Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Japanese Art: (1400-1800)


 Japan is a centuries-old country filled with varied stories of conquests and victories, isolation and cultural changes.  Although Japan’s history dates back before the 1400s, from the 1400s to the mid 1500s the country was involved in several Civil wars.  Powerful warriors called Daimyo took control of large parts of the islands.  The Daimyo built strong castles and fought with small armies.  Eventually, in the mid 1500s, a powerful Daimyo named Toyotomi Hideyoshi brought Japan under one rule.  Later, Tokugawa Ieyasu unified Japan and established Edo as the capital.  Edo later became known as Tokyo.  Ieyasu’s descendants ruled Japan for centuries.
By the mid 1500s, the people of the known world of Europe had begun to discover and explore new areas.  India became a center of trade for Europe and Columbus’s voyage had ushered in a wave of bolder explorers ready to take on the world.  Europeans arrived in Japan in the mid 1500s.  Their presence was welcomed until Christianity began to spread through Japan, and then leaders became worried so Japan was closed to all but the Chinese and the Dutch for the next 200 years.
Japanese artisans reacted to the changes in their country.  For centuries, traditional culture was most popular in all areas of the arts. As time went by and cultural influences changed, bigger cities had new styles of art emerge.  Kabuki theater dramas became popular and Hung Woodblock prints of city scenes became more popular (Owens 3). 
The very earliest pieces of Japanese art are mostly “monochrome pottery” with designs (Columbia University Press 1,2).  Other early pieces are jewelry and clay figurines.  In the 6th Century, Buddhists and Chinese influences on art led to Buddhist sculptures and pictures of Divinities and Legendary Figures (Columbia University Press 1,2).  Eventually, crushed mineral pigments made their way into Japanese paintings.  This emergence of color was established and monochrome pottery was a technique of the past (Sakura 1,2).  Later in the 8th Century, “traditional technical methods of Japanese painting was established” (Columbia University Press 1,2).  These paintings were on gauzelike or soft-paper using Chinese Ink and Watercolors.  These painting would be hung on scroll called a Kakemono.  This would be unrolled when on view for an audience, and rolled up when not on display (Columbia University Press 1,2).  In the 11th Century, the first native, chief painter became well known in Japan.  His name was Kanaoka.  He has a famous scroll called, “The Tale of Genji.”  It had rich color and it featured men and women in “refinement of the court during that period” (Columbia University Press 1,2).
http://sunseasky.s.u.pic.centerblog.net/kakemono20bamboo203.jpg
     From the 12th-14th Centuries, Japan had a military-based government.  Much of the artistic work of both sculptures and paintings were of warriors, priests, and officials (Columbia University Press 1,2).   At this point in history, art schools known as painting schools were established.  Each school of painting exhibited its own style (Wanczura 1-3).  The Chinese influence on painting was still strong and obvious at this time.  Yamato-e was the term to describe Japanese painting at this time (Wanczura 1-3).  Later, during the Edo Period, between the years of 1600-1800’s, Japan experienced “economic growth, strict social order and popular enjoyment of arts and culture” http://combosaurus.com/interest/edo-period  (Combosaurus BETA 1).  One of the most significant painters of this time was Katsushika Hokusai.  His most renowned pieces illustrated scenes of nature and its organic beauty.  One painting in particular is called “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa”(Kinsner 1).  
http://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/as/web-large/DP130155.jpg


