived from anime and manga. It was founded by the artist
Takashi Murakami, who uses the term “superflat” to refer to various flattened forms in
Japanese graphic art, animation, pop culture and fine arts, as well as the "shallow
emptiness of Japanese consumer culture."[6] Superflat blends art with commerce,
packaging and selling art in the form of paintings, sculptures, videos, T-shirts, key
chains, mouse pads, plush dolls, cell phone caddies, and designs for well-known brand
names.[7]Artists whose work is considered “Superflat” include Chiho Aoshima, Mahomi
Kunikata, Yoshitomo Nara, Aya Takano, and Koji Morimoto.

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
identification 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 C.E.),
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 (a form of
chanted poetry), and that were joined with native ideas to underlay the development of
vocal music, such as in Noh.


Noh mask Japan's significant and unique contributions to the fields of art in entertainment,
commercial uses, and graphic design.

Kabuki Theater

Chūnori: Kunitarō Sawamura II as Kitsune Tadanobu (left) flying over the stage, in the August
1825 production of Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura

A bunraku puppet's head. This particular puppet is a head used in Sanbasoperformances


 A selection of biwa in a Japanese museum

An ornately painted tsuri-daiko, used in gagaku music. Photo by Zhang Yuwen.

Japanese 13-stringed koto

Ceramics

Nonomura Ninsei Pine Pattern Tea Jar ca. 1660-1670

Ceramics, one of Japan's oldest art forms, dates back to the Neolithic period (ca.
10,000 B.C.E.), when the earliest soft earthenware was coil-made, decorated by hand-
impressed rope patterns (Jomon ware), and baked in the open. The pottery wheel was
introduced in the third century B.C.E.. and in the third and fourth centuries C.E., a
tunnel kiln in which stoneware, embellished with natural ash glaze, was fired at high
temperatures. The production of stoneware was refined during the medieval period and
continues today especially in central Honshu around the city of Seto. Korean potters
brought to Japan after Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Korean campaigns in 1592 and 1597
introduced a variety of new techniques and styles and discovered the ingredients
needed to produce porcelain in northern Kyushu.
The modern masters of these famous traditional kilns still employ the ancient formulas
in pottery and porcelain, creating new techniques for glazing and decoration. Ancient
porcelain kilns around Arita in Kyushu are still maintained by the lineage of the famous
Sakaida Kakiemon XIV and Imaizume Imaiemon XIII, hereditary porcelain makers to the
Nabeshima clan. In the old capital of Kyoto, the Raku family continues to produce the
famous rough tea bowls that were made there in the sixteenth century. At Mino, the
classic formulas of Momoyama-era Seto-type tea wares, such as the famous Oribe
copper-green glaze and Shino ware's prized milky glaze, have been reconstructed. At
the Kyoto and Tokyo arts universities, artist potters have experimented endlessly to
recreate traditional porcelain and its decorations.
By the end of the 1980s, many master potters were making classic wares in various
parts of Japan or in Tokyo, instead of working at major or ancient kilns. Some artists
were engaged in reproducing famous Chinese styles of decoration or glazes, especially
the blue-green celadon and the watery-green qingbai. One of the most beloved Chinese
glazes in Japan is the chocolate-brown tenmoku glaze that covered the peasant tea
bowls brought back from Southern Song China (in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries)
by Zen monks. For their Japanese users, these chocolate-brown wares embodied the
Zen aesthetic of wabi (rustic simplicity).
A folk movement in the 1920s by such master potters as Hamada Shoji and Kawai
Kanjiro revived interest in the art of the village potter. These artists studied traditional
glazing techniques to preserve native wares in danger of disappearing. The kilns at
Tamba, overlooking Kobe, continued to produce the daily wares used in the Tokugawa
period, while adding modern shapes. Most of the village wares were made
anonymously by local potters for utilitarian purposes and local styles tended to be
maintained without alteration. Kilns set up in Kyushu by Korean potters in the sixteenth
century perpetuated sixteenth-century Korean peasant wares. In Okinawa, the
production of village ware continued under several leading masters.[8]

