Japanese painting

The mutual fertilization of Western and Eastern art

We read on the internet 'Modern painting was invented in Japan', with some reservations. First of all, modern art is not an invention but a development. Secondly, the far-reaching influence of Western and Japanese painting was distinctly mutual. The influence of Chinese painting on Japanese painting is much more far-reaching. During its revival, Japanese painting adopted a lot from Chinese painting and continued it in other, new styles. Painting with quick, loose strokes, for example, on a canvas with subtlety and also emptiness, originated in China in Taoism and later Chan Buddhism. This different way of painting moved to Japan together with Zen Buddhism. The development of new styles and new techniques by individuals also originated in China.

In our overview of Japanese painting we show how Western scientists were sent to Japan, where they were amazed by science and technology, including new weapons. Western painting amazed with its oil on canvas and associated techniques. The first teachers from Europe to teach in Japan were from the Barbison School. It is therefore Impressionism that found the most support in Japan, especially during the second generation of Impressionists, when that direction became successful in France, but also in many other places, and also emerged in America and Australia. Conversely, the influences from the East on the West were already to a lesser extent before the time of the craze for Japonisme and Chinoiserie. When Impressionism emerged, from 1867 onwards, painters painted colorfully, in stark contrast to the somber tones of French realism, and this was clearly linked to their knowledge and collecting of Japanese art. The first painter to paint in 'keys' was a Chinese, using only ink, but clearly in keys of varying transparency.

During the heyday of Japonism, a major influence came from Japanese woodcut printing, many of which were resold in Western Europe. Van Gogh transformed his late French realism into colorful scenes, and was also inspired by woodcuts with their powerful brush strokes and bright colors, in strongly pronounced portraits, interiors, landscapes, flowers and irregular, gnarled branches. Sometimes he also gave contours to figures, and although he broadly followed the photographic perspective of the time, he still deviated to make his subjects clearer, such as flowers turned towards the viewer. These twisted subjects are a certain form of abstraction. He did not hide his influence on Japan, he illustrated it.

Van Gogh discovered this ukiyo-e through illustrations by Félix Régamey in magazines, he later bought it himself in Paris and thus started his collection. He even exhibited it in 1887. Other elements that Van Gogh adopted were, for example, placing a void between the figures, abruptly breaking off figuration elsewhere on the edge, or showing no horizon. He loved unusual spatial effects, strong colors, everyday objects and details in nature. He was also influenced by the paintings of his friend Émile Bernard, who, under the influence of ukiyo-e, stylized and abstracted his work. Vincent writes to his brother Theo 'Look, we love Japanese painting, we experienced his influence - all impressionists have that in common...' and 'All my works are to some extent based on Japanese art' (letter to Theo in 1888) . Vincent moved to the south of France, he found the south more exotic, closer to Japan. 'After a while your vision changes, you look with a Japanese eye, you feel color differently...' Van Gogh wanted to set up a kind of Buddhist painting commune there, but only Gaugain accepted the invitation. She increasingly disagreed with Gaugain and the first symptoms of his mental problems appeared, causing him to lose his self-confidence.

Japanese prints were originally discovered in Western Europe because they were used as packaging material for porcelain objects. They soon became popular themselves. The Belgian painter Alfred Stevens was one of the first European collectors of Japanese art. He shared his great enthusiasm with other painters with whom he had close contact, Manet and Whistler. The world exhibitions in 1862 in London and 1867 in Paris were of great importance for their dissemination. Edgar Degas already started collecting ukiyo-e in the 1860s, under the influence of Mary Cassatt. In 1875 he clearly shows Japanese influence in his prints. His prints usually focus on women in their daily lives, clearly inspired by Utamaro, Hokusai and Sukenobu. In his work 'Mary Cassat in the Louvre: the Etruscan gallery' from 1879-1880, the two positions of one woman are typical of Japanese art, and the fact that the woman leans on an umbrella is taken from Hokusa's work 'Manga '. In the 1890s, many painters began to collect Japanese prints, and adopted stylistic features in their own work.

