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Art of the Non-Western World

Chapter 9: Korea and Japan

Chapter Learning Objectives

Understand the unique character of Korean and Japanese arts, cultures, and histories.

Explain the influence of China on the development of Korean and Japanese art, literature and culture and how each nation internalized these Chinese cultural elements.

Describe how the arts of each nation were impacted by the events and aftermath of the Second World War.

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Neolithic Korea (8000-1500 BCE)

The first evidence of pottery making in Korea comes from the site of Gosan-ni on Jeju-do Island, where plain and applique-decorated Yunggimun ware sherds, dating to 8000 BCE or earlier, were found.

A millennium later a new type of potter, Jeulmum meaning “comb-patterned” appeared at several sites in Korea and continued to be made until the end of the NeolithicJeulmum wares were utilitarian and have been found in pit-house excavations rather than in tombs.

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Korea, Jeulmum Conical Vessel from Amsa-dong, c. 4000 BCE

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9.1 Korea, Jeulmum Conical Vessel from Amsa-dong, c. 4000 BCE, Collection of the British Museum. Jeulmum wares were utilitarian wares that often show ancient repairs, the typical combed and punctate decoration probably had practical as well as aesthetic purposes. National Museum of Korea. Found here: https://readtiger.com/wkp/en/Korean_art. Under CC license

Around 7,000 BCE Jeulmum pottery appears on the Korean Peninsula and becomes the dominant form.

The term Jeulmum means “comb-patterned” and specifically describes a style of conical vessels decorated by combing and cord-wrapping techniques, dating from 7000 to 1500 BCE.

Jeulmum wares were utilitarian and have been found in pit-house excavations rather than in tombs.The village of Amsa-dong, one of many Jeulmum sites, was settled around 4500 BCE.

The manufacture of coiled pottery begins at that time and continues without interruption until about 1500 BCE when it ceased entirely. Typical Amsa-dong vessels are conical in shape with a pointed foot for anchoring in the coals of a cooking fire.

Repeated heating caused these low-fired wares to crack so many vessels show ancient repair holes.

Typical decoration consists of bands of punctuation and diamond-shapes around the mouth, and comb-marks in several directions on the body of the vessel.

Three Kingdoms Period (c. 57 BCE to CE 668)

The first Korean kingdom mentioned in Chinese accounts was the Gojoseon founded by Dangun Wanggom in 2333 BCE according to legend.

The Han Chinese conquered Gojoseon in 108 BCE, and established their colony at Lelang (Liaoning Province).

Half a century later, the peninsula was divided into three states: the Kingdom of Goguryeo in the north, and those of Silla and Baekje in the south.

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Korea, Three Kingdoms, Goguryeo, Tonggou necropolis, Tomb of the Dancers, 5th century CE

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9.2 Korea, Three Kingdoms, Goguryeo, Tonggou necropolis, Tomb of the Dancers, 5th century CE. The murals on this tomb’s walls showed activities ranging from hunting to feasting that were enjoyed by the occupant during his lifetime. The views of the different activites were broken by the painted architecture of a pavillion; notice the post and bracket at the right side of the image. Dancers (closeup). Muyong Tomb, 5th century A.D. Ji'an city, Jilin province, China

According to the 12th century Samguk Sagi, the Goguyeo kingdom was founded in 37 BCE by Prince Jumong from Buyeo (Manchuria), who had fled conflicts at the royal court.

The largest of the three states, Goguryeo expanded during the reign of King Gwanggaeto (r. 391-412 CE) from northern Korea conquering most of Manchuria. Goguryeo’s strong army and cavalry enabled it to repel repeated attempts at invasion from China.

In times of peace it prospered culturally through its successive relations with Han, Sui, and Tang China, receiving knowledge of silk-making, the Chinese writing system, the potter’s wheel and climbing kiln, mural painting techniques and motifs, Buddhism, and Confucian philosophy.

Han Chinese influence on the art of Goguryeo is most evident in the decoration of a group of mural tombs located in the necropolis on the Tonggou Plain (today Ji’an, China).

Some 10,000 tombs make up the necropolis, which is located near the ancient ruins of Kuknaesong, the second capital of Goguryeo.

Several types of tombs are found in the necropolis, including stone cairns, stone-chambered tombs that are covered by earthen mounds, and large stone-pile tombs, the most famous of which is the stepped-pyramid Tomb of the General, thought to be the mausoleum of the 20th Goguryeo ruler, King Jangsu (r.413-491).

The Tomb of the Dancers is modest in scale and consists of two rooms: a small front room and a main chamber connected by a passageway. The stone walls of both rooms were covered with a plaster mix of seaweed and slaked lime and then the murals were added in the wet fresco technique.

The figures were outlined in black and then filled in with a somber palette consisting of dark red, brown, and yellow. The murals of the front room include scenes of houses and trees on the east wall and horse saddles to suggest a stable on the west.

The occupant of the tomb and two male guests, possibly monks, are depicted on the north wall. Within the main chamber are scenes of activities that the decedent enjoyed in life. The entire west wall is a hunting scene in which five bowmen on horseback chase deer and tigers through a mountainous landscape. The north wall shows the decedent enjoying a banquet while an acrobat performs the “rolling lights” act around a burning lamp.

The Tomb takes its name from the entertainment depicted on the east wall: a scene of two female and three male dancers engaged in an animated line dance in front of an attentive audience. The male dancers wear loose trousers and jackets while the women wear long robes over ballooning pants. Elsewhere on the wall musicians and singers provide accompaniment for the dancers, and servants bring out food from a pavilion to the banquet on the north wall.

In each corner of the room is a tromp l’oeil column with ornate corbeled brackets extending up to a beam at the ceiling, giving the effect of being within a pavilion looking out at the various scenes.

Korea, King Muryeong Tomb, Geumjegwansik diadems, c. 501-523 CE, gold, 12 in. high

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9.3 Korea, King Muryeong Tomb, Geumjegwansik diadems, c. 501-523 CE, gold, 12 in (30 cm) high, Collection of the Gongju National Museum. These fragile gold ornaments would have been attached to the sides of the ruler’s black silk cap. Photo by J.T. Williams distributed under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

The Kingdom of Baekje was founded in 18 BCE by King Onjo, a prince of Goguryeo. Baekje was the most international of the three kingdoms having diplomatic relations with both China and Japan.

Although they adopted Buddhism in 384 CE, the Baekje kings continued to construct tumulus-style mausoleums on Mount Songsan. The most famous of these is the tomb of King Muryeong (r. 501-523 CE) and his queen, discovered in 1971.

The tomb held nearly 3,000 burial offerings including gold and silver items, Chinese celadon ceramics, and stone mirrors. Unique among the gold items in Muryeong’s tomb are a pair of diadems in the form of flowering trees with an overall flame shape. It is thought that these pieces originally would have been hooked through rings at the base of the tree trunk to the left and right sides of king’s black silk headpiece.

The two openwork ornaments, known collectively as Geumjegwansik, were found stacked one on top of the other near the ruler’s head in the tomb.

The diadems differ slightly in size; the larger measuring approximately 12x 5.5 inches, and the second being about a half inch shorter and a quarter inch narrower; both were cut from gold sheets only seven-hundredths of an inch (2 mm) thick. To increase the play of light and perhaps add an element of sound, the diadems were decorated with small gold danglers.

Korea, Silla, Hwangnam Daechong , North Tomb, Gold Crown, 5th century CE, gold with jade jewels, 10.75 in. high

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9.4 Korea, Silla, Hwangnam Daechong , North Tomb, Gold Crown, 5th century CE, gold with jade jewels, 10.75 in. (27.30 cm), Collection of the National Museum of Korea. The elements of this crown symbolize the ruler’s role as an intermediary between the celestial and terrestrial realms. National Museum of Korea

The Silla kingdom was formed in 57 BCE when the leaders of the six confederated Saro-guk villages decided on a power-sharing plan that rotated kingship among the heads of the three strongest clans: Park, Kim, and Seok.

The arrangement continued for four centuries until the Kim established a hereditary monarchy. Silla society was highly stratified according to the “bone system.” The highest rank, from which the ruler was selected, was the “sacred bone.” To be eligible to rule an individual must have royal blood “sacred bone” on both sides of the family. On three occasions the throne passed to queens when no suitable male was available.

Until the end of the 6th century when they converted to Buddhism, the Silla kings and queens were buried in tombs constructed in their capital city of Gyeongju.

The Hwangnam Daechong mound is a double tomb with the burial of a king in the south mound and that of a queen, buried later, in the north mound. Both tombs were constructed similarly; each began with the laying out of a stone perimeter wall that defined the size of the mound. In the center of that space a log chamber was constructed for the entombment of the king.

Around the burial vault more posts were sunk into the tumulus floor to serve as stabilizing piers for the fill mass. Once the posts were in place and adjusted in height to correspond to the desired shape of the mound, stone rubble was added and then a final layer of earth.

The Silla Gold Crown excavated from the North (Queen’s) tomb of the Hwangnam Daechong is the most elaborate diadem yet found in Korea.

Prior to the adoption of Buddhism as the state religion, the Silla rulers practiced shamanism. Elements of the crown reflect those beliefs. At the center point of the crown’s gold band is a vertical element with three horizontal branches, representing the world tree or axis mundi. Flanking the tree are pairs of antler-shaped elements and two wing-like extensions.

The crown is decorated with claw-shaped jade jewels called gogok and circular gold danglers. Suspended from the side of the band, and set to frame the wearer’s face, are gold chains ornamented with gogok or with leaf-like gold elements.

Korea, Gyeongju, Chomsongdae observatory, c. 632-647 CE, 30 ft. high

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9.5 Korea, Gyeongju, Chomsongdae observatory, c. 632-647 CE, 30 ft. (9.17 m) high. This first Asian observatory was built on the palace grounds by Queen Sondok who was keenly interested in astronomy. Photo by Zsinj distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

One of the great Silla monarchs, Queen Sondok (r. 632-647 CE) was keenly interested in astronomy and during her reign built the Chomsondae observatory on the palace grounds in Gyeongju.