Textiles
For centuries Japan has produced beautiful textiles decorated using a variety of
techniques including resist-dyeing, tie-dyeing and embroidery. In
early Confucian society, clothing was an important indicator of rank and social status.
Members of the upper classes wore elaborately decorated clothing made of silk, while
peasants wore clothing made of coarse homespun. During the Edo period,
when urbanization and the rise of industry and a merchant class made textiles and
clothing an even more important form of social identification. The motif, color and shape
of a garment indicated an individual’s age, geographical origin, rank, gender, social,
political and religious affiliation, and even occupation or association with a particular
group. Textiles were also used for banners, doorway curtains (noren), and
advertisements.
Tsujigahana (辻ヶ花) textiles, made using a stitched tie-dyed process enhanced with
painting that developed during the Muromachi period (1336 – 1573), are considered to
have reached the height of the Japanese textile arts. During the Edo (1603 to 1868) and
succeeding Meiji period (1868 – 1912), textiles achieved a high degree of cultural
distinction and artistic appreciation and evolved a greater range of artistic expression
based on centuries-old traditions. Away from the palace workshops, weavers, dyers and
needle workers added to local traditions by adapting foreign techniques, and revitalized
existing patterns by absorbing exotic motifs and creating innovative designs. Elite
classes commissioned complicated and diverse fabrics in silk brocades and filmy gauze
weaves. The lower classes, remaining within strictly regulated feudal guidelines for
material, patterns and colors, created new forms with bold images. Indigo dye was in
common use. Dyeing emerged as an art form in its own right, and the use of brighter
colors increased.[9]


A traditional red Uchikake kimono with cranes

A young woman wearing a kimono(Furisode).

Bonsai

John Naka's masterpiece, Goshin, is on display at the United States National Arboretum.[10]
Bonsai (盆栽, literally “tray-planted” or "potted plant") is the art
of aesthetic miniaturization of trees by training them and growing them in containers.
Bonsai are developed from seeds or cuttings, from young trees, or from naturally
occurring stunted trees transplanted into containers. The trees are manipulated by
pruning roots and branches, wiring and shaping, watering, and repotting in various
styles of containers. The bonsai artist does not duplicate nature, but rather expresses a
personal aesthetic philosophy by manipulating it. Japanese bonsai are meant to evoke
the essential spirit of the plant being used. In all cases, they must look natural and
never show the intervention of human hands.
The cultivation of bonsai, like other Japanese arts such as tea ceremony and flower
arranging, is considered a form of Zen practice. The combination of natural elements
with the controlling hand of humans evokes meditation on life and the mutability of all
things. A bonsai artist seeks to create a triangular pattern which gives visual balance
and expresses the relationship shared by a universal principle (life-giving energy, or
deity), the artist, and the tree itself. According to tradition, three basic virtues, shin-zen-
bi (standing for truth, goodness and beauty) are necessary to create a bonsai. [11]
The Japanese prize an aged appearance of the trunk and branches, and weathered-
looking exposed upper roots, expressing the aesthetic concept of wabi-sabi, “nothing
lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.” There are several aesthetic principles
which are for the most part unbroken, such as the rule that tree branches must never
cross and trees should bow slightly forward, never lean back.[12]