The exhibition of Japanese art in Great Britain in the early 1850s. Whister, an American in Great Britain, said goodbye to his realism with Japanese styles, for example in compositions. Japonism also had a major influence on Art Nouveau. For example, the art dealer Siegfried Bing sold to the Parisian print shop La Porte Chinoise and published his magazine 'Le Japon artistique' from 1888 to 1891. He was an important promoter of Art Nouveau, which was also clearly influenced by Japanese art.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's color lithographs (posters) show clear influence from Japan, but he also derived the idea that such prints could spread his art more widely from Japanese prints. Nabis and Symbolists also liked to draw inspiration from Japanese art, not only in paintings, but also in folding screens and stained glass windows. Pierre Bonnard went furthest in his Japanese style and painted multiple folding screens, with various objects facing the viewer, the use of patterns, and compositions with voids.

Anonymus, Womb realm mandala, 9th century (via wikimedia)

Jeweled pagoda mandala, sovereign kings of the golden light sutra, 12th century, gold, silver and color on indigo paper (via wikimedia)

Attr to Sesshu Toyo, Landscape with ink broken (shihon bokuga sansuizu), 1495

Josetsu, Catching a catfish with a gourd, 1415, ink wash (via wikipedia)

Sesshû Tôyô, Winter landscape (the four seasons), ca 1470, ink on paper (via smarthistory.org)

Sekkyakushi, Goddess Benten (Sarawati), wife of Brahma, wearing royal robes, sitting on a rock, with a biwa in her lap and a flute-playing attendant, ca1400, Muromashi period, ink, colors and gold on silk (via zacke.at)

Bokurin Guan, Cicada on a grape vine, late 14th century (via metmuseum.org)

Mokuan Reien, ?-1345, The four sleepers, ink on paper (via chegg.com)

Kanô Masanobu, 1434?-1530?, Appreciating lotuses (via wikipedia)

Kano Motonobu, 1476-1559, Flowers and birds in a Spring landscape, 1500s, ink and color on paper (via wikimedia)

Kaihō Yūshō, 1533-1615, pair of six-panel foulding screens, ca 1602, ink and gold wash on paper (via Saint Louis art museum)

Kaihō Yūshō, Pine and plum by moonlight, one of a pair of six-fold screens, 1568 à 1615, ink and slight color on paper (via wikipedia)

Kaihō Yūshō, Gibbons playing in oak trees, one of a pair, may have been a set of 12 or 16, approx 1588-1598 (via artsandculture.google)

Attr to Kano Shôei, 1519-1592, Birds and flowers, late 16th century, ink, color, gold leaf and gold fleck on paper (via Brooklyn museum)

Kaihō Yūshō, Dragons and clouds (via japantimes.co.jp)

Anonymous, 16th century (Muromachi-Momoyama), pair of sixfold paper, ink and color on a buff ground, each 294 on 110 cm (via japanesescreens.com)

Kyoto Kano-school, Landscape with peacock and peahen, 17th century, pair of six panel screens, ink, color, gold pigment and foil on paper (via bonhams)

Kakaki Hyakusen, 1697-1852, Su Shi's second visit to the red cliff, 18th century, ink and color on silk (via collections.artsmia.org)

Kakaki Hyakusen, Orchids on rockwork, hanging scroll, ink on paper (via christies)

Itō Jakuchū, 1716-1800, Mandarin ducks in the snow, hanging scroll, 1759, in and colors on silk (via imgur.com)

Itō Jakuchū, Plum blossoms from Seiran'en painting album, 18th century (via wikimedia)

Ogata Kôrin, red and white plum blossoms, 18th century, pair of screens, color and gold leaf on paper (via khanacademy.org)

Soga Shōhaku, 1730-1781, Mount Horai, hanging scroll, ink on paper (via christies)

After Soga Shōhaku, Monkey reaching for the moon, 19th century, hanging scroll, one of a pair, ink on paper (via bonhams)

Soga Shōhaku, The four sages of mount Shangca 1768, pair of six-panel folding screens, ink on paper, each 361,2 on 154,7 cm (via gagosian.com)

Maruyama Okyo, 1733-1795,The four seasons, 1 of 4 scrolls, 18th century (via sothebys.com)

Matsumura Goshun, 1752-1811, Meteo Iwa, 1807 (via slmoss.com)

Tani Bunchô, River gorge with waterfall (via metmuseum.org)

Tani Bunchô, Peacocks and peonies, 1820 (via metmuseum.org)