         
          The medium of this painting is Polychrome Woodblock and Ink and Color on Paper.  It is one of the thirty-six pieces that illustrates the thirty-six views from Mount Fuji.  It is a smaller painting at 10x 15 inches. In “The Great Wave,” there are three boats, known as Oshiokuribune in Japanese, which are about to be swallowed by the raging, shattering waves (Kinsner 1).  The boats themselves have been painted in such a way that they take the form of the waves themselves.  As the turbulence of the waves knocks the boats every which way, the human aboard those boats are tossed off into the dangerous, angry sea.  There is a very strong use of lines and curves.  Lines extend past the piece itself.  It gives off a feeling and sensation of motion throughout the masterpiece to the audience.  Hokusai utilizes the use of cool colors with blues being the most predominant colors used.  Also, he uses the warm color of yellow in the horizon into the background.  There is a striking contrast of the white of the breaking wave and the dark of the under current.  Its as if the darkness is going to envelop the large boats and their crew. The artwork achieves equilibrium as it is balanced.  There is a balance between the turbulence of the wave the calmness and serenity of Mount Fuji the background.   This piece contains a strong focal area.  This focal area is the illustrated by the claw-like waves about to devour the fishing boats.  This piece has a strong sense of perspective.  According to Kinsner, “In the foreground, a small peaked wave forms a miniature Mt. Fuji, which is reflected hundreds of miles away in the enormous Mt. Fuji, which shrinks through perspective; the wavelet is larger than the mountain. Instead of shoguns and nobility, we see tiny fishermen huddled into their sleek crafts; they slide down a seamount and dive straight into the wave to make it to the other side. The yin violence of Nature is dismissed by the yang-relaxed confidence of expert fishermen. Oddly, though it's a sea storm, the sun is shining” (1) and (Andreas 1).  The element of chiaroscuro is present within this work of art as the waves display both black and blue hues to give it a three-dimensional feel.  The tension of the claw-like wave is better brought to life by the use of these elements of color and chiaroscuro.  According to Sporre, “Pictures can stimulate a sense of movement and activity” (64).  This is obvious in Hokusai’s art piece.  The violence of the waves is jagged lines that “create a much more dynamic and violent sensation” (Sporre 64).  Overall this masterpiece is a marvelous piece depicting the power and strength of nature.  This is obvious as Mount Fuji is represented much smaller than that of the waves (Kinsner 1). 
            At the same time period of Hoausai, the style of Rimpa became an important style of Japanese culture.  It wove itself into every part of life, including painting (Cotter 1).  According to a New York Times columnist, “the Rimpa version of nature is often highly stylized, posed, poeticized, simultaneously abstracted into ornamental patterns and rendered with fantastically detailed accuracy” (Cotter 1).    
           This school of Rimpa is evident in the screen painting, ”Fujin- Raijin” by, Tawaraya Sotatsu.  This translates to “Wind God-Thunder God.”  It is considered one of his masterpieces.  These screens would be decoration in the main room of the home.  This room would commonly be facing the garden (Davreux 1).   Fujin is the Japanese god of the wind.  He is also one of the oldest of the Shinto gods.  He was said to be a part of the creation of the world, “and when he first let the winds out of his bag, they cleared the morning mists and filled the Gate between heaven and earth so the sun shone” (Davreux 1).  Fuijin is shown a frightening, devil-like figure, on the right, with a large bag on his shoulders.  Raijin, on the left, is a god of thunder and lightning in Japanese Mythology (Davreux 1).   He got his name from the Japanese word “rai” meaning thunder and “shin” meaning god.  Normally, Raijin is depicted as a demon beating on his drums in order to create the resounding sound of thunder with the symbol tomoe drawn in the drums (Davreux 1).   

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Korin_Fujin_Raijin.jpg
            The artist uses lines as an edge to show “where one object stops and another begins” (Sporre 53).    There are definite lines showing where the figures of the two gods begin and end.  ”Fujin- Raijin” depicts predominantly warm colors, like, yellows, oranges, and reds.  There are no cool colors besides the green Fujin’s body and Raijin garments.  This screen painting is symmetrical and balanced with the characters giving equal weight to both sides.  No one character dominates the scene more than another.  To strengthen the feeling of symmetry, Raijin has a white body with a smaller use of green in his garments, while Fuijin has a green body and a smaller piece of material, a bag in this painting that is white.  The use of colors for each character is a brilliant example of the use of symmetry brought about by the use of color.  ”Fujin- Raijin” offers no scene of perspective because all the action is seen without benefit of a foreground or background.  Instead, he artist uses negative space in center and bottom.  However, it does offer a dynamic scene in that, both characters are looking towards the center and their actions seem to be fixed on whatever may be below them (Davreux 1).    
          Later, as Europeans were permitted on Japanese shores, they had an influence on Japan’s culture.  As the European’s attempted to spread Christianity, they were forced out of Japan (Owens 3).  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPFKIIBTOts&list=PL987BCADD05EBEBBB&index=26

         Another artist of this thriving artistic time in Asia was Kano Naizen.  One of his greatest pieces was a screen painting called “Southern Barbarians Come To Trade” (CHRISTIE'S 1).    The use of screens as a platform for art was a relatively new discovery and had not been published before this time.  The screens illustrate a narrative of the “dynamic conflation of East and West around 1600” (CHRISTIE'S 1).  This particular piece of art is composed of two screens.  On the left screen is a ship, known as the kurofune, setting sail from an unknown foreign land.  It is said that that land was to be China (CHRISTIE'S 1).   On the right screen, is another ship of the same form, unloading cargo in the port of Nagasaki on the West Coast of Kyushu.  This is the southernmost area of the four main islands of Japan (10).  In 1543 through 1570, Portuguese traders used the Bay of Nagasaki as the harbor for the center of their commerce.  Japanese referred to the Portuguese as Southern Barbarians riding on the ship of the Nanban, kurofune (CHRISTIE'S 1)..  Anyone not from that area of japan was considered a barbarian at this time.  After an uprising in 1638 by Christian converts, the Portuguese were expelled by the Tokugawa government in 1639. 