Japanese gardens

A spacious Japanese garden, Suizenji

Japanese gardens were originally modeled after the distinctive and stylized Chinese
gardens. Ruins of gardens from the Asuka period (538-710) indicate that they were
intended to reproduce the effect of the mountainous regions in China, expressing
Buddhist and Daoist ideals. During the Heian period (794-1185), gardens became
settings for ceremonies, amusement, and contemplation, and began to surround
residences of the upper class. Japanese gardens are designed for a variety of
purposes. Some gardens invite quiet contemplation, but may have also been intended
for recreation, the display of rare plant specimens, or the exhibition of unusual rocks.
Typical Japanese gardens have a residence at their center from which the garden is
viewed. In addition to residential architecture, Japanese gardens often contain several
of these elements:
 Water, real or symbolic.
 Rocks.
 A lantern, typically of stone.
 A teahouse or pavilion.
 An enclosure device such as a hedge, fence, or wall of traditional character.
Karesansui gardens (枯山水) or "dry landscape” gardens were influenced
by Zen Buddhism and can be found at Zen temples. No water is presents in Karesansui
gardens; instead, raked gravel or sand simulates the feeling of water. The rocks used
are chosen for their artistic shapes, and complemented with mosses and small shrubs.
The rocks and moss represent ponds, islands, boats, seas, rivers, and mountains in an
abstract landscape. Kanshoh-style gardens are designed to be viewed from a
residence; pond gardens are intended for viewing from a boat; and strolling
gardens (kaiyū-shiki), for viewing a sequence of effects from a path which
circumnavigates the garden.

Aesthetic concepts
Calligraphy of Bodhidharma, “Zen points directly to the human heart, see into your nature and become

Buddha,” Hakuin Ekaku, seventeenth century

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 were refined and developed, becoming imbued with symbolic significance
and acquiring many layers of meaning. Japanese aesthetic principles are significantly
different from those of Western traditions. Shinto animism and the Buddhist perception
that man and nature are one harmonious entity (ichi genron, monism) resulted in the
concept that art is a natural expression of the essential relationship between the artist
and the greater whole. Successful art is an expression of truth.
The media used for early art forms, ink and watercolor on silk or paper, required
spontaneity and the training of the hand to produce brushstrokes effortlessly. These
qualities, which originated with calligraphy, became essential to success in painting and
the production of ceramics.
Art forms introduced from China were emulated and eventually adapted into unique
Japanese styles. The monumental, symmetrically balanced, rational approach of
Chinese art forms became miniaturized, irregular, and subtly suggestive in Japanese
hands. 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 replaced even numbers in the regularity of
Chinese master patterns, and a pull to one side allowed a motif to turn the corner of a
three-dimensional object, adding continuity and motion that was lacking in a static
frontal design. By the twelfth century Japanese painters were using the cutoff, close-up,
and fade-out in yamato-e scroll painting.

Wabi-sabi tea bowl Azuchi-Momoyama period, sixteenth century

The Japanese had begun defining aesthetic ideas in a number of evocative phrases by
the tenth or eleventh century. Shibui (|渋い) (adjective), or shibumi(渋み) (noun), refers
to simple, subtle, and unobtrusive beauty, the essence of good taste. Wabi-sabi (侘寂),
an aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience, comes from two terms used to
describe degrees of tranquility in Zen Buddhist meditative practices: (wabi), the repose
found in humble melancholy, and (sabi), the serenity accompanying the enjoyment of
subdued beauty. Characteristics of wabi-sabi include asymmetry, asperity, simplicity,
modesty, intimacy, and suggestion of a natural process.[13] Wabi now connotes rustic
simplicity, freshness or quietness, or understated elegance. Sabi is beauty or serenity
that comes with age, when the life of the object and its impermanence are evidenced in
its patina and wear, or in any visible repairs. Mono no aware (|物の哀れ, "the pathos of
things") also translated as "an empathy toward things," is a Japanese term used to
describe the awareness of mujo or the transience of things and a bittersweet sadness at
their passing. The term was coined in the eighteenth century by the Edo-
period Japanese cultural scholar Motoori Norinaga, to describe a central theme running
through Japanese literature and art.
Zen thought also contributed the use of the unexpected to jolt the observer’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). Miniature Zen rock gardens, diminutive
plants (bonsai), and ikebana (flower arrangements), in which a few selected elements
represented a garden, were the favorite pursuits of refined aristocrats for a millennium,
and have remained a part of contemporary cultural life.
In Japanese aesthetics, suggestion is used rather than direct statement; oblique poetic
hints and allusive and inconclusive melodies and thoughts are appreciated
subconsciously, and their deeper symbolisms are understood by the trained eye and
ear.
Japanese art is characterized by unique contrasts. In the ceramics of the prehistoric
periods, for example, exuberance was followed by disciplined and refined artistry. The
flamboyance of folk music and dance was a direct contrast to the self-restrained dignity
and elegance of court music. Another example is two 16th-century structures: 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.