Yamamoto Baiitsu, Peonies and butterflies, painting on tinted paper (via mutualart)

Yamamoto Baiitsu, Overhanging cliff with bamboo and orchid, 1843, hanging scroll, ink on paper (via bonhams)

Yamamoto Baiitsu, Insects and grasses, 1847, scroll (via metmuseum.org)

Watanabe Kazan, Portrait of Sato Issai (age 50) (via wikipedia)

Kitagawa Utamaro, 1753-1806, Moon at Shinagawa, ca 1788, color on paper, one of a triptych (via asianartnewspaper.com)

Suzuki Harunobu, ca 1725-1770, Two girls, ca 1750, houtsnede (via wikipedia)

Suzuki Harunobu, ca 1725-1770, Ox herder, ca 1750, houtsnede (via talengestore.com)

Katsushika Hokusai, 1760-1849, Ri Haku, ca 1833 (via christies)

Katsushika Hokusai, Under the well of the great wave off Kanagawa (via christies)

Utagawa Toyoshige, 1777-1835, Ichikawa Danjuro VIII in the Sibaraku role, hanging scrole, ink, color and gold on silk (via christies)

Utagawa Kunisada, 1786-1864, and Utagawa Toyoshige, 1777-1835, Fashionable genji enjoying a pleasure boat, woodblock triptych (via christies)

Attr to Kitagawa Utamaro, Zicht op de baai van Edo, vanaf de Nihonbashi, 1823-29, Western style, pigments and sumi ink on paper (via collectie.wereldculturen.nl)

Utagawa Hiroshige, Imaginary scene of a private Kyôgen performance, triptych, colour woodblock print (photo art7d.be)

Utagawa Hiroshige, Long tailed bird and flowering plum branch, 1830-35, colour woodblock print (photo art7d.be)

Utagawa Hiroshige and Utagawa Kunisada, Eastern genji, The garden in snow, 1854, colour woodblock print (photo art7d.be)

Utagawa Hiroshige, Kanbara, night snow, 1933-34, colour woodblock print (photo art7d.be)

Yamashita Chikusai, 1885-1973

Shibata Zeshin, 1807-1891, Album of lacquer pictures, 1887, ink, color and lacquer paint on paper (via collections artsmia.org)

Kanō Hōgai, 1828–1888, Two dragons in clouds, 1885, ink on paper (via wikimedia)

Fujishima Takeji, 1867–1943, In the oriental manner, 1923, oil on canvas (via quad.lib.umich.edo)

Asai Chū, 1856–1907, Bridge in Grez-sur-loing, 1902, watercolor on paper (via wikimedia)

Hashimoto Gahō, 1835–1908, Cranes beside a lake in Spring and Autumn, ink, color, god leaf and seikin on paper, pair of screens (via christies)

Fujishima Takeji, 1867–1943, Summer evening beside the lake (via jenikirbyhistory getarchive.net)

Wada Eisaku, 1874–1959, Evening at the ferry crossing, 1897, oil on canvas (via wikipedia)

Keiichiro Kume, Île de Bréhat, 1891, oil on canvas (via wikipedia)

Uemura Shōen, 1875–1949, Woman whaiting for the moon to rise, 1944 (Adachimuseum.or.jp)

Uemura Shōen, 1875–1949, Flames, 1918

Anonymous, Portrait of a Chinese lady, late 19th century, reverse glass painting (via thimotylangston.com)

Hayami Gyoshū, 1894–1935, Village in Shugakuin, 1918, ink and color on silk (via eclecticlight.co)

Hayami Gyoshū, 1894–1935, Dance of flames (enbu), 1925 (via wikimedia)

Tetsugorō Yorozu, 1885–1927, Self portrait with red eyes, 1912 (via wikipedia)

Kawabata Ryūshi, 1885–1966, Bomb exploding, 1945 (via wikimedia)

Kawabata Ryūshi (1885–1966), Controversial love, 1934 (via wikipedia)

Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita, 1886-1968, Nu au chat

Kobayashi Kokei, 1883–1957, Kumawakamaru, 1907, color on silk (via wikimedia)

Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita, 1886-1968, Jeune fille aux roses, 1957, oil on canvas (via mutualart.com)

Sugiyama Yasushi, Light of mercy (via fukuda-art-museum.jp)