http://www.christies.com/lotfinderimages/d54163/d5416302l.jpg
In this screen painting, Naizen uses line in a particular way, in which objects illustrated start and end.  Each character, object, and figure within the painting has a place and situated accordingly. The use of color is dynamic throughout the large painting. There is an array of warm colors with the landscape being a yellow and the garments of the figure on land being reds and oranges.  There is also use of cool colors is depicted with the color of the sea and the greenery found in the landscape.  There is also a sense of balance between the two screens.  On both ends of each screen is a ship, the kurofune.  Within the center of the screens is a lot of action that illustrates what was occurring at the trading ports of the bays.  No side dominates over another.   The left screen has a ship on the left portion and a lot of people surrounding the ship setting sail, while the right screen depicts a city of the port and another ship in the right portion.  The colors and objects are balanced in such a way that allows the viewer to really look at the intricate detail of the entire painting itself and the story it is telling. As for a focal point, there is no one focal point within the large screen painting.  The screen painting is a representation of a story and it is a long illustration of the history of the Portuguese traders coming to the Bay of Nagasaki.  It’s a beautiful and elaborate storyline by this great artist.  The storyline allows the eye to not just focus on one area of the screen, but to start at the beginning of the screen on the left and finish the story on the most right portion.   As common in Chinese landscape art, shifting perspective is apparent.  This type of perspective refers to the technique of dividing the paper into two basic units.  These two basic units are the foreground and the background (Sporre 60).  It is in this screen painting that Naizan utilized shifting perspective.  According to Sporre, “The foreground of the painting consists of details reaching back toward the middle ground.  At this point a division occurs, so that the background and the foreground separate by an openness…[As] a break appears, the background seems to [reveal] upward or to be suspended, as if a separate entity” (60).  Shifting Perspective “reveals each part almost as though the viewer were walking through the lands.  [This] allows for a personal journey and can lead to a strong personal, spiritual impact on the viewer” (Sporre 60). 
            In conclusion, the history of Japanese art is a story that goes back many centuries in history.  Japanese art from the 1400s to the 1800s includes traditional influences from past generations as well as the influence of European travelers who changed Japanese culture and, therefore, the world of artists in Japan.  Artists were able to develop new techniques that would later influence great masters of art in the future.  Artists and their work often reflect the culture of the world around them.  Japanese art was a direct visual of the happenings and occurrences within Asia and areas around it.  From the use of albums, fans, and hand scrolls to the use of screens and hanging scrolls, Japan emerged as a very influential, artistic country of its time.  All in all, Japan and its vast impact on the artistic realm is still recognizable to this day. 


Works Cited
Andreas. "Home | Blog | Startups | Content Marketing | SEM | Docs | About | Contact." Katsushika Hokusai and Japanese Art,. Andreas.com, 2011. Web. Mar. 2013. <http://www.andreas.com/hokusai.html>.
CHRISTIE'S. "Southern Barbarians Come To Trade." CHRISTIE'S. CHRISTIES.COM, 2013. Web. Mar. 2013. <http://www.christies.com/features/southern-barbarians-come-to-trade-1281-1.aspx>.
Columbia University Press. "Encyclopedia: Japanese Art." Japanese Art. Columbia University Press, 2009. Web. Mar. 2013. <http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/Japan-art>.
Combosaurus BETA. "Edo Period." Edo Period. Combosaurus BETA, 2013. Web. Mar. 2013. <http://combosaurus.com/interest/edo-period>.
Cotter, Holland. "ART REVIEW; Boldest Color For Total Effect." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Sept. 2012. Web. Mar. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/arts/design/rimpa-painters-at-japan-society-and-the-met.html?pagewanted=all>.
Davreux, Alan. "Fujin and Raijin by Tawaraya Sotatsu." Fujin and Raijin by Tawaraya Sotatsu. N.p., 2009. Web. Mar. 2013. <http://www.alaindavreux/index.php?page=3-051-783-1>.
"The Great Wave (Japanese Art Documentary) 1/5." YouTube. YouTube, 24 May 2010. Web. Mar. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWesQcVUoKw>.
Kinsner. "Hokusai's Great Wave." Kinser's Personal Site. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, 1996. Web. Mar. 2013. <http://www.ee.umanitoba.ca/~kinsner/about/gwave.html>.
Owens, Ms. "Chapter 19: An Age of Exploration and Isolation, 1400-1800." Ms. Owens' History Site. Ballston Spa High School, 2012. Web. Feb. 2013. <http://www.bscsd.org/webpages/mowens/textbook.cfm?subpage=9481>.
PBS. "The Return of the Barbarians." YouTube. YouTube, 30 Mar. 2009. Web. Mar. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPFKIIBTOts>.
Sakura. "Japanese Painting." Japanese Painting. Gallery-Sakura, 2007. Web. Mar. 2013. <http://www.gallery-sakura.com/japanesepainting.html>.
Sporre, Dennis J. "Chapter 1: Two- Dimensional Art and Chapter 11: Artistic Styles in the Emerging Modern World." Reality Through the Arts. 8th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2012. 38+. Print.
Wanczura, Dieter. "Edutainment  Japanese Painting." Japanese Painting. Artelino, Mar.   2009. Web. Mar. 2013. <http://www.artelino.com/articles/japanese-painting.asp>.
  

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