The 30-foot high, milk-bottle shaped tower sits on 17.6 foot square base made up of twelve stones arranged three to a side. These represent the four seasons and twelve months of the lunar year.

The tower rises in 27 tiers referencing the number of days required for the moon to orbit the earth as well as the Queen Sondok’s position as the 27th monarch in the line of succession. A total of 362 granite blocks were used in the construction of the cylinder; this number equals the number of days in the lunar year.

The tower was filled with gravel up to the level of the entry door to create a floor for the interior ladder up to the viewing platform. The platform is only large enough to accommodate one seated adult at a time.

The Unified Silla (668-935 CE)

The Three Kingdoms did not coexist peacefully, frequently at war with each other until the Silla, with the assistance of Tang China, conquered the Kingdoms of Baekje (660 CE) and Goguryeo (668 CE).

However, when the victories had been achieved the Chinese refused to withdraw. Together with its recently subjugated neighbors, Silla repelled the Tang and established the Unified Silla kingdom, the first state to unite the peninsula.

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Korea, Sokkuram Grotto, Buddha, c. 750-775 CE, granite, 11 ft. high

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9.6 Korea, Sokkuram Grotto, Buddha, c. 750-775 CE, granite, 11 ft. (3.5 m) high. Stylistically, this monumental Buddha is a mix of Indian Gupta and Chinese Northern Wei elements. Photo by Richard Fabi distributed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

After their conversion to Buddhism, the Silla monarchs sponsored the building of numerous Buddhist temples and shrines around their capital, believing that by doing so they would secure protective forces that would keep the city safe from attack from their enemies.

Kim Tae-song designed two of the most important Buddhist shrines of the United Silla era. Few facts are known about Kim Tae-song’s life other than he was an official in the court of King Kyongdok (r. 742-765) and that he died in 774 CE.

The two temples Sokkuram Grotto and Bulguksa were said to have been built to honor his parents in his previous and current lives respectively. Unfortunately, the original Bulguksa Temple was destroyed in the Japanese invasion of 1592. The Sokkuram Grotto, while looted of some of its sculptures during Japanese rule, fared better.

Sokkuram Grotto, located on Mt. Tohan, is a unique structure in the history of Buddhist architecture. It combines the idea of the mountain temple in its location, the rock-cut cave temple in concept, and the Indian stupa in its hemispherical form. The mountain was one of the five protective peaks surrounding the capital but its granite core made leveling a space for a mountain temple or excavating a traditional cave temple impractical.

Instead, Kim Tae-song created a built cave, using massive granite blocks to construct the chamber and entrance corridor. The stone structure was then covered with a layer of earth to give it the essence of a cave.

The site selected for the temple offered the additional problem of moisture rising from underground springs so Kim Tae-song designed a series of channels under the floor to increase air circulation and keep the chamber dry.

Sokkuram was oriented so that the rays of the sun, on the morning of the spring equinox, entering through the east doors, illuminate the Buddha statue in the center of the rotunda.

Unfortunately, the name of the sculptor who carved the Sokkuram Buddha from a single block of white granite was not recorded. The statue measures slightly more than eleven feet tall and rests on a four-foot high pedestal.

Stylistically the Sokkuram Buddha is a mix of Indian Gupta elements, such as scorpion-sting curls and fan-fold hem pleats, with Northern Wei interpretations derived from Gandharan prototypes. The Chinese influence is seen in the heavier torso and more rounded face.

The identity of the Buddha enshrined in Sokkuram is a matter of debate among scholars. As he seems to be performing the Touching the Earth Mudra, he is sometimes identified as Shakyamuni Buddha, but considering the Korean concepts of geomancy, this as gesture as one of protecting the land.

If the story of Kim Tae-song’s creation of the shrine as a memorial of filial piety is correct, then the Buddha would most likely represent Amitabha Buddha, the Buddha of the Western Paradise. Kim Tae-song’s connection to nearby Bulguksa temple offers a third possibility that the figure represents Vairocana, the Cosmic Buddha who is venerated there.

On the lower walls of the chamber are low relief figures of ten disciples and five bodhisattvas including the eleven-headed Kwanum (Avalokitshivara), associated with Amitabha Buddha. However, the figures in the niches on the upper wall are figures of devas associated with the cardinal directions and constellations, suggesting Vairocana.

Later Three Kingdoms and Goryeo

At the end of the 9th century the peninsula was again divided into three kingdoms when Baekje and Goguryeo broke away from the Unified Silla. They formed the Later Baekje and Later Goguryeo kingdoms.

However, in 935 CE, Wang Geon usurped the throne of the Later Goguryeo, conquered Baekje and Silla, and united the peninsula under the Kingdom of Goryeo.

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The Goryeo kings were enlightened rulers, abolishing slavery, reforming the government, and promoting the arts and literature, including the writing of the first Korean histories, and the carving of the Tripitaka, a collection of woodblocks for the printing of all known Buddhist texts.

When the palace library was burned in 1126 CE, King Injong (r. 1122-1146 CE) had the casters at his royal mint adapt coin casting techniques to produce bronze type, creating the first movable metal type some three hundred years before Europeans. In 1231 the Mongols invaded Korea and the Goryeo became a vassal state of the Yuan Empire.

Korea, Goryeo Dynasty, Maebyeong Vase with Cranes and Clouds, 13th century CE

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9.7 Korea, Goryeo dynasty, Maebyeong Vase with Cranes and Clouds, 13th century CE, stoneware with inlaid designs and celadon glaze, 11.50 in (29.2 cm) tall, Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While celadon glazes were introduced from China, Korean potters perfected them. The inlaid cranes on this vase are auspicious symbols. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund 1927

Under Goryeo patronage celadon or “Chongja” ceramics reached perfection. The first celadon wares are thought to have been introduced from China with Chan Buddhism and tea. Korean celadons are high-fired, light grey or buff colored stoneware vessels coated with a feldspathic glaze that turns various shades of bluish-green when reduction fired.

Korean ceramic artists invented a number of decorative techniques for celadon that are unknown elsewhere, including reticulated openwork designs and sanggam or inlaid decoration.

The Maebyeong Vase with Cranes and Clouds is a form derived from China. This type of tall vessel with a small mouth was used for displaying a single branch of blossoming plum. The cranes and clouds, traditional symbols of longevity, decorating its surfaces look to be fluidly painted but they are actually inlaid.

Using the technique known as sanggam, the artist incised the design into vessel when the clay reached a leather-hard consistency. The excavated areas were filled with either white clay as in the cranes or reddish- brown clay that would turn black when fired as in the legs and beaks of the birds and the outlines of the clouds.

After bisque-firing, the vessel was given a transparent celadon glaze that allowed the inlaid colors to show through. Goryeo potters also used copper-oxide underglazes to add touches of red to their designs.

Korea, Goryeo, Water Moon Avalokitesvara, 1310 CE

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9.8 Korea, Goryeo, Water Moon Avalokitesvara, 1310 CE, ink and color on silk, 16 x 9 ft. (4.8 x 2.7 m), Collection of Kagami Jinjya Temple, Karatsu, Japan. This monumental scale painting was the work of several court artists who painted it as an offering to the Bodhisattva and a request for his protection of the country. Kagami Jinjya Temple, Karatsu, Japan

Several genres of painting flourished at the cosmopolitan Goryeo court. Close relationships with Song China inspired Korean nobles to imitate their Chinese counterparts in taking up painting as a means of meditation and intellectual cultivation. Unfortunately, very few Goryeo paintings have survived to the present day. Only 160 examples are known, mostly Buddhist subjects, and a majority of those are in Japan.

A popular subject of the era was the Water Moon Avalokitesvara or Gwanseeum-bosal; thirty-eight examples are known. Among the surviving works is a monumental 16 by 9 foot silk hanging scroll in the Kagami Jinjya (Shinto) Temple in Karatsu, Japan.

The scroll was created by a team of painters working at the court of King Chungseon (r. 1308-1313), under the direction of Queen Kim. The painting depicts the Bodhisattva seated on his mountain island home of Potalaka. In his right hands he holds the blue lotus that identifies him.

In China and Korea Avalokitesvara often appears feminine since compassion was believed to be a characteristic of that gender but the Bodhisattva is capable of manifesting in any form necessary to teach a particular supplicant.

The painting is based on a story from the Flower Garland Sutra in which the youth Sudhana seeks enlightenment through visits to fifty-three great sages.

In the scroll, Sudhana is the childlike figure in the lower right who is approaching the Bodhisattva. The scroll is thought to have been commissioned as a supplication to the Bodhisattva to release Korea from Mongol domination. Not long after this scroll was painted, it was taken by marauding pirates to Japan.

Great Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910)

The defeat of the Yuan Dynasty in 1368, also freed Korea from Mongol domination.

Despite the return of political autonomy, the Goryeo kingdom was beset with political strife, and persistent incursions by Manchus and Japanese pirates.

After repulsing Japanese mauraders, the Goryeo General Yi Seong-gye was ordered to move north and attack Ming China, but instead, he executed a coup d’état, taking the throne as King Taejo.

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Silhak Movement

In a period of less than 40 years beginning at the end of the 16th century, Korea was invaded first by the Japan and then by the Manchu Qing, who forced the Joseon into a tributary relationship.

After the invasions, the Silhak or “Practical Learning” Movement urged Koreans to look to local sources to solve the country’s economic and social problems.

Under Silhak, Korean painters were encouraged to look for indigenous subjects and scenes rather than continuing to imitate Chinese models.

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Korea, Jeong Seon, General View of Mount Geumgansan, 1734 CE

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9.10 Korea, Jeong Seon (1676-1759), General View of Mt.Geumgansan, 1734 CE, ink and color on paper, 51.5 x 37 in, (130.7 x 94.1 cm), Collection of the Ho-Am Art Museum. Inspired by the Silhak movement, Jeong painted this accurate landscape of the especially craggy Korean mountain. Ho-Am Art Museum

Jeong Seon was born into an aristocratic family and served as a local magistrate. He took up painting at the age of thirty-five and worked as an artist until his death.

Under the influence of Silhak, Jeong devised a new highly realistic approach to landscape painting, which he termed “jingyeong sansuhwa” or “true-view painting.”

True-view painting required the artist to go out into the countryside and paint directly from nature, essentially painting en plein air almost a century before the Barbizon painters in Europe.

Jeong is best known for his many ink and watercolor paintings of Mount Geumgangsan in the Taebaek range that runs along the eastern coast of the peninsula. In his famous painting of the mountain, General View of Mt Geumgansan, Jeong details in firm contour lines the thousands of Geumangangsan’s shard-like granite peaks, which erupt from verdant valleys.

Blue washes suggest mist rising from distant parts of the mountain. In a manner reminiscent of An Gyon, Jeong contrasts the large barren sharps rising on the right side of the mountain with a section on the left of softer, foliage covered peaks. Separating the two is a narrow valley in which an almost unseen Buddhist monastery is nestled.

Korea, Shin Ka-gwon, A Scenery on Dano Day, c. 1805 CE

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9.11 Korea, Shin Ka-gwon (1758-c.1813), A Scenery on Dano Day, c. 1805, ink and color on paper, Collection of the Gansong Art Museum, Seoul. Painting under the name Hyewon, Shin focused his art on scenes of contemporary life in Korea often in a satirical manner. Gansong Art Museum, Seoul

Shin Ka-gwon commonly known as Shin Yun-bok, was also inspired by the Silhak movement to create an indigenous Korean art. Shin came from a family of court painters and he was himself a member of the Dohwaseo (government office of painting) for a time before being expelled for obscenity. His offense was in treating the upper-class yangban not as the paragons of virtue they purported to be but as fallible humans susceptible to ordinary vices.

In many of his paintings, Shin portrays the yangban enjoying the company of lower class gisaeng (female entertainers); such fraternization was considered to be extremely vulgar in Joseon society. An even greater offense was found in his drawing the women the same size as the yangban.

A Scenery on Dano Day shows women performing the rituals associated with the Dano festival. In a scene reminiscent of the story of Susannah and the Elders, the women are shown in various stages of undress as they wash their hair in iris water and rinse in the stream before redressing for the festivities.

While the women engage in these innocent activities, they are being spied on by two men, drawn smaller in scale, who are hiding behind rocks. The men have removed their hats but appear to be dressed in the white hanbok coat worn by the yangban scholars.

Korean Art in the Modern Era

In 1910 Japan forced the last Joseon monarch to abdicate and annexed Korea, instituting a period of repressive rule that lasted until the end of World War II.

This was an especially difficult time in Korea and as a result, the arts of this era have been little studied.

The years after World War II saw the revival of traditional ink painting and celadon in Korea as well as efforts to create a fusion of the traditional media with Western expressive modes such as abstraction.

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In 1910 Japan forced the abdication of the last Joseon monarch and annexed Korea. Japanese rule was repressive.

The Korean language was prohibited, farms and businesses were appropriated by the Japanese, and Korean traditional culture and arts were suppressed.

During the occupation, the only art schools open to Koreans were those in Japan.

This was an especially difficult time in Korea and as a result, the arts of this era have been little studied. The years after World War II saw the revival of traditional ink painting and celadon in Korea as well as efforts to create a fusion of the traditional media with Western expressive modes such as abstraction.

Korea, Yi Kwae-dae, Self-portrait in Traditional Coat, 1948-1949

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9.12 Korea, Yi Kwae-dae (1913-1970), Self-portrait in Traditional Coat, 1948-1949, oil on canvas, Collection of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. In this self-portrait Yi expresses his search for a Korean identity after having grown up during the Japanese occupation. Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea

Yi Kwae-dae was born during the Japanese occupation. After high school in Seoul, he studied art at the Imperial Art School in Japan, where he specialized in Yôga or Western painting.

Returning to Korea in the 1930s he organized the New Artists’ Association, which like the Silhak movement encouraged artists to produce works that were authentically Korean instead of following Japanese styles. Such ideas did not find favor with the Japanese colonial authorities.

After the war in 1945 when Korea was divided by US and Soviet forces, Yi Kwae-dae protested the partitioning of his country. His activism and his brother’s defection to the north put him under intense police scrutiny. When the Korean War broke out, he was arrested and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp. In 1953, he defected to North Korea.

Yi’s Self-portrait in Traditional Coat was painted after his brother’s defection when his loyalty was being repeatedly questioned. In it Yi Kwae-dae seems to be making a statement that goes beyond conflicting ideologies and the politics of partition.

He looks directly at us, clench-jawed and determined, holding his palette and brushes like a shield as though he is making a statement that his allegiance is to Korean art. He wears a fedora and a traditional hanbok, while in the fauvist colored landscape behind him Korean women walk through the countryside carrying water pots and food baskets on their heads.

Korea, Song Soo-nam, Summer Trees, 1979

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9.13 Korea, Song Soo-nam (1938-2013), Summer Trees, 1979, ink on paper, 25.6 x 40.5 in.(65 x 103 cm) Collection of the British Museum. Song’s paintings exude the inner tranquility and spirituality that he felt were in danger of being lost in the modern world with its focus on technology and gadgets. The British Museum

Song Soo-nam was also born during the Japanese occupation. He attended Hongik University, where he began as a student of Western art but in his senior year switched to traditional ink painting.

He was one of the founders of the Sumukhwa or “Oriental Ink Movement,” which advocated for the revival of traditional monochrome ink painting as a contemporary medium.

In Summer Trees broad vertical strokes of diluted ink bleed and blend into each other, creating a monochromatic curtain that stops short of the bottom of the page to suggest a shallow clearing at the edge of a dense forest.

A few abrupt strokes, added when the paper was dry, define trunks along the front edge of the grove. Summer Trees exudes a quiet meditative spirituality, recalling the long tradition of Daoist landscape painting.

Yet at the same time its subtle blending of blacks and grays evokes Western color field paintings, particularly Morris Louis’ Veil Series of the 1950s. Indeed, many of Song’s pieces, while rooted in tradition, have an almost abstract quality.

Neolithic Japan (12,000- 300 BCE)

The Neolithic begins in Japan around 12,000 BCE with the “Jomon” period, named for the distinctive “cord-marked” patterns on this earliest Japanese pottery.

The earliest Joman wares found in Aomori Prefecture in northern Honshu date to 14,500 BCE, making them the second oldest ceramics after China.

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Japan, Jomon Flame Ware Vessel, c. 2500 BCE

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9.14 Japan, Jomon Flame Ware Vessel, c. 2500 BCE, Collection of the Tokyo National Museum. This Jomon flame ware vessel is so dramatically ornamented around the rim with flame-like appendages that it could only be intended for ritual or funerary use. Photo by Daderot distributed under a CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Declaration license.

Jomon ceramics are one of the longest-lived pottery traditions in history, continuing to evolve over the course of 13,000 years before ceasing around 1500 BCE.

All of their pots were built up by coiling and then the surfaces smooth by scraping; they were often wrapped with cords to slow down the drying process.

While many of the Jomon forms are practical utilitarian wares, some are so dramatically ornamented as to be impractical for most purposes.

Beginning around 2500 BCE, the Jomon produced a type of pottery known as “Flame Ware” for the often flame-like flanges around the rims of vessels.

Unlike earlier conical or round bottom forms, flame ware vessels generally had flat bottoms, and cylindrical bodies. The sculptural elaboration of these vessels may indicate they were intended for ritual purposes.

The Yayoi Period (900 BCE – 300CE)

The first waves of settlers from Korea, the ancestors of the Japanese, began arriving in western Kyushu around 900 BCE.

These people, named Yayoi for the Tokyo street where their ceramics were found.

The Yayoi period was one of rapid technological and social advancement as these new settlers brought rice cultivation, bronze casting, iron-working, raised-floor architecture, and Shintoism.

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Japan, Yayoi, Dotaku, c. 1-100 CE, Bronze, 43.50 in. high

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9.15 Japan, Yayoi, Dotaku, c. 1-100 CE, Bronze, 43.50 in. (110.5 cm), Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. These bells come in a range of sizes from small to large and are thought to have been inspired by Korean bells. They are often found buried in caches on hillsides. The bells generally lack clappers and some are too thin to have resonated. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1918

The Yayoi brought both bronze casting and iron-working to Japan. They made their tools and other utilitarian items out of iron or stone, reserving bronze almost exclusively for ritual objects including mirrors, swords, and bells called dotaku.

Dotaku are emblematic of the Yayou Period. The earliest dotaku were quite small, four inches high and were cast using two-piece stone mold.

Larger dotoku, up to 51 inches were cast in fired-clay molds. Dotaku do not have clappers nor do they appear to have been struck in the manner of Chinese bells.

It is not entirely clear how they were used as most of the more than 400 that have been discovered were found buried far from habitation sites; they were often buried in pairs or even-numbered caches, sometimes with bronze weapons.

The bodies of dotaku are typically divided horizontally into two, three, or more registers, crossed in the center by a vertical band. The resulting compartments might be undecorated, have linear slash and cross-hatching patterns, or have designs of animals—primarily deer, but also turtles, fish, birds, lizards, and dragonflies, or they have human figures, generally shown in profile.

Based on descriptions in the Wei Zhi of the use of bells in Korean rice planting and harvesting festivals, it has been suggested that the Japanese dotaku may have had a similar agricultural function.

The Kofun Period (250-538 CE)

This period takes its name from the more than 30,000 kofun or “old tombs” built during the era.

The tombs come in a range of sizes and shapes: round, square, octagonal and combination forms such as the massive keyhole-shaped tombs.

The ability to command the large numbers of laborers required to build these large tombs was facilitated by the uniting of many the southern Honshu and the Kyushu clans under the leadership of the Imperial Yamato government.

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Japan, Kofun, Tomb of Emperor Nintoku, c. 313-399 CE, overall length 2700 ft.

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9.16 Japan, Kofun, Tomb of Emperor Nintoku, c. 313-399 CE, overall length 2700 ft. (823 m). This is the largest of all of the Kofun era tombs; it takes it characteristic keyhole shape from the merging of square and circular tomb types. National Land Image Information (Color Aerial Photographs), Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism

The largest of all the keyhole tombs is the Daisen Kofun of Emperor Nintoku; it has an overall length including moats and levees of 2700 feet. The mound itself is 1579 feet long, 1000 feet wide, and 114 feet high.

Although it is difficult to see through the mound’s covering vegetation, it is a three-tiered structure with spaces for rituals at the juncture of the square and round sections.

As a presumed imperial tomb, it has not been excavated; however, archaeology conducted on non-royal tombs suggest that a megalithic chamber, containing house-shaped stone or terracotta sarcophagi, should be located beneath the circular section.

Japan, Kofun, Haniwa Warrior in Keiko Armor, c. 6th century CE

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9.17 Japan, Kofun, Haniwa Warrior in Keiko Armor, c. 6th centurey CE, terracotta, 51.8 in (131.5 cm), Collection of Tokyo National Museum. Haniwa were set up as offerings on Kofun era tombs and modeled in the form of animals, objects and humans of various classes and occupations. Photo by Daderot distributed under a CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Declaration license.

The burial mounds of the Kofun period were often decorated with terracotta sculptures known as haniwa, literally “clay ring.” Early in the period, haniwa were simple low-fired, clay cylinders which probably served as supports for offering bowls.

Later sculptures of animals, men and women of various occupations, houses and other items were modeled on the tops of these cylinders.

The figures were constructed by the coiling method with arms and legs often being formed separately and attached. Ribbons and beads of clay were appliqued to the figures to create clothing and jewelry details. None of the haniwa were ever glazed but a few examples have surviving pigment which suggest that at least some may have been brightly colored.

Among the highly detailed haniwa is the more than four-foot-tall figure of a warrior. He wears elaborate keiko armor made up of narrow iron plates that have been joined together with rivets and leather thongs, and an iron helmet with large cheek plates. One hand rests on the hilt of his sword while in the other he holds the tiller of a crossbow; his quiver with bolts hangs on his back.

Every detail of his equipment, helmet, and armor has been exactingly detailed in contrast to the warrior’s flat face, which stares mask-like from under the helmet; the eyes are simple almond-shaped holes, the mouth a slit, and the nose, a triangle of clay. The disparity in detail would seem to suggest that roles in society are more important than the individual.

The Asuka Period (c. 538-710)

Beginning with the Asuka, Japanese historical periods are named for the city that served as the Imperial capital in that era.

The Asuka was a time of significant change in Japan as Buddhism, a Confucian style of government and Japan’s first charter, The Seventeen Article Constitution, were introduced.

The guiding force behind these reforms was the imperial regent Shotoku Taishi.

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Japan, Asuka, Ise Jingu, established late 5th Century CE

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9.18 Japan, Asuka, Ise Jingu, established late 5th Century CE. This most sacred of Shinto shrines is sacred to the sun goddess Amateratsu, who is the divine ancestor of the Imperial Family. The wooden shrine buildings have been rebuilt every 20 years since the 6th century CE. Ise Jingu

The earliest Shinto shrines, circa 400- 500 CE, were simple rustic structures built of natural materials. As they did not require interior space for a congregation, most were small buildings, modeled after traditional rice storehouses, which served as temporary dwellings for kami, usually represented by sacred objects shielded from common view within the structure.

Typically, early shrines were built of debarked and unpainted cypress logs and roofed with Eulalia grass, water reed, or rice straw thatch. After the official introduction of Buddhism, Shinto shrines became progressively larger and more refined; the heavy log walls that had been capable of carrying the weight of wet thatch were planed down to the point that wooden posts had to be placed at the gable ends to support the ridge beam.

By the beginning of the Nara period, newly built Shinto shrines were painted and had upturned tile roofs. The most sacred of all Shinto shrines is the Ise Jingu or “Great Shrine” founded in the late 5th century CE. It is home to Amateratsu, who is both the sun goddess and the divine ancestress of the Imperial Family.

Access to the shrine is limited to Shinto priests and the emperor; contained within are the three sacred objects: the jewel, the sword, and the mirror. These items represent the goddess and the divine authority she gave to her son the emperor.

In 692 CE, Empress Jito sponsored the first sengu or “rebuilding.” Since the shrine is built of natural and perishable materials, it is reconstructed every twenty years. The process of rebuilding the shrine is a long one and can take up to eight years from the time the first ancient trees are felled until the last bit of thatch is put into place.

To facilitate the rebuilding cycle, two kodenchi or precincts, east and west, make up the compound so that as the construction can begin in one as the existing structure nears the end of its lifespan. When the new shrine has been readied, the sacred objects are transferred, and the old building removed except for the heart post which will serve as the center post of the next rebuilding. It is concealed in a small shed and the ground is purified with white pebbles.

Japan, Asuka, Horyu-ji, Kondo and Pagoda, 670 CE

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9.19 Japan, Asuka, Horyu-ji, Kondo and Pagoda, 670 CE. Horyu-ji was founded by Prince Shotoku in 607 CE and rebuilt after a fire in 670CE, making the temple buildings the oldest exiting wooden buildings in the world. The original buildings were constructed by Korean artisans brought from the peninsula to build the monastery. Photo by user 663highland distributed under a CC BY 2.5 license.

Buddhism was introduced in the first half of the 6th century from Korea. Reception of the new religion was mixed until it was embraced by Prince Shotoku and Empress Suiko, who made it the state religion and sponsored the building of Buddhist temples, monasteries, and the creation of Buddhist images.

Prince Shotoku is credited with establishing forty-six Buddhist temples across Japan and upon his death was declared to be an Arhat or one who has achieved nirvana.

The most important of the temples built by Prince Shotoku is Horyu-ji or “Temple of the Flourishing Law”, founded in 607 CE. The temple was dedicated to the Yakushi Nyorai, or Buddha of healing in fulfillment of a promise made by his father, Emperor Yomei.

To build Horyu-ji and the other temples, the prince appealed to the King of Baekje to send skilled craftsmen, designers, and monks to Japan. Unfortunately, many of the original buildings, constructed under the prince’s patronage, were lost to fire in 670 CE and subsequently rebuilt.

Among the first rebuilt were the Kondo or “Golden Hall”, which houses the main Buddha images, and the Pagoda. The Horyu-ji Kondo is considered to be the oldest existent wooden building in the world.

Both the kondo and the pagoda buildings are raised above ground level on low podiums. Each has four sets of cardinally oriented stairs that provide access to outer ambulatories for performing the act of circumambulation.

Although the kondo is a single-story structure, the building’s multiple rooflines give the impression that it has more levels; this is done as a means of visually demonstrating the importance of the structure.

Inside, the walls of the kondo were originally decorated with nine-foot high murals showing the Western Paradise of Amida (Amitabha) Buddha. The original murals were damaged by fire in 1949 and only fragments remain today.

The rebuilding of Horyu-ji Pagoda is thought to have been completed around 708-710 CE; making it is the oldest wooden pagoda in Japan. Like all pagodas, it has an odd number of levels, in this case five, a common number for Japanese pagodas.

Each of the Horyu-ji Pagoda’s stories is slightly thinner the previous one, creating the illusion of greater height. The ornate railings around the pagoda’s levels suggest the possibility of magnificent views from the top of the 106.6 foot high tower, but there are no floors within the structure nor stairs to ascend to those balconies.

On the mainland pagodas often filled the space of their hollow core with an enormous image of the Buddha that was the patron of the monastery; however, the Horyu-ji Pagoda has an unique construction that while making the structure earthquake resistant, allows little room for monumental sculpture.

Inside, running from a foundation stone to the finial of the spire, is an octagonal cypress heart pillar, which is flanked by four columns at the corners and then, spaced to create an inner ambulatory, an additional twelve pillars. It is these sixteen wooden posts that support the weight of the pagoda that was built around, but not attached, to the heart pillar.

In the same manner as the early Shinto shrines, the kondo and pagoda at Horyu-ji were constructed without the use of nails, all components being assembled with mortise and tenon joints, or in some parts of the structure cantilevered arms are slotted into brackets to allow the structure to shift and sway during quakes.

Kuratsukuri no Tori, Shakya Triad, 623 CE

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9.20 Japan, Kuratsukuri no Tori, Shakya Triad, Horyu-ji, Late sixth to seventh century ce.

Kuratsukuri no Tori was the grandson of a Chinese saddle-maker, Shiba Tatto, who had immigrated to Japan in 522 CE. As professions were passed down in lineages in Japan, Tori, also known as Tori Busshi, a title meaning that he was a master Buddhist sculptor, was trained to model, cast and gild bronze ornaments for horse saddles.

A devout Buddhist, he is credited with creating the first Japanese Buddha image in 606 CE, the almost sixteen-foot high bronze Shakya Nyorai (the historical Buddha) for the Asuka-dera (Hoko-ji) Temple in Asuka.

In 622 the Empress Suiko commissioned Tori to create The Shakya Triad, a life-sized bronze of Shakya Buddha with two attendant bodhisattvas, for Horyu-ji.

According to tradition the face of the Buddha was modeled on that of Prince Shotoku, who died that year, and those of the two bodhisattvas on his mother, and his principle wife.

While the ultimate source of Tori Busshi’s Shakya Nyorai and Shakya Triad is the Buddhist art of the Northern Wei Period, it appears that the style was filtered through Korea before being introduced into Japan.

The Nara Period (710—784 CE)

In 710 CE the imperial capital moved to the new city of Heijo-kyo, inaugurating the Nara Period. This was a time of rapid Sinicization in Japan. Chinese literature, art, law, and urban design provided models for Japanese development..

Buddhism flourished during the Nara, becoming increasingly important in the political life of the nation as Emperor Shomu, saw in the religion a model for strengthening the central government.

Shomu sponsored the building of the Kokubun-ji, a network of temples and monasteries connecting each province to a main temple in the capital, Todai-ji.

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In 710 CE the imperial capital was moved to the new city of Heijo-kyo (modern Nara), inaugurating the Nara Period. The Nara was a time of rapid Sinicization in Japan. Chinese literature, art, law, and urban design provided models for Japanese development. The new capital Heijo-kyo closely followed the grid plan layout of the Tang capital of Chang’an, and like its counterpart was a cosmopolitan city with merchants and monks from across Asia walking its streets. Buddhism flourished during the Nara, becoming increasingly important in the political life of the nation. Emperor Shomu (r. 724-749 CE), himself a devout Buddhist, saw in the religion not only a means of insuring the safety of the nation but also an instrument for the strengthening of the central government. He sponsored the building of the Kokubun-ji, a network of temples and monasteries connecting each province to a main temple in the capital, Todai-ji.

Japan, Nara, Todai-ji, Daibutsuden, 1709 CE

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9.21 20 Japan, Nara, Todai-ji, Daibutsuden, 1709 CE. Todai-ji was built by Emperor Shomu as the central temple of a network of Buddhist temples throughout Japan. The original building held a 52 foot tall bronze Buddha image. The current kondo, is considerable smaller than the original structure but was still the largest wooden building in the world until 1998. Photo by user 663highland distributed under a CC BY 2.5 license.

The nexus of Emperor Shomu’s Kokubun-ji system was the “Great Eastern Temple” or Todai-ji in Heijo-kyo. As the imperial temple, no expense was to be spared in the building of Todai-ji, and indeed, the costs of constructing the 500 ton, 52 feet high gilt bronze Vairocana Buddha almost bankrupted the nation.

The immense bronze sculpture was cast using a process adapted from the piece-mold system used by the Shang and early Zhou, but on a considerably larger scale. Once the site was chosen for the Daibutsu or “Great Budhha,” a great cedar pole was set up to establish the height of the finished statue, and then, a wooden armature was constructed around the pole to support the weight of the clay original.

When the statue was completed and had dried sufficiently, a mold was constructed around it, using a molding mixture of sand, clay, and rice husks. The finished mold was removed in sections, and the clay original reduced to allow for space between it and the reassembled mold.

The actual casting was done in eight stages beginning with the base of the statue; the head and neck were cast separately and set into place. In each stage, the mold would be reassembled around the core and then held in place with a surrounding mound of earth that also served as scaffolding and smelting platform as the work progressed. The mound was leveled as the finishing work on the statue proceeded from the top down.

Unfortunately, the Daibutsu has suffered considerable damage from fires and the toppling of the head; currently the statue is only 49 feet high after its 1692 restoration. Once the Daibutsu was completed in 751 CE, construction of its kondo began.

The Todai-ji Daibutsuden was a wooden building of unprecedented scale, measuring 282 by 164 feet. The building of such a large wooden structure was possible during the Nara because Japan’s old growth cypress forests had not yet been felled; those resources were no longer available when the building was reconstructed in 1195 and again in 1709, resulting in a much-reduced scale.

The Daibutsuden’s design and construction replicated that commonly used for Buddhist Main Halls in Tang China. Like its Chinese prototypes it was a timber frame structure supported on 84 massive cypress pillars that formed a basic three-bay module, surrounded by a single bay ambulatory under the lower roof.

This basic module was replicated along the length of the structure until a building of the desired size was achieved. The Daibutsuden’s hipped tile roof utilized the Tang raised-beam system, which resulted in a single incline with minimal upsweep of the eaves.

At either end of the gable are golden horse-head ornaments. The current Daibutsuden, rebuilt in 1709, is considerably smaller at 164 x 187 feet and a height of 154 feet, than the original building, but it was still the largest wooden structure in the world until 1998, when it was surpassed by the Nipro Hachiko Dome in Akita, Japan.

Heian Period (794—1185 CE)

In 794 CE, Emperor Kammu established a new capital at Heian-kyo (modern Kyoto), ushering in the Heian period.

During the Heian the Fujiwara family rose to dominate the imperial government at all levels under the regent Fujiwara Michinaga.

The Heian was a time of exceptional aesthetic and literary accomplishments as the court aristocrats transformed Chinese writing, art, and literature into uniquely Japanese forms, resulting in Yamato-e painting, kanji and hiragana writing systems, and the world’s first full length novel, The Tale of Genji, written by Lady Murasaki Shikibu.

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In 794 CE, Emperor Kammu established a new Chang’an style capital at Heian-kyo (modern Kyoto), ushering in the Heian period.

The move to a new capital was a response to the growing influence in government of the Nara temples, which had grown in wealth and power under the Kokunun-ji system.

While the change of capitals did reduce monastic interference, it did little to lessen the jockeying for power between the rival clans at court.

Ultimately the Fujiwara family rose to dominate the imperial government at all levels. The dominant figure of the age was Fujiwara Michinaga, who as regent, had the power to appoint and depose emperors at will.

Despite the intrigues of the era, the Heian was a time of exceptional aesthetic and literary accomplishments as the court aristocrats transformed Chinese writing, art, and literature into uniquely Japanese forms, resulting in Yamato-e painting, kanji and hiragana writing systems, and the world’s first full length novel, The Tale of Genji, written by Lady Murasaki Shikibu.

Japan, Heian, Lady Murasaki Shikibu, Genji monogatari emak: Azumaya Chapter, c. 1120-1140 CE

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9.22 Japan, Heian, Lady Murasaki Shikibu (c. 973-c. 1020/31 CE), Genji monogatari emak: Azumaya Chapter, c. 1120-1140 CE, ink and color on paper 8.62 in (21.90 cm) high, Collection of the Tokugawa Museum. An early example of “Japanese” or yamato-e painting, the scenes beginning the chapters focused on dramatic events in the story, removing walls and roofs if necessary to view the action. Tokugawa Art Museum

Lady Murasaki was the daughter of Fujiwara no Tametoko, a renowned scholar of the Chinese classics, who was appointed a provincial governor in 996.

As a child she showed great intellectual potential, so her father, breaching the social norms of the period, allowed her to study Chinese with her brother. In her mid-to-late twenties she was married to Fujiwara Nobuitaka, an older second cousin, with whom she had a daughter in 999 CE.

After the death of her husband in 1001 CE, she was invited to the Imperial court, by Fujiwara no Michinaga, to serve as a lady-in-waiting to his daughter, Empress Shoshi.

Lady Murasaki’s novel, The Tale of Genji, was inspired by her observations and experiences at the Imperial court. The hero of the story, Prince Genji, is the son of the Emperor by one of his consorts. Because his mother’s family was not powerful, Genji has no hope of becoming crown prince. He fills his days with aesthetic pursuits, political alliances, and amorous dalliances with all manner of women, including one of his father’s consorts.

One of the earliest surviving copies of the Genji-Monogatari is a set of early 12th century handscrolls in the Tokugawa Art Museum. The scrolls were copied by court calligraphers in the elegant hiragana phonetic script that was used in vernacular writing. A painting illustrating a key event began each chapter of the novel.

The scene for the Azumanya or “Eastern Cottage” chapter provides a glimpse into the lives of women during the Heian era. The painting shows Nakanokimi having her long hair combed while a lady reads to her from a book.

The space in the scene is intimate, a fusuma or sliding screen closes off the background from view. The work is done in a painting style known as Yamato-e, meaning “Japanese Style.” Yamato-e differed from Chinese painting in several important ways.

First, Yamato-e relied on the subtle use of fine line, brilliant colors and bold pattern rather than on virtuoso brush work.

Second, instead of the shifting vantage points found in Chinese styles, Yamato-e typically uses an aerial vantage-point so that the viewer looks down on the scene as though flying over it.

Third, Japanese artists removed obstacles such as walls and roofs that would interfere with the view, giving rise to what is known as the “open-roof” or fukinuki yatai technique.

The fourth and greatest distinction between Yamato-e and Chinese painting, however, is the Japanese preference for moments of high emotional drama between individuals rather than on the character analogies and exemplars of moral virtue common in Chinese art.

Japan, Heian, Byōdō-in, Phoenix Hall, 1053 CE

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9.23 Japan, Heian, Byōdō-in, Phoenix Hall, 1053 CE. Fujiwara no Yorimici converted his father’s estate into a Pureland Buddhist temple and built this Amida hall which takes its name from its bird-like plan. Photo by うぃき野郎 distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

Fujiwara no Yorimici succeeded his father as regent, continuing Fujiwara control over the imperial government. In 1052 Fujiwara no Yorimici began converting his father’s villa at Uji, across the river from Kyoto, into a Pure Land Buddhist temple, Byōdō-in.

The centerpiece of the complex, and only remaining original building, is the Phoenix Hall or Hōōdō, built in 1053. The name is derived from the layout of the building as a hall with wing and tail corridors, giving it the aspect from above, of a bird, wings spread and tail streaming, landing on the island in the pond.

A pair of gilt bronze phoenixes at the gable ends reinforces the name. The design of the building is unique in Japan but bears a close resemblance to the depiction of a Tang palace in the Paradise of Amitabha mural in Cave 172 at Dunhuang, China.

Japan, Heian, Jocho, Amida Nyorai, 1053 CE

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9.24 Japan, Heian, Jocho (d. 1057), Amida Nyorai, 1053 CE, gilt wood 116 in (294.64 cm). Jocho created this large sculpture using the joined block technique in which the blank form was constructed from several pieces of wood to reach the desired size. Phoenix Hall, Byodin

Enshrined in the Phoenix Hall is a great, gilt wood image of Amida Buddha seated on a lotus throne, carved by the master sculptor, Jōchō.

Jōchō and his father, Kōshō (active 990-1020 CE) were favorites of Fujiwara no Michinaga and Empress Shoshi. After the death of Kōshō, Jōchō worked almost exclusively for the Fujiwara family creating Buddhist sculptures for the temples they patronized.

Despite what must have been a prodigious output from his atelier, the Byōdō-in Amida Buddha is the only surviving work by the master. The statue was carved from Japanese cypress in a technique pioneered by Jōchō and known as yosegi or “joined-block” technique.

Instead of carving a statue out of a single block of wood, the joined block technique began by halving wood blocks, hollowing them out, and then rejoining them with additional pieces of wood as needed to create a sculpture of the desired size and form.

Several pieces of wood might be joined together like puzzle pieces to create more complex forms. This technique allowed Jōchō to create larger sculptures with more elaborate poses than were possible in solid wood. Sculptures produced with joined-block were also lighter and less prone to checking and cracking.

However, since these sculptures were hollow, the surface carving had to be shallower than those of traditional solid works; this is most obvious in the rendering of drapery, which while fluid is thin compared to earlier examples, and in the simplified anatomy.

The finished joined carving was coated with black lacquer, and then painted to make it more lifelike, or in the case of the Amida Buddha covered with gold leaf. The more than 9-foot-tall sculpture is especially noteworthy for the tenderness of the Buddha’s expression. Unlike the Buddhas of earlier periods, Jōchō ‘s Amida looks down to meet the gaze of the faithful and, in that acknowledgment, offers the promise of salvation and rebirth in his Western Paradise.

Jōchō is credited with devising a new sculptural canon of proportion in which the height of the figure was based on a unit of measurement equal to the distance from a figure’s hairline to its chin, and the width of its seated pose, from knee to knee, was equal to the measurement from the hair to the base of the figure, resulting in an overall pyramidal form. The elaborate openwork mandorla was carved separately and attached to the figure.

The Kamakura Period (1192-1333 CE)

During the Heian, the number of imperial relatives living at court swelled to the point that the treasury was threatened. At these times emperors would demote distant relations from royal to noble status.

Former royals were given one of two clan names, Minamoto (Genji) or Taira (Heike) and typically went out into the countryside, where they established themselves as feudal lords or daimyo.

After a long period of war between the clans, Minamoto Yoritomo defeated the Taira and inaugurated military rule as Shogun, establishing his bakufu at Kamakura.

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During the Heian, the number of imperial relatives living at court swelled periodically to unsupportable levels. At these times emperors would cut off relatives past a certain degree of kinship in a process known as “dynastic shedding” and demote them to noble status.

The demoted royals were given one of two family names, Minamoto (Genji) or Taira (Heike). Typically, these former royals went out into the countryside, acquired large landholdings, hired samurai retainers, and became feudal lords or daimyo.

Having no standing army, emperors used the clans to suppress rebels and barbarian tribes, defend the nation against Mongol invasions, and occasionally take sides in court intrigues or succession disputes.

The system worked well until the Taira defeated the Minamoto in the Heiji War of 1159 CE. Twenty years later in the Genpei War, a resurgent Minamoto clan defeated the Taira and Minamoto Yoritomo took the reins of government as Shogun.

Japan, Kamakura, Heike monogatari emaki: Night Attack on the Sanjo Palace, c. 1240 CE

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9.25 Japan, Kamakura, Heike monogatari emaki: Night Attack on the Sanjo Palace, c. 1240 CE, ink and color on paper, 16.25 x275.68 in. (41.3 x 700.3 cm), Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. In contrast to Chinese painting which prized brushwork, Japanese paintings of the Kamakura valued scenes of dramatic action and accurate detail. Night Attack on the Sanjō Palace, from the Illustrated Scrolls of the Events of the Heiji Era (Heiji monogatari emaki). Japanese, Kamakura period, second half of the 13th century. Handscroll; ink and color on paper 41.3 × 700.3 cm (16 1/4 × 275 11/16 in.). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Fenollosa-Weld Collection, 11.4000.

Minamoto Yoritomo established his bakufu at Kamakura to remove his samurai from the corrupting influence of the luxury and overly-refined aesthetic pursuits of the Imperial court.

Instead members of the warrior classes were encouraged to live frugal, disciplined lives and to place the utmost value on bravery, duty, loyalty, and honor. The art of the Kamakura period reflected these ideals in realistic depictions that glorified famous warriors and heroic battles.

One of the popular works of the era was the Heike monogatari emaki or “Tale of the Heike”, detailing the battles between the Heike and the Minamoto clans in the Genpei War (1180-1185 CE). The illustrations that accompany the text are painted in traditional yamato-e style, with considerable emphasis placed on dramatic action and tension rather than brushwork.

In Night Attack on the Sanjo Palace, architectural elements expand outward from the viewer’s aerial vantage point to form diagonals that bracket the frenzy of the battle: soldiers clash and samurai horsemen charge while flames and billowing smoke pour from the burning structure.

Since the scene takes place at night, it is rendered primarily in gray scale with the red of the flames and occasional touches of blue, green, and tan. A great deal of attention has been paid to the details of armor and weapons, but above all it is the sort of action-oriented, historically accurate scene that would have appealed to the samurai classes.

The Muromachi Period (1336-1573 CE)

In 1333, the Kamakura Bakufu was toppled and Ashikaga Takauji took over as shogun after a brief period of failed rule by Emperor Go-Daigo.

Ashikaga established his bakufu in the Muromachi district of Kyoto, which gave its name to the era.

The dethroned Emperor Go-Daigo and his followers established a new court south of Nara, and for the next 56 years Japan had two capitals and two emperors. This portion of the Muromachi period is known as the Nambokucho or Southern and Northern Courts.

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In 1333, the Kamakura Bakufu was toppled and Emperor Go-Daigo (1288-1339 CE) briefly took control of the government. However, after only three years the emperor was overthrown and Ashikaga Takauji took over as shogun.

The Muromachi district of Kyoto, where Ashikaga established his bakufu, lent its name to the period.

The dethroned Emperor Go-Daigo and his followers established a new court south of Nara, and for the next 56 years Japan had two capitals and two emperors.

This portion of the Muromachi period is known as the Nambokucho or Southern and Northern Courts.

Japan, Muromachi, Sesshu Toyo, Haboku-Sansui "Splashed Ink" Landscape, 1495 CE

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9.26 Japan, Muromachi, Sesshu Toyo (1420-1506 CE), Haboku-Sansui "Splashed Ink" Landscape, 1495, ink on paper, 43.9 x 29,84 in (111.5 x 75.8 cm), Collection of the Tokyo National Museum. Sesshu was a master of sumi-e or “black ink” painting which is similar to calligraphy in its use of strong brushstrokes and the contrast of ink on paper. Tokyo National Museum

The Heian era Buddhist monk, Myoan Eisai (1141-1215 CE) is credited with introducing both tea drinking and Zen (Chan) Buddhism to Japan. Zen with its emphasis on meditation and self-discipline was particularly suited to the ethos of the warrior classes.

In Zen Buddhism, painting was cultivated as a form of meditation and a means of achieving the sudden awaking to one’s true self and Buddha nature. As a result, Zen Buddhist painters were not interested in creating realistic illusions, but rather sought to render the essence of the thing in a few brushstrokes or splashes of ink.

Through the practice of Zen, Japanese artists developed a new aesthetical system called wabi-sabi, which finds beauty in the transient, imperfect, and incomplete. Wabi-sabi profoundly shaped the practice of painting, sculpture, ceramics, garden design, and even Noh Theater.

The concept of wabi can be described as rustic simplicity, unpretentiousness, humbleness or even plainness in that the materials used are not manipulated to appear as something other than they are.

Sabi refers to the appreciation of the beauty of age and wear as expressed in the natural patinas and oxidation on metals, the weathering of woods, and the fading of the colors on fabrics and papers.

In art wabi-sabi is expressed through seven principles: asymmetry, plainness, agedness or time-worn, naturalness, subtlety, unconventionality, and tranquility.

Sesshū Tōyō was one of the great Zen painters of the Muromachi era. When he was ten or twelve years old, he was sent to be educated at the local temple in Hofuku-ji, and there was given the name Tōyō, meaning willow-like.

In 1440 CE he went to Shōkoku-ji in Kyoto, where he studied Sung landscape painting with the traditional master, Tensho Shubun.

Sesshū became a master of sumi-e or “black ink” painting, which has affinities with calligraphy in that it relies on strong brushstrokes and the contrast of ink and paper.

After two decades at Shōkoku-ji he went to Unkoku-ji where he served as the abbot. It was at this time that he began using the name Sesshū meaning “snow boat.”

In 1468, he made the journey to Ming China for further study. In Beijing he became familiar with the styles of the Ming Dynasty including that of the Zhe School which attempted to fuse Sung court styles with those of the Yuan literati painters.

Sesshū pioneered the haboku or“broken ink” and hatsuboku or “splashed ink” painting technique; the former relies on contrasts between white paper and black and gray ink washes, while the latter uses splashes of ink wash to define elements of landscape.

His Splashed Ink Landscape presents a scene of distant mountains shrouded in fog, while in the foreground a tree and a house at the edge of the water are suggested by areas of ink wash.

There are no hard outlines defining these natural forms; however, the details of the house, fence and boat are drawn with bold, calligraphic brushstrokes of black ink as if to highlight the contrast between the elements of nature and the works of man.

Japan, Muromachi, Kogaku-Soko, Daisen-in, Mountains and Dry Cascade, 1509-1513 CE

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9.27 Japan,Muromachi, Kogaku-Soko (1464/5-1548 CE), Daisen-in, Mountains and Dry Cascade, 1509-1513CE. Chinese-style gardens as three-dimensional landscapes were introduced during the Asuka Period but in the Muromachi, the first Zen gardens, where gravel or sand replaced water, were introduced. https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?cu

The Chinese concept of the garden as a three-dimensional landscape painting was first introduced to Japan during the Asuka era. In the following Heian period, walled Sung-style meditation gardens, featuring ponds and streams edged with interestingly shaped rocks or boulders grouped to represent the mountain home of the Eight Immortals, became popular with Japanese aristocrats.

Although paradise gardens were an established feature of Pure Land Japanese Buddhist temples, the first Zen dry gardens, in which gravel replaced water features, were not constructed until the early Muromachi period.

One of the first Zen gardens was the upper garden at Saihō-ji designed by the Zen Buddhist monk Musō Soseki in 1339. By the early 16th century the Zen gardens had become more abstract and less referential to the landscape.

Most, such as those at Daisen-in, were small, enclosed by walls, had limited color palettes consisting of rocks, gravel and a few shaped pine trees or shrubs. This style of garden was meant to be viewed from a single vantage point while seated.

The Daisen-in temple in Kyoto is a sub-temple of Daioku-ji and was founded by the Zen monk Kogaku Sōkō, who established the dry landscape gardens or karesansui.

The Daisen-in gardens form two L-shaped brackets around the abbot’s quarters and audience hall or shoin. Together the gardens present a metaphorical journey, following the flow of “water” from the mountains and waterfall to the gravel river to the sea and ultimately to the great ocean of sand, the largest and most austere space. The flow of water is suggested by patterns raked into the gravel.

Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1573-1603 CE)

The Azuchi-Momoyama period is defined by the two successive shoguns, Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

The double name of the period, Azuchi-Momoyama, is derived from the districts where Oda built his castle (Azuchi) and where Toyotomi planted a peach tree (Momoyama).

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The Azuchi-Momoyama period is defined by the two successive shoguns, Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The Ashikaga bakufu was an ineffectual regime, unable by 1467 even to maintain order within Kyoto. The clan wars that began in Kyoto escalated into ten years of civil war, known as the Onin War. Order was finally restored in 1573 when Oda Nobunaga, with the help of Toyotomi, brought the warring clans under control, and deposed the last Ashikaga shogun. Oda died in 1582 and was succeeded by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The double name of the period, Azuchi-Momoyama, is derived from the districts where Oda built his castle (Azuchi) and where Toyotomi planted a peach tree (Momoyama).

Japan, Azuchi-Momoyama, Osaka, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Osaka Castle Tenshu, 1583 CE

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9.28 Japan, Azuchi-Momoyama, Osaka, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598), Osaka Castle Tenshu, 1583 CE. Japanese castles were surrounded by concentric moats and walls with the final stronghold being the Tenshu, which had lower floors encased in stone against cannon and rifle shot. The topmost level contained a lookout post. https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=105421

Architecture was profoundly affected by the military character of the era, especially the introduction of firearms.

The shoguns and military elite constructed large castle complexes with stone walls designed to protect against rifle and cannon fire.

In 1583, Toyotomi Hideyoshi built his castle in Osaka a little more than 25 miles from the capital of Kyoto. Later as he anticipated his retirement, he built a second castle, Fushimi, in Kyoto.

Like their European counterparts, medieval Japanese castles were surrounded by stone and earthen walls and moats. They also had a series of concentric inner walls and moats and a succession of courts and bottleneck gateways that were often set at right angles from the entry point; the purpose of these being to slow down and thin the lines of attackers within the walls.

Typically, castles were located on hilltops or if necessary artificial mounds were built as a base for the castle. The elevation of the buildings served military purposes but also made the castles seem more imposing.

The stronghold or keep of the Japanese castle was the towering tenshu, often set on an even higher mound within the compound, and sometimes surrounded by an additional inner moat.

The earliest Japanese mountain castles were built with log plank lower walls but the introduction of firearms in 1542 necessitated adaptions to make them more resistant to cannon and rifle fire. The bottom levels of castles of the Momoyama period had dry stacked stone walls laid up to create sweeping profiles that made them harder to climb.

Toyotomi’s Osaka tenshu had seven floors although only five are visible above the stone base. The pristine white upper levels, like pagoda towers, are progressively smaller as the building rises; alternating levels have sweeping gables with lattice ornamentation and inset window bands.

The gable barge boards feature elaborate decoration at the peaks and ends, including rosette medallions and roof finials all covered in gold. The sweeping lines of the gables give a remarkable lightness to the upper stories and the effect is often compared to a flock of white cranes taking flight.

Just under the uppermost gable is an open watchtower from which archers could fend off attackers; emblazoned in gold on its dark walls are a pair of golden lions, a favored motif of Toyotomi’s.

The Edo Period (1603-1867)

The period begins in 1603 with the establishment of the Tokugawa bakufu in Edo (modern Tokyo) by Tokugawa Ieyasu who had served both Oda and Toyotomi.

Under Tokugawa Iemitsu, (third Shogun) Japan was closed to all save Dutch traders. The country remained isolated until Commodore Mathew Perry forced open Japanese ports with the threat of bombardment by U.S. naval .

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The period begins in 1603 with the establishment of the Tokugawa bakufu in Edo (modern Tokyo). Tokugawa Ieyasu had served Oda and Toyotomi before seizing control after the death of Toyotomi. Under Tokugawa Iemitsu, (third Shogan) Japan was closed off to all but Dutch traders. The country remained isolated until the threat of bombardment by U.S. naval warships led by Commodore Mathew Perry forced open Japanese ports.

During the Edo period new forms of art were introduced that appealed to prospering middle classes in the cities. These newly wealthy merchants and artisans had surplus income to spend on entertainments in the pleasure districts, such as Yoshiwara in Edo, where there were teahouses, restaurants, Kabuki theaters, Geisha houses, and brothels.

New developments in woodblock printing during the Edo allowed the diversions of these districts to be immortalized in multicolored prints known as ukiyo-e, a term which translates as “floating world pictures.”

Originally ukiyo-e was used by Buddhists to describe the transitory nature of human life, but during the Edo, it described transitory sensual and sexual pleasures. Those who could afford to indulge in these pastimes, as well as those who could only wish to do so, provided a market for ukiyo-e prints.

Japan, Edo, Suzuki Harunobu, Evening Bell at the Clock, c. 1766 CE, Woodblock print 10.87 x 8.12 in.

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9.29 Japan, Edo, Suzuki Harunobu (c. 1725-1770 CE) Evening Bell at the Clock, c. 1766, Woodblock print, ink and color on paper, 10.87 x 8.12 in (27.6 x 20.6 cm), Collection of the Museum of Fine Art Boston. Suzuki pioneered multicolor or nishiki-e prints which required the use of separate blocks for each color. Suzuki Harunobu, Japanese, 1725–1770. Evening Bell of the Clock, from the series Eight Views of the Parlor (Zashiki hakkei), Japanese, Edo period, about 1766 (Meiwa 3), Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper, Vertical chūban; 27.6 x 20.6 cm (10 7/8 x 8 1/8 in.). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, William S. and John T. Spaulding Collection, 21.4606.

Suzuki Harunobu is best known for his ukiyo-e prints of beautiful young women (bijin), courtesans (orian) and geisha, all of whom are depicted as willowy, graceful, and delicate.

He is credited with popularizing, if not inventing, the multicolor woodblock printing technique known as nishiki-e or “Brocade print.” The first Japanese woodblock prints were issued in black and hand colored. In the 1760s Suzuki perfected a printing technique that employed multiple single-color woodblocks to create prints with as many as ten different colors.

The process began with the artist’s design being carved into a “key” or master block. The proofs from this master then were used to carve the individual color blocks. The blocks were used sequentially to produce images that were rich in both color and texture. The resulting prints were often issued in series or sets of as many as thirty images.

In one of his better-known prints, Evening Bell at the Clock, from the series Eight Views of the Parlor, Suzuki shows a geisha or female entertainer on an exterior deck, assisted by an attendant, drying off after her bath. The maid checks the time by turning to look at a mechanical clock rather than listening for the temple bell to chime.

Behind the women is the framework side of a fusuma, which has on its front a traditional monochrome bamboo painting; a bit of the painting is visible in the glass of a large cheval mirror. The clock, mirror, and sliding screens are intended to show that the “floating world” in which these women live and work is a place of modern sophistication and high style.

Japan, Edo, Katsushika Hokusai, Great Wave off Kanagawa, 1826-1833 CE

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9.30 Japan, Edo, Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Great Wave off Kanagawa, 1826-1833 CE, Woodblock print, ink and color on paper, 9.87 x 14.75 in (25 x 37. 46 cm), Collection of the Tokyo National Museum. Inspired by European prints coming into Japan, Hokusai combined traditional Japanese techniques with a European low horizon and the new pigment, Prussian Blue. The Great Wave off Kanagawa, from the series '36 Views of Mt. Fuji' ('Fugaku sanjuokkei') pub. by Nishimura Eijudo (woodblock print), Hokusai, Katsushika (1760-1849) / Private Collection / Bridgeman Images

Another genre of print popularized during the Edo was the meisho-e or “pictures of famous places.” The publication of the first Japanese travel guides and improved roads were enticements for townspeople to travel to view scenic places or to visit important shrines.

As in the case of the ukiyo-e, the meisho-e prints were collected as souvenirs by those who had taken the trips as well as those unable to make the journey.

Typically, meisho-e prints were issued in series that depicted famous places across the seasons and in various types of weather. The undisputed master of meisho-e was Katsushika Hokusai, who was the son of an Edo mirror-maker.

His artistic career began at age fourteen when he was apprenticed to a woodblock carver. At this time several people were involved in the creation of prints; in addition to the artist, who created the master image often at the suggestion of the print dealer, there were teams of carvers and printers who did the actual production work.

After completing his apprenticeship, he spent the next decade in the studio of the ukiyo-e master Katsukawa Shunsho. Although Japan had been virtually closed off to the world for more than a century by the time Katsushika Hokusai was born, the Dutch ships docking at the port of Nagasaki brought European copper-plate engravings and new pigments such as Prussian blue (synthesized in 1704) to the country’s artists.

Intrigued by what he saw in these prints Hokusai began experimenting with linear perspective, chiaroscuro, and cast shadows, creating works that were radical compared to traditional Japanese and Chinese paintings with their vertical perspective, high horizon lines, flat picture planes, and bird’s-eye vantage point.

He abandoned ukiyo-e subjects and concentrated on combining landscape or cityscape views with genre scenes of ordinary Japanese people.The Great Wave off Kanagawa, one of the prints from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, is the work most closely associated with Hokusai. The series shows Mount Fuji as seen from several locations, many in Edo itself but others from as far away as Nagano, Aichi, and Kanagawa, and in different weather conditions, times of day, and seasons of the year.

The print captures a dramatic moment just before a great standing wave swamps the oshiokuri (cargo boats) laboring in the heavy seas. The viewer observes the scene from a low vantage point, suggesting a location in another boat farther out at sea. The great wave is made even more terrifying by the foam talons on its breaking edge and its dark Prussian blue color, which stand in marked contrast to the stillness of Mount Fuji in the distance.

The dark horizon around Fuji-san suggests that the sun is rising behind the viewer; its first rays hitting the mountain’s snowcap and turning the sky a golden color.

In depicting Mount Fuji, Hokusai has taken some artistic liberties, reducing the mountain’s scale and steepening the angle of its slope to create the sense of a greater distance between sea and mountain.

By dressing the rowers in blue samue work clothes, Hokusai sets the season as springtime, which is also the time of year when large waves come rolling in from the south. The Great Wave is a blend of traditional Japanese elements: the flat patterning of waves, emphasis on seasonality and time of day, and dramatic subject, with Western concepts such as the low horizon, linear perspective, and use of Prussian blue.

The Meiji Period (1868-1912)

The repeated concessions made to the Americans by the Tokugawa bakufu became the focus of anti-government criticism and anti-foreign sentiment.

In 1867, the last Tokugawa shogun resigned, and power was restored to the Imperial government.

Prince Mutsuhito took the throne as Emperor Meiji and inaugurated a new system of period naming based on regnal names.

Emperor Meiji’s reign saw the abolishment of the feudal system and the start of rapid modernization and westernization in the arts, sciences, military, and government.

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Japan’s more than two centuries of isolation under the Tokugawa shogunate ended in 1853 with the arrival of nine American warships in Edo Bay. The concessions made to the Americans in 1854 and again in 1859 made the Tokugawa bakufu the focus of anti-government criticism and anti-foreign sentiment. Finally, in 1867, the last Tokugawa shogun resigned, and the following year power was restored to the Emperor, ending almost seven centuries of military rule. Prince Mutsuhito took the throne as Emperor Meiji, inaugurating a new system of period naming based on regnal names. Emperor Meiji’s reign saw the abolishment of the feudal system and the start of rapid modernization and westernization in the arts, sciences, military, and government. Such reforms were seen as critical to maintaining Japan’s independence from colonial rule.

As part of the Meiji push for modernization Japanese artists were encouraged to explore the new media, techniques, and modes of expression used in western art. Western representational styles were considered more scientific and accurate as they sought to depict optical reality rather than the idealized world of yamato-e painting.

European and American artists were recruited to teach in Japan and Japanese artists were encouraged to go abroad to study.

The new westernized style of painting was known as yôga.

In between the extremes of traditional yamato-e and westernized yoga was a third style termed nihonga.

Nihonga was the inspiration of one of the visiting teachers, Dr. Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908), an American art historian. Fenollosa was concerned that the push to modernize the arts would destroy centuries old traditions of Japanese painting. His suggestion for nihonga painters was, essentially, to follow Hokusai’s example and create a blend of traditional subjects and brushwork with Western perspective and chiaroscuro that would serve to heighten the realism of the painting.

Japan, Meiji, Takahashi Yuichi, Oiran, 1872

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9.31 Japan, Meiji, Takahashi Yuichi (1828-1894), Oiran, 1872, Oil on canvas, 30.50 x 21.50 in (77.47 x 54.61 cm), Collection of the University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts. In this painting Takahashi presents Japanese women as Europeans of the era saw them—exotic and charming—but not truly beautiful with their rice powdered faces. University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts

Takahashi Yuichi was one of the first Japanese artists to embrace Western style or yôga painting. Born in Edo to a samurai family, his early training was in the flamboyant style of the Kano school, but after seeing examples of European lithographs, he became interested in Western realism.

He enrolled in the Bansho Shirabesho (Institute for Western Studies), and took further instruction in oil painting from Charles Wirgman, and Antonio Fontanesi.

Takahashi was instrumental in promoting yôga painting to other Japanese artists, opening the Tenkai Gakusha, a private school dedicated to teaching Western-oriented art, and founding the Gayu Sekichin, the first Japanese art journal. In Oiran,

Takahashi presents a portrait of a courtesan in traditional robes, make-up, and hair style. At first glance, she appears to be another example of the popular Japanese bijin or “beautiful woman;” however, closer examination reveals her lack of conformity with traditional Japanese aesthetics.

In fact, one Japanese critic of the era described Orian as “exotic and grotesque.” Nor does the Orian conform to contemporary Western ideals of feminine beauty; she is tired-looking, dull, and her white powdered face seems overly pasty, especially set against the dark gray background.

What Takahashi seems to be trying to convey is not an ideal of either Eastern or Western beauty but the Westerner’s perception of Japanese women as charming but aesthetically pleasing.

Post War Japan, (1926- )

The character of the Japanese nation was profoundly changed by the events of the Second World War. During the war, most of the major cities had been destroyed by incendiary bombing and the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima had been leveled by atomic bombs.

After the war the nation was occupied by Allied troops. The often paternalistic and patronizing attitude of the Americans during the post war era was an ongoing source of irritation to many in Japan.

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The character of the Japanese nation was profoundly changed by the events of the Second World War. By the time of the Japanese surrender most of the major cities had been destroyed by incendiary bombing and of course, the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima had been leveled by atomic bombs and then occupied by Allied troops. Even as living conditions improved under the military occupation, the at times authoritarian approach of America toward rebuilding Japanese law and society angered the Japanese.

Japan’s defeat and the paternalism of its post war relationship with the United States have provided a continuing theme in Japanese art for much of the 20th century.

The last decades of the 20th century saw the coming of age of a generation of artists who were born after the war and who had grown up with animated cartoons and short films (anime), comic strips (mangas), video games, and early computers and cell phones.

Popular culture, cuteness, consumerism, superficiality, artificiality, and breaking down the borders between high and low art are recurring themes in the works of this generation.

Japan, Tanaka Atsuko, Electric Dress, 1956/1986

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9.32 Japan, Tanaka Atsuko (1932-2005), Electric Dress, 1956/1986, Wire and colored incandescent bulbs. The Electric Dress was created for a performance piece in which Tanaka staged a Traditional Japanese Wedding. Atsuko Tanaka, Electric Dress (1956).Vinyl paint on light bulbs, electric cords and control console. Courtesy Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Copyright Ryoji Ito

Tanaka Atsuko was born in Osaka and was a child during WWII. After the war she attended the Art Institute of the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art and then went for further study at Kyoto Municipal College.

In the 1950s she was a member of the Gutai Art Association, an experimental group which rejected all traditional modes of art-making. Gutai members fired paint at canvases with cannons, staged performance pieces that included mud wrestling, throwing bottles of paint or breaking through laminated rice paper screens, and participated in the first “happenings.”

Tanaka is best known for her installation and performance pieces, featuring non-traditional materials such as electric bells and light bulbs. Her Electric Dress was created for a performance piece in which she staged a traditional Japanese wedding and wore a kimono constructed from hundreds of globular and tubular incandescent light bulbs, colored red, yellow, blue, green and purple, and connected by hundreds of feet of electric cord.

The bride wearing the Electric Dress is completely obscured by the materials used in the construction, suggesting the increasing isolation of people in the context of post war reconstruction.

Japan, Tenmyouya Hisashi, Japanese Spirit #3, 1997

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9.33 Japan, Tenmyouya Hisashi (b.1966), Japanese Spirit #3, 1997, acrylic. In this work the artist hold up a mirror to American popular culture concepts of Japan as a land of Samuri, Yakuza, Sumo Wrestlers, Buddhist temples and technology

Tenmyouya Hisashi was born in Tokyo. In elementary school he studied drawing with local masters but otherwise is self-taught.

Early in his career he worked in a style, he termed Neo-Nihonga as a counter to the revived Japanese painting styles, focusing on traditional materials and methods that appeared after the war.

Although his subject matter is Japanese, his Neo-Nihonga paintings used acrylic paints and mixed traditional themes and techniques with elements of popular culture.

His Japanese Spirit #3 depicts a samurai figure on a mechanical, fire-spitting, skateboard-like contraption. The figure is a metaphorical image of Japanese culture as seen through the eyes of Westerners.

The skateboarding warrior wears the traditional straw hat of Buddhist monks, the keshō-mawashi loincloth of Sumo wrestlers, the tattoos of a Yakuza, and is armed with a samurai sword. Each of these motifs represents a stereotype of Japan derived from tourist brochures, movies, television, and the automobile industry.

Japan, Nara Yoshitomo, Girl with the Knife in her Hand, 1991,

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9.34 Japan, Nara Yoshitomo (B. 1959), Girl With the Knife in her Hand, 1991, acrylic on canvas, 59.25 x 55.12 in. (150.5 x 140 cm). Nara’s children do not fit comfortably into the cult of cuteness; there is something threatening in their expressions and the weapons they sometimes hold.

Nara Yoshitomo was born in Hirosaki. He attended the Graduate School of Aichi Prefectural University of Art, and then went on for further study at the Kunstakasemie in Dusseldorf, Germany.

His experience in Germany was one of profound loneliness due to his inability to master the language. Nara drew on his feelings of alienation in Germany and memories of childhood loneliness in developing his iconic otaku figures of lonely and isolated children.

Girl with a Knife in her Hand depicts one of Nara’s lonely children, a shojo or adolescent girl who stares wide-eyed at the viewer. At first glance she seems part of the Japanese cult of kawaii or “cuteness” like Yuko Shimizu’s “Hello Kitty” character.

Despite their cartoonish quality, there is often something disturbing about Nara’s paintings of children: some smoke cigarettes, hold small toy-like weapons, or have glaring expressions suggesting anger or aggression.

Even his more recent paintings where the expressions are more subtle, the ambiguity seems to present the possibility that there is deception behind the cuteness. Nara’s childlike images have been interpreted as metaphors for the infantilization of a Japanese nation rendered impotent by its defeat in World War II and by the continuing presence of the American military as protectors.

Chapter Review Questions

Discuss the roles played by China and Korea in the development of Japanese art and culture.

Explain the Neo-Confucian concept of Silhak and how it impacted the arts of Joseon Korea?

What is Zen Buddhism and how did its practice inspire new art forms in Japan?

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