22-+Japanese+Art+after+1392

Chapter 22- Japanese Art After 1300 

**Introduction:** Beginning with prehistoric pottery and tomb art, Japanese art gradually expanded under the infleunce of Chinese and Korean art, reaching a level of sophistication in both religious and secular arts. Japanese art is most often characterized by woodblock prints and ink painting focused around nature, asymmetry, and paradoxical or contrasting qualities.



Muromachi Period (1392-1568) **//Historical Background//** By the end of the 1300s, political and cultural dominance of emperors gave way to rule by warriors, or samurai, under the leadership of shoguns, or chiefs. 1338 - the Ashikaga family gained control of the shogunate and moved to the Muromachi district in Kyoto 1392 - reunited northern and southern Japan for more than 150 years Muromachi period (1392 - 1568), also known as the Ashikaga era, marked by ascendance of Zen Buddism which became the dominant cultural force in Japan; appealed to highly disciplined samurai
 * Only time an entire culture was strongly infleunced by Zen, continuing to inspire contemporary art and leading to a secularization and professionalism in arts



**//Ink Painting//** - Monochrome painting in black ink and diluted grays  Ink painting was hea vily influenced by the aesthetics of Zen, but it was also a shift away from the earlier Zen painting tradition in that Zen artists had concentrated on rough-hewn depictions of Zen figures such as monks or teachers, while new Japanese art becamed focused around Chinese-style landscapes

 *Artist to Know*: **Shubun**
 * was a monk and regarded as the first great master of the ink landscape, although no work survived, works of his student Bunsei did.[[image:fa20061116a1b.jpg align="right" caption="The work is full of sharp, jagged brushtstrokes. Instead of a gradual recession into space, flat overlapping planes slice the composition into crystalline facets. The harsh winter is boldly expressed"]]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">By the turn of the 16th century, monks became specialized in art rather than religious ritual or teaching. Most famous of Japanese artists was the monk <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Sesshu** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">, who traveled to China and was inspired not by the Chinese painters, but by the landscapes themselves. When he came back from his trip, Japan was drowning in a civil warfare fo <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">r the next hundred years. The violence is reflected in Sesshu's work, Winter Landscape (see right)



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**//Zen Dry Garden//**
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">gardens were used as objects of constant vigilance and work, monks combined both spiritual and physical needs by tending to gardens
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">closley related to Zen Buddhism
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">began being buklt in the 15th and 16th century
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Chinese landscape painting influecned the compositions; mini trees and stones re-created famous paintings

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">**MOMOYAMA PERIOD** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">The civil wars revealed the loyalism of the samurai to their own feudal lord, or daimyo, rather than to the central government. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">It soon became clear that only a daimyo powerful enough to unite the country could control Japan. Three leaders emerged as potential rulers:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**//Architecture//** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> **Momoyama** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;"> = bold warriors, luxurious palaces, screens shimmering with gold leaf, and ceramics
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Oda Nobunga: marched army into Kyoto and signified end to Ashikiga family
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">ruthless warrior
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">patron of the most rarefied and refined arts
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Toyotomi Hideyoshi
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">patrionized the arts as well
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">succeeder of Nobunga
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">considered culture a vital adjunt to his rule
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">overly ambitious, believing he could conquer Korea and China and wasted resources
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Tokugawa Ieyasu
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">established his shogunate in 1603
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">stablized government
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">when Europeans first impacted Japan
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">European muskets and cannons changed Japanese warfare
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">in reponse, monumental fortified castles were built
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">[[image:himeji-castle.jpg width="388" height="263" align="left"]]Himeji Castle ("White Heron") is located in Himeji and is <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> one of the most beautiful surviving castles.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Visitors must follow angular paths beneath steep walls, climb from one area to another using stone ramparts and narrow fortified gates
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">stunning 360 degree view of the countryside, strong sense of power

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> **Kano School Decorative Painting** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;"> Castles and temples were decorated, offering artists opportunites to work on a grand scale. Large murals on <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**fusuma (paper-covered sliding doors)** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;"> and gold-leaf backgroundsare distinct Momoyama designs. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;"> A school of artists founded by the Kano family and patronized by government leaders were established.