Kagaku Mirakami, 1888-1939, Nude, 1920 (via wikipedia)

Takehisa Yumeji, 1884–1934, Late Spring, 1926, pen, pencil and watercolor on paper (via wikimedia)

Yuzō Saeki 1898–1928, Café terrace aux affiches, 1927 (via etsy)

Takahashi Yuichi, Eight views 3, 1885 (via wikimedia)

Ancient Japan and the Asuka period (until 710)

Japanese painting has its origins in the prehistory of Japan. As on pottery and on bronze bells, we find botanical, architectural or geometric subjects. But murals have also been preserved, especially in religious painting, with precisely detailed figures. The style is more in line with the Asian art of the time. But early on a major influence came from Chinese painting, through the Chinese characters adopted into Japanese script, in calligraphy, in animal and plant painting, and landscape painting.

However, each time, its own Japanese character developed very quickly in various styles. The typical scenes from everyday life or the narrative scenes with many figures and details also have their origins in the Chinese painting tradition in the early Middle Ages, but soon became thoroughly Japanese and have persisted until modern times.

In the Nara period (6th and 7th centuries), painting flourished through the temples built by the aristocracy, featuring the historical Buddha Siddhatta Shakyamuni, alongside iconic Buddhas, bodhisattvas and various minor deities. The style is Chinese inspired, in the vein of the Sui dynasty or the Sixteen Kingdoms period. In the mid-Nara period, the Tang Dynasty Chinese style became very popular. Due to their religiosity, most paintings are anonymous.

Example of yamato-e, Azumaya from 'The tale of Genji', hand scroll fragment, ca 1130 (via smarthistory.org)

Heian period (794-1185)

With the development of the esoteric Buddhist sects Shingon and Tendai, painting from the 8th and 9th centuries is characterized by religious painted mandalas (mandara).

During the early Heian period, Kanaoka Kose founded the Kose school, a family of court artists, in the second half of the 9th century. They represented various styles created by Kanaoka Kose, descendants and students. They gave Chinese themes a Japanese style and played an important role in the formation of the yamato-e painting style. The paintings in the interior of the Phoenix Hall of the Byōdō-in, a temple in Uji, Kyoto dating from 1053, include landscape features such as gently rolling hills resembling the landscape of western Japan, considered an early example of the so-called yamato-e.

Yamato-e meant 'Japanese painting', to distinguish it from the Chinese style, with much more explicit use of color and the use of gold leaf. In the 9th century, China had a major impact on Japanese art and literature, and the desire for more typical art of its own arose. Yamato-e included landscape paintings as well as scenes from literary texts, such as from 'The Tale of Genji' or 'The Tales of Ise'. A fragment of a hand scroll from the twelfth century with fragments from 'The Tale of Genji' shows us Japanese ladies-in-waiting in bright colors surrounded by typical Japanese nature scenes, such as low hills and blossoms, painted on hand scrolls and folding screens.

The mid-Heian period is considered the golden age of Yamato-e, which was initially used mainly for sliding doors (fusuma) and folding screens (byōbu). However, new painting formats also came to prominence, especially towards the end of the Heian period, including emakimono, or long illustrated hand scrolls. Types of emakimono include illustrated novels, such as the Genji Monogatari, historical works, such as the Ban Dainagon Ekotoba, and religious works. This is also called the Nara period, from 710 to 794 AD. The Tang Dynasty became a major influence on Japanese culture, and was linked to Buddhist devotional culture. Japanese paintings that were closer to the Chinese Tang style were called kara-e, 'Tang painting', not only with imagined Chinese landscapes but also with scenes from Chinese stories or literary themes. The Senzui-Byobu or 11th century landscape screen from the Kyoto Museum is in the Chinese blue-and-green style with ink and pigments on silk, but shows low hills and blossoms. We can follow the further fusion of Japanese and Chinese style in the various versions of the 'four seasons', which also tied in with various rites of the Japanese people.

In some cases, emaki artists employed pictorial narrative conventions that had been used in Buddhist art since ancient times, while at other times they invented new narrative modes that are believed to visually convey the emotional content of the underlying story.