Influence on other artistic traditions

Japanese art, valued not only for its simplicity but also for its colorful exuberance,
considerably influenced nineteenth-century Western painting. Ukiyo-e woodcut prints
reached Europe in the mid-nineteenth century where they became a source of
inspiration for cubismand for many impressionist painters, such as Vincent van
Gogh, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Gustav Klimt. This
movement was called Japonism. Especially influential were the works of Katsshika
Hokusai and of Kitagawa Utamaro, with his use of partial views and emphasis on light
and shade. Japanese aesthetic principles of simplicity and understatement had an
impact on Western art and design during the twentieth century.
Japanese architecture influenced twentieth century Western architecture with its
emphasis on simplicity, horizontal lines, and flexible spaces. American architect Frank
Lloyd Wright was strongly influenced by Japanese spatial arrangements and the
concept of interpenetrating exterior and interior space, long achieved in Japan by using
walls made of sliding doors that opened onto covered verandas and gardens. Japanese
filmmakers such as Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Yasujiro Ozu won
international acclaim and influenced Western cinematography with their use of natural
beauty and symbolism, their attention to detail, original techniques, and the artistic
composition of even the most mundane shots.
Since the 1990s, Japanese animation has become widely popular in the West,
stimulating young artists to develop their own anime art, and becoming part of the
daily television fare of millions of young children.

Social position of 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. There was often a
distinction between professional artists employed by the court and amateur artists of the
educated aristocracy who produced literature, poetry and paintings as a form of self-
expression. Calligraphers were typically members of the Confucian literati class, or
noble samurai class. At court, both men and women participated in poetry-writing
contests. During the Heian period, women produced literature concerning life at court,
while men were commissioned to write histories and chronologies, and to compile
anthologies.
During the Kamakura period, artists of great genius were often recognized by feudal
lords who bestowed names on them, allowing them to rise socially. The performing arts,
however, were generally held in less esteem. 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, Japanese artists typically gathered in arts associations, some of
which were long-established professional societies while others reflected the latest arts
movements. The Japan Artists League 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 30 major authors'
associations. Actors, dancers, musicians, and other performing artists boasted their own
societies, including the Kabuki Society, organized in 1987 to maintain kabuki’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.

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 innovative young artists duing the late
twentieth century. Traditional apprenticeship training in the arts remains, in which
experts teach at their homes or schools 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 for 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.

Support for the arts

The Japanese government actively supports the arts through the Agency for Cultural
Affairs, set up in 1968 as a special body of the Ministry of Education. The agency's
Cultural Properties Protection Division protects Japan’s cultural heritage. The Cultural
Affairs Division is responsible for the promotion of art and culture within Japan and
internationally, arts copyrights, and improvements in the national language. It supports
both national and local arts and cultural festivals, and funds traveling cultural events in
music, theater, dance, art exhibitions, and film-making. Special prizes and grants are
offered to encourage artists and 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. The agency also supports the Japan Academy of Arts, which honors eminent
persons of arts and letters. Awards are made in the presence of the Emperor, who
personally bestows the highest accolade, the Cultural Medal.
A growing number of large Japanese corporations have collaborated with major
newspapers in sponsoring exhibitions and performances and in giving yearly prizes.
The most important of the many literary awards are the venerable Naoki Prize and the
Akutagawa Prize, equivalent to 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 is
funded largely by the mass media conglomerate Fuji-Sankei and winners are selected
from a worldwide base of candidates.
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.
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 built. In the late
1980s, Tokyo added more than 20 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.

The Earliest Patrons of Japanese Art

The 1870s was a decade of heightened interest in Japanese decorative arts in America,
engendered in part by the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876, the first official
World's Fair in the United States. Influential in furthering this fascination with Japanese
art was Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933), who assembled a collection of Asian art
that informed his designs. Similarly, Tiffany & Co.'s artistic director of silver
manufacturing, Edward C. Moore (1827–1891), and Mr. Tiffany's associate Samuel
Colman (1832–1920) both became dedicated collectors of Japanese decorative arts,
and eventually patrons of the Metropolitan.

Americans who sojourned and shopped for "curios" in Japan played a major role in
augmenting the Museum's holdings. In 1881, Stephen Whitney Phoenix (1839–1881),
an ardent supporter of New York cultural institutions, gave the first official bequest to the
Met, which included an array of fine Japanese lacquers. Charles Stewart Smith (1832–
1909) acquired more than four hundred ceramics and a selection of paintings from the
British collector Captain Frank Brinkley (1841–1912) while on honeymoon in Japan with
his third wife, in 1892. Valentine Everit Macy (1871–1930), a New York industrialist, and
his wife, Edith Carpenter Macy (1869–1925), also collected Japanese ceramics on their
1896 honeymoon in Japan. Both couples later donated their collections to the
Metropolitan. Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage (Mrs. Russell Sage, 1828–1918), a
progressive New York philanthropist, acquired for the Museum a large number
of netsuke, small sculptural toggles used to attach inrō (portable medicine cases) to
men's kimono sashes. Many of the early Japanophiles, including Bashford Dean (1867–
1928), founding curator of the Met's Department of Arms and Armor, also collected
Japanese armor, swords, and sword fittings.

View All Exhibition Objects

Selected Artworks

Opening of the Arts of Japan Galleries and Building the Collection, 1980–90s
The current Arts of Japan galleries were opened in spring 1987, under the supervision
of Curator Barbara Brennan Ford. Over eleven thousand square feet of display space
was custom designed to accommodate works of every era and medium, and to enhance
the viewing experience. The Shoin Room gives visitors a sense of a Momoyama
architectural space, while the water stone by Isamu Noguchi provides a tranquil point
and is suggestive of a Zen rock garden. The George Nakashima furniture, such as the
table and chairs in gallery 227 and the benches throughout the galleries, represents
contemporary design informed by traditional Japanese aesthetics.

A major acquisition of the 1980s was a set of early seventeenth-century panel paintings
(fusuma-e) on Chinese themes, which are on view in gallery 230. During treatment
undertaken by the Met's painting conservators, it was discovered that these works came
from the Zen monastery Ryōanji, in Kyoto, famous for its rock garden.

In 1991, Roger (1916–1995) and Peggy (1919–2000) Gerry, of Roslyn, New York,
donated a mid-sixteenth-century pair of folding screens, The Four Accomplishments. In
2000, the couple bequeathed to the Met their collection of Japanese domestic and
export porcelain. Florence and Herbert Irving, in addition to their support of South Asian
and Chinese art, have promised a superlative collection of Japanese lacquerware,
some of which was displayed at the Met in 1991–92.

View All Exhibition Objects

Selected Artworks

Japanese art
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The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Katsushika Hokusai

Sudden Shower at the Atake Bridge, Hiroshige, 1856

Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture, ink
painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, ukiyo-e paintings and woodblock prints,
ceramics, origami, and more recently manga—modern Japanese cartooning and comics—along with
a myriad of other types. It has a long history, ranging from the beginnings of human habitation in
Japan, sometime in the 10th millennium BC, to the present.
Japan has been subject to sudden invasions of new 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 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 became a major form and its
techniques were fine tuned to produce colorful prints. 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.