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> **//Tea Ceremonies//**
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Japanese ritual of drinking tea
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">tea was introduced as cakes and boiled, but in the late Kamakura period a different way of preparation came
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">used by Zen monks as a slight stimulation to aid meditation and a form of medicine
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Sen no Rikyu was most famous tea master
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">tea ceremoines - intimate gatherings where few people drink carefully prepared tea by their host and quietly discuss tea utensils or a Zen scroll
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">established an aesthetic of modesty, refinement, and rusticity; escape from busy and violent outside
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">traditional tea room is small, made of natural materials such as bamboo and wood, paper windows, and a floor covered with tatami mats

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">EDO PERIOD <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">ruled by Tokugawa Ieyasu; peace and prosperity came with rigid and repressive government
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Zen buddhism was the prevailing intellectual force
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Japan went into isolation
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Society was divided into four classes: Samurai -> Farmers -> Artisans -> Merchants
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Tea ceremony brought people of all different classes together for intimate conversations
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">every utensil connected with tea
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">age-old Japanese admiration for the nautral and asymmetrical is found in tea ceramics
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">An extremely subtle sense of beauty developed like the fit in the hands, subtitly of the shape and texture, and who admired it.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Rimpa School - grouping of artists with similar tastes rather than a formal school
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">excelled in decorative designs of strong expressive force, worked in several mediums
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Tawaraya Sotatsu painted finest golden screens
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Ogata Korin's lacquer writing box[[image:05_05.jpg width="231" height="160" align="right"]]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">designed to hold tools and materials for calligraphy
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">mother-of-pearl, silver, lead, and gold lacquer
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">From a famous passage of Tales of Isle, a classic of Japanese literature


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Nanga School of Painting
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">style derives from the Chinese literati tradition, with layers of calligraphic brushwork building up forms of mountains, trees, and solitary human habitation
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Zen was revived by a monk named Hakuin Ekaku
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Zen potrayed everyday subjects that were easy to understand by all
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">favorite subject was Bodhidharam - semilegendary Indian monk
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">intensity, concentration, and spiritual depth conveyed by broad and forceful brushstrokes
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Maruyama-Shijo school was formed to satisfy the demand for golden screens and decorative works of art to show off wealth
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">infleunced by Western-style "prespective pictures"
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">incorproated shading and prespective into a decorative style
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">portrayed birds, animals, hills, trees, farmers, and townsfolk

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">**//Ukiyo-E: Pictures of the Floating World//** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">media type="youtube" key="esoP3mb-mKA" height="390" width="480" <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">spread of Buddishm
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Cherry tree became symbol for beauty and joy
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">ukiyo-e : artistic genre woodblock prints or pictures of the "floating world"; represented landscapes, narratives, and pleasure
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">woodblock printing: made for the common people; pictures depicted on wood and stamped onto paper or cloth
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">first prints were in black and white, then colored by hand
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">first artists to design prints to be printed in many colors was Suzuki Harunobu (1724-70)
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">also portrayed actors of new form of popular theatre kabuki

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;"> Hokusai's The Great Wave is a scene from his Thirty Six Views of Fuji, a set of woodblock printed graphic art. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;"> New Japanese art was called japonisme

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">OTHER IMPORTANT WORKS <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">The Phoenix Hall was built in 988 and is a Buddhist temple in the city of Uji, Japan. The Phoenix Hall consists of a main, rectangular central hall flanked by two L-shaped twin wing corriders. A large artificial pond surrounds the temple. Inside is complete with Japenese-style painting and representations of the scenery around Kyoto
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">central hall, flanked by twin wing corridors on both sides of the central hall, and a tail corridor. The central hall houses an image of Amida Buddha. The roof of the hall displays statues of [|the Chinese phoenix]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">main rectangular structure flanked by two L-shaped wing corridors and a tail corridor, set at the edge of a large artificial pond
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Japanese-style painting, and contain representations of the scenery around Kyoto.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">based on events of the Heiji Rebellion
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">scene of one of 5 scrolls depicting Tale of Heiji
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">scrolls read from right to left
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">shows progression of the revolt
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">depiction of 13c warriors and accuracy of the tale is unsurpassed



Haniwa were the clay objects placed around Kofun in protohistoric Japan. They varied in size (but generally between 60-90cm in height for human statues)and subject (warriors, horses, priests)

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;">Japanese Art organized by Periods