E-maki also serves as some of the earliest and largest examples of the onna-e ("women's pictures") and otoko-e ("men's pictures") and painting styles. There are many fine differences between the two styles. Although the terms seem to suggest the aesthetic preferences of each gender, onna-e is generally about court life and courtly romance, while otoko-e is often about historical or semi-legendary events, especially battles.

The folded room dividers are seen as typically Japanese. However, they come from China, from the Tang dynasty. They found their way to Japan in the 8th century. By the 16th century in Japan it had become a must-have for every household. Because they were adjustable and also movable, they survived many disasters. In this way they were spread all over the world. Usually they are made as a matched pair. One screen consisted of two to eight panels, usually foldable into an accordion. Each panel is a frame with multiple layers of paper. They are usually gray at the back, because they are not made to be viewed from that side. You should view the image from left to right.

Example of kara-e, Landscape screen (Senzui Byõbu), 11th century (Heian), ink and pigments on silk (via Japan national treasures)

Sesshû Tôyô, Birds and flowers of the four seasons, right screen, 15th century, Muromachi-period (via thejapantimes)

Sesson Shukei, Eight views of the Xiao and Xiang rivers (sixth panel), ca 1564, ink on paper (via thewaltersartmuseum)

Muromachi period (1333-1573)

In the new great Zen monasteries in the 14th century, the polychrome scroll paintings of early Zen art were replaced by suibokuga, an austere monochrome style of ink painting introduced by the Ming dynasty from China, from the Song and Yuan inkwash styles (especially Muqi), to some polychrome portraits of Zen monks.

Catching a Catfish with a Gourd (located in Taizō-in, Myōshin-ji, Kyoto), by the priest-painter Josetsu, marks a turning point in Muromachi painting. It is generally believed that the "new style" of the painting, created around 1413, refers to a more Chinese sense of deep space within the picture plane. Josetsu was born and trained as an artist in China, but settled in Japan. The work was inspired by a riddle, a rhetorical question from the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimochi, 'how do you catch a catfish with a gourd?' The question is written on the work, along with the names of 31 leading Zen monks who wrote him an answer. This work can be seen as a visually visible kôan. A Chinese proverb, “catfish climbing a bamboo pole,” is synonymous with “doing the impossible.”

By the end of the 14th century, monochrome landscape paintings had gained patronage from the ruling Ashikaga family and were the favored genre among Zen painters, gradually evolving from their Chinese roots to a more Japanese style. A further development of landscape painting was the scroll of poems, known as shigajiku. The most important artists of the Muromachi period are the priest painters Shūbun and Sesshū. Sesshū traveled to China and was able to study Chinese painting at its source.

Sesshû Toyo (Oda), 1420-1506, is considered one of the greatest masters of sumi-e, monochrome ink paintings. He painted landscapes, flowers, birds and other animals, or Zen Buddhist images. He adapted the Chinese style to Japanese ideals and sensibility. At the age of ten, he was assigned to the local Zen temple, where he learned calligraphy and painting. Zen monasteries were then the largest centers for culture and art. At the age of twenty, he moved to a Zen temple in Kyoto that belonged to the Ashikage shogunate, under the supervision of the painter Shûbun. Twenty years later he became head priest on Honchu Island. His intention was probably to get to China. As an art expert he succeeded in 1468 by purchasing works and studying at Chan Buddhist monasteries. He returned to Japan in 1469.

In the late Muromachi period, ink painting migrated from the Zen monasteries into the general art world, where artists from the Kanō school and the Ami school adopted style and themes, with a more plastic and decorative effect that continued into the modern time would continue.

Kanô Masanobu, himself the son of a samurai and amateur painter, started a family of professional painters. He was influenced by the priest painter Tenshô Shûbun and worked in the shuiboko ink wash style of Chinese painting. He was an official painter of the Ashikaga shogunate, but could not be a court painter because his family was provincial. His son Kanô Motonobu founded the Kano school of painting, which would last for more than 300 years, from Muromachi until it dissolved in the 19th century. The family business produced seven generations of artists, and many artists were also adopted through marriage or adoption. Many of them served as soldiers or worked for the nobility. They united a renewed vision of Chinese painting with yamato-e.

Kanô Shoei belonged to the Kano school and was a bird-and-flower painter, a tradition that came from China, where it symbolized noble virtues. The Japanese painters knew the symbolism but saw abundant life forms and gold more as a Buddhist reference to paradise. Such screens were often hung in Buddhist temples.

Kano Motonobu, 1477-1559, Birds and flowers of the four seasons (one of six screens), 1550, ink, color and gold leaf on paper (via alaintruong.com)

Shûbun, Landscape over the seasons (left of two screens), 15th century, ink and light colors on paper (via cernuschimuseum)

Azuchi-Momoyama period (1573-1615)

During this period Japan was in chaos. In 1568, the last Ashikaga shogun was enthroned, beginning the Azuchi-Momoyama period. He was defeated by Nobunaga, who tried to unify Japan. He had a great interest in Western Europe, which gave him many new things such as new food or painting techniques, but especially new weapons. As the Buddhists often fought him in his conquests, he greatly reduced their power, slaughtered monks and burned monasteries, and promoted the Christians, although he never was himself baptized. He was later forced to commit suicide. His successor Hideyoshi succeeded in bringing Japan under his authority, he persecuted the Christians, and many missionaries were crucified by him. But he failed in an invasion of Korea in 1592, losing much prestige. His successor ultimately lost to Tokugawa in 1600, the establishment of his shogunate being seen as the end of the era and the beginning of the Edo era.

In stark contrast to the previous Muromachi period, the Azuchi-Momoyama period was characterized by a grandiose polychrome style, with extensive use of gold and silver foil that would be applied to paintings, clothing, architecture... and through works on very large dish. In contrast to the opulent style that many were familiar with, the military elite supported a rustic simplicity, especially in the form of the tea ceremony that used weathered and imperfect utensils in a similar setting.

The Kanō school, patronized by Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu and their followers, gained enormous size and prestige. Kanō Eitoku (1543-1590) developed a formula for creating monumental landscapes on the sliding doors that enclose a room. These enormous screens and murals were commissioned to decorate the castles and palaces of the military nobility. The large castles that were built between 1576 and 1579 were intended to radiate the strength and confidence of the new leaders and warriors. This status continued into the subsequent Edo period, as the Tokugawa bakufu continued to promote the works of the Kanō school as the officially approved art for the shōgun, daimyōs, and the imperial court.

Another movement from the Azuchi-Momoyama period was the Tosa school, emerging from the yamato-e tradition, best known for small-scale works and illustrations of literary classics in book or emaki format.

Hasegawa Tōhaku (1539–1610) was adopted by a family of textile dyers, Hasegawa. He started as a Buddhist painter, at the age of twenty he was a professional painter, at the age of thirty he moved to Kyoto to study at the Kano School, then led by Kanô Shôei. They made large paintings for the castle walls of the wealthy warriors and patrons. In Kyoto he was also able to study painted scrolls from the Song and Yuan periods (China), and from Sesshû Tôyô. The latter in particular made him return from the lush and daring works of the Kano school. He also studied with Sesshû's successor Toshun. Tôhaku considered himself the fifth successor of Sesshû, but was not recognized as such.

He founded a small school, which consisted of him and his sons. In 1590 Kanō Eitoku died and Tōhaku became the official painter of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, for whom he created some of his greatest works. He was recognized as the greatest master of his time. At the age of 67, he was given the official title of hōgen by the shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu, with whom he remained for the rest of his life. He made rich, colorful works as well as ink paintings in the kotan style ('elegant simplicity'), finally painting roughly with ink in the style of Liang Chieh, genpitsu-tai, literally 'the style of the fewest brush strokes'.

Kaihō Yūshō (1533–1615) was born into a high-ranking samurai family. Due to the death of his brother under warlord Oda Nobunaga, he entered the artistic environment. In his forties he became a student at the Kanō school, either under the famous Kanō Motonobu or under his grandson Kanō Eitoku. He became famous at the age of sixty during what was called his 'early' period. At the age of 67, he was commissioned to paint the interior of the abbot of Kenninji Temple in Kyoto. Initially he worked for priests, then for the nobility. He worked at Jurakudai, under the protection of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Emperor Go-Yōzei, for the private residence of Imperial Prince Hachijo Toshihito (1579-1629).

In his work 'dragons and clouds' the canoe influence is evident: the nose is human, the background on the right is a geometric spiral shape, unseen at the time.

Hasegawa Tohaku, Pine trees, screen on the right, 16th century, ink on paper (via wikipedia)

Hasegawa Tohaku, Pine trees screen, screen on the left, 16th century, ink on paper (via Japan national treasures)

Hasegawa Tohaku, waves and rocks, Azuchi-Momoyama-period (via twitter.com)

Edo period (1603-1868)

The Edo period, which emerged from the chaos of the Sengoku period, was characterized by economic growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policy, a stable population, lasting peace and popular enjoyment of art and culture, popularly called Oedo. The period takes its name from Edo (now Tokyo), where the shogunate was officially founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu on March 24, 1603. The period came to an end with the Meiji Restoration and the Boshin War, which restored imperial rule in Japan.

In the tightly controlled feudal society ruled for more than 250 years by the descendants of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542–1616), creativity came not from the leaders, a conservative military class, but from the two lower classes in the Confucian social hierarchy , the craftsmen and the merchants. Although they were officially denigrated, they were free to reap the economic and social benefits of this prosperous era. Art and culture flourished, centered on the tea ceremony, adopted by every class from the Momoyama period.

Towards the end of the 1730s, contact with the outside world was broken by an official ban on foreigners. In Japan's self-imposed isolation, past traditions were revived and refined, and transformed into the thriving urban societies of Kyoto and Edo. Limited trade with Chinese and Dutch merchants was allowed in Nagasaki, which stimulated the development of Japanese porcelain and provided an opening for the culture of Ming literature to penetrate the artistic circles of Kyoto and later Edo.

Experiments with realism, influenced by exposure to Western models, yielded important new lines of painting. Particularly characteristic of the period was the increase in the number of important individualist artists and of artists whose eclectic training could meet the demands of patronage. The Kanō painting school expanded and functioned as a kind of 'official' Japanese painting academy. Many painters who would later start their own stylistic line or function as independent and eclectic artists received their training in a Kanō studio. Kanō Sanraku's bold patterns were stimulated by Tawaraya Sōtatsu and Hon'ami Kōetsu with their courtly revival style. Kanō Tanyū strengthened the interests and dominant position of the Kanō school. Tanyū was not only the most important painter of the school, but was also extremely influential as a connoisseur and theorist.

Two lines of painting explored the revival of interest in courtly taste: one was a consolidation of a group descended from Sōtatsu, and the other, the Tosa school, claimed descent from the imperial painting studios of the Heian period. The interpretations offered by the collaboration between Kōetsu and Sōtatsu in the late Momoyama period developed into a distinctive style called rinpa. Sōtatsu himself was active until the 1640s, and his students continued his characteristic rendering of patterned images of classical themes. Like Sōtatsu, Kōrin emerged from the Kyoto trade as a descendant of a family of textile designers. His paintings are notable for an intensification of the flat design quality and abstract color patterns that Sōtatsu has explored and for the use of opulent materials. Other notable painters of the Rinpa style in the later years of the Edo period were Sakai Hōitsu and Suzuki Kiitsu.

The Tosa School, a hereditary school of court painters, experienced a period of revival thanks to the exceptional talents and political acumen of Tosa Mitsuoki. The Tosa workshop was active throughout the Edo period. An offshoot of the school, the Sumiyoshi painters Jokei (1599–1670) and his son Gukei (1631–1705), produced distinctive and vivid renderings of classical subjects.

In the first half of the 19th century, a group of painters, including Reizei Tamechika, explored ancient sources of painting and offered a revival of the Yamato-e style. Some, but not all, of the painters in this circle were politically active supporters of royalism. In addition to the Kanō, Rinpa, and Tosa painting styles, all of which had their origins in earlier periods, several new types of painting developed during the Edo period. Two new styles developed, the individualistic or eccentric style and the bunjin-ga or literati painting. The individualist painters were influenced by non-traditional sources such as Western painting and scientific nature studies, and often used unexpected themes or techniques to create unique works that reflected their often unconventional personalities.

A line that emerged under Maruyama Ōkyo is a kind of lyrical realism, with a preference for nature studies, whether flora and fauna or human anatomy, and a subtle integration of perspective and shading techniques learned from Western examples. A successor was Nagasawa Rosetsu, an individualist known for instilling a haunting supernatural quality in his works, whether landscape, human or animal studies. Yet another of Ōkyo's