Japanese art

Japanese art has evolved over the centuries to reflect both the foreign influences that have shaped the nation and the periods of isolation that refined its culture into a unique style. The diverse range of Japanese art includes Neolithic pottery, ceramics, sculptures, calligraphy, paintings, woodblock prints, and modern animation and comics. Japanese art is often categorized into periods that correspond to the changing social and political environments of the times. Much of the nation’s traditional art was influenced by its religious traditions and incorporated elements of the natural world, such as landscapes, animals, trees, and flowers. As society shifted toward more secular attitudes, art also began including images of women, daily life, and cityscapes. In the modern era, Japanese art has borrowed heavily from the international community, merging traditional artistic methods with Western, primarily American, cultural influences.

Background

The first humans are believed to have migrated to Japan about thirty thousand years ago. Near the end of the last ice age about fifteen thousand years ago, a distinctive culture known as the Jōmon appeared in Japan. The Jōmon were hunter-gatherers who eventually established the first settled communities on the islands about seven thousand years ago. About 300 BCE, the Yayoi people arrived in Japan from the Korean peninsula and introduced rice farming, weaving, and metalworking. A stratified feudal system developed in Japan about 250 CE with the emperor, nobles, and warriors at the top and farmers, artists, and merchants at the bottom.

Prior to the sixth century CE, Japan had no written language and its primary religious tradition was Shintō, a system in which spirits or gods are believed to inhabit much of the natural world. During this time, the religious philosophy of Buddhism was introduced into Japan from China. Along with the new religion came the Chinese writing system, which the Japanese adapted to fit their language. In the eighth century, the Japanese adopted a Chinese form of centralized government and legal system and the nation’s first written literature appeared.

For several centuries, Japanese society was dominated by clans ruled by wealthy families. By the late twelfth century, battles between the clans resulted in all-out civil wars, which led to the rise of powerful military clans made up of warriors known as samurai. The ultimate authority among the samurai clans was called the sei-i taishōgun, meaning “army commander,” later shortened to shogun. In 1185, a shogun named Minamoto no Yoritomo consolidated his hold on power and assumed the role of supreme military commander of Japan. Minamoto established a system of government in which the shogun held the true power in the nation, while a weakened emperor ruled in name only.

After centuries of political upheaval and civil war, Japan was united under the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1603. This period was known as the Edo Period because Tokugawa moved the nation’s capital to Edo, the former name of modern Tokyo. During the Edo Period, Japan enjoyed more than two-and-a-half centuries of peace and prosperity. However, Tokugawa also forbade most contact with the outside world and imposed strict rules on society, art, and culture. In the late nineteenth century, Japan was pressured by Western nations to reopen its borders, ushering in a period of reform known as the Meiji Restoration. The shogun system was abolished, the emperor returned to power, and the nation began embracing Western economic and cultural models.

The reforms triggered an era of rapid industrialization and military expansion that saw Japan become a formidable world power. After its defeat in World War II (1939–1945), Japan abandoned its militaristic ambitions to focus on remaking itself as an economic power. Buoyed by its automobile and technology manufacturing sectors, the nation quickly rose to become one of the largest economies in the world.

Overview: The Jōmon Period

Japan’s first culture, the Jōmon, was also the first to develop a form of pottery on the islands. In fact, the name Jōmon itself means “cord marks,” a reference to the distinctive patterns people made on the pottery by pressing cords of rope into the clay. Japanese pottery was undoubtedly influenced by Chinese pottery, which was being created as far back as 18,000 BCE. The oldest known Jōmon pottery can be traced back to about 13,500 BCE. Early forms of pottery were typically simple jars and bowls with rounded or flat bottoms. Some examples had angular edges with handles shaped like animal heads, while others were plainer with simple lined decorations.

As art evolved during the Jōmon Period, clay pottery was often fired in an outdoor oven to produce ceramic objects. The rope-marked designs became more complex, and the shapes of the vessels were more varied. Based on the wear patterns on the objects, the more elaborate bowls and jars were likely used for ritual purposes; the simpler pottery was likely used for everyday activities. In the later Jōmon Period, human-like clay figurines called dogū became more common. The dogū were strange figures with large “google eyes” that may have been used as a good luck charm. With the arrival of the Yayoi around 300 BCE, the Jōmon Period ended. Yayoi pottery was more finely made but was also simpler with few decorative elements.

Buddhist Influences

The arrival of Buddhism in Japan changed not only the nation’s culture but also its artistic style. Instead of smaller ceramic or clay objects, larger religious sculptures became more common. As Buddhist temples sprang up across Japan, statues of the historical Buddha and other incarnations of the figure were created to adorn the temples. Many of the early examples were made of bronze or stone and bore heavy Chinese influences. In the seventh and eighth centuries, Japanese sculptors began using wood as the primary medium for religious statues. The wood was polished to create a smoother surface, moving away from the more stiff aspects of earlier Chinese styles. Though most Buddhist statues of the era were made of wood, few survived to the modern era. The oldest surviving works are almost exclusively made of bronze. One of the oldest, a bronze Buddha in the temple of Tōdai-ji in Nara, was originally created in the eighth century. The statue is about 49 feet (15 meters) tall and features an open hand that is about as tall as an average person.

Statues were not the only form of art influenced by the spread of Buddhism. Temples were also decorated with colorful religious murals and embroidered banners and silks. Because Buddhist religious texts were written, Chinese characters were also introduced to Japan to aid the spread of the religion. These symbols, called kanji, or “Chinese characters,” were adapted to Japan’s language and began a new artistic trend. Japanese calligraphy, known as shodō, the “way of writing,” is closely connected to Zen Buddhism. Zen is a form of the religion that emphasizes meditation. Scribes meticulously copied religious texts and poems to create printed scrolls and manuscripts that doubled as works of art. Shodō was, and still is, traditionally done with ink and brushes, and was seen as both a reflection of aesthetic beauty as well as a testament to the skill of the artist.

Medieval Japan

The influences of Zen Buddhism and Japanese calligraphy gave birth to a meticulous style of painting that used black ink applied with a brush on a paper or silk canvas. The artwork was inspired by that of China’s Song dynasty (960–1275) but later evolved to achieve a traditional Japanese style. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, ink painting had grown to become the dominant art form in Japan. The paintings were primarily of landscapes, with a special attention to the changing seasons, though portraits were also common. Drawing from the nation’s Shintō beliefs, artists tried to capture the aesthetic harmony and spirituality of the natural world with simple, exacting, and spontaneous brushstrokes.

During the Heian Period, a time of relative peace that lasted from about 794–1185, a style of painting developed that focused exclusively on the Japanese identity, taking subjects from daily life and the nation’s literature and history. Like other art forms, the style originated in China, specifically during the time of the Tang dynasty (618–907). However, because the subject matter was strictly Japanese, the style was called yamato-e, or “Japanese painting.” Yamato-e focused on secular subjects such as local landscapes or scenes of everyday activities. In some paintings, the roofs of dwellings are purposely left off to show the activities of those inside as if seen from above. The style was also used to depict elements from popular Japanese poetry and literature. Yamato-e artwork was often painted on scrolls or sliding-door screens and noted for its frequent use of bright colors.

Edo Period

By the Edo Period, Japan’s contact with much of the outside world was limited. As a result, foreign influences were lessened and Japanese artists focused on refining traditional art forms such as calligraphy, ink drawing, and yamato-e. During this period, a style of art developed that could arguably be called Japan’s most recognizable art form. Ukiyo-e were woodblock prints made by taking a master ink copy of an artwork, gluing it to wooden blocks, and inking and printing an exact copy of the original. The name ukiyo-e means “pictures of the floating world” and was meant to symbolize the act of floating through the daily pleasures of life.

Ukiyo-e subject matter relied on traditional elements such as landscapes, birds, animals, and flowers; however, it also drew heavily on the pleasures of city life, depicting images of beautiful women, sumo wrestlers, samurai warriors, and theater actors. One of the best-known examples of this style is Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), painted by Katsushika Hokusai around 1830. The painting depicts Japanese fishing boats seemingly about to be swallowed by a large wave with Mount Fuji pictured in the background. Ukiyo-e artwork was the first traditional Japanese style to make an impression on the West after the nation opened its borders in the Meiji Restoration. The result was a trend known as Japonism that used the aesthetics of Japanese art to inspire the works of Western artists.

Modern Japan

The Meiji Restoration brought about such rapid modernization in Japan that many artists were afraid the nation’s traditions would become overwhelmed by its changing society. This led to a style called nihonga, which relied solely on traditional methods of creating Japanese artwork using colors created from minerals, rocks, and shells. The term was specifically applied to artwork that differed from Western styles of art. Nihonga works could incorporate Western elements or influences, but its signature style was quintessentially Japanese. Contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugito continued this tradition into the twenty-first century in works such as Pink Water (2005).

Japan’s traditional artwork continued to thrive into the modern era, but as the nation became more industrialized, the impact of Western influences on its culture also increased. In the early twentieth century, Japanese artists were inspired by American animated cartoons—especially those made by Walt Disney in the 1930s—to create a style of animated art called anime. The term anime refers to any animated work from Japan. The style grew extremely popular in the nation after World War II; in the twenty-first century, anime has also found an enthusiastic worldwide audience. Similar to anime, magna are the Japanese equivalent of comics. The origins of magna are said to date back to picture books published in the late nineteenth century. However, the modern form did not take off until the 1950s and was also inspired by comics from the United States.

Japan’s obsession with anime and magna gave birth to a definitive twenty-first-century artistic style known as Superflat. The term was invented in 2001 by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami to refer to the style’s distinctive two-dimensional look and as a commentary on the shallowness of modern popular culture. Superflat artwork is typically very active and colorful but embraces the lack of three-dimensional depth that is also common in traditional Japanese art styles. Superflat works can include painting, sculpture, animation, and digital art and often incorporate elements of popular and consumer culture. Aya Takano's Every Day is a Carnival (2012) is a prominent example of this style.

Other important works of modern Japanese art include Chiharu Shiota's Uncertain Journey (2016), Tabaimo's Two (2016), Hiroshi Sugimoto's Teatro Carignano, Turin (2016), and Daido Moriyama Pretty Woman (2017). These artists incorporate many traditional elements of Japanese art with modern influences. Modern Japanese sculpturist Yayoi Kusama creates large avant-garde pieces featuring bold, bright patterns. In one work, Kusama covered the trees of the New York Botanical Garden with a red and white polka dot wrapping and put over one thousand large metallic silver balls in the park’s pond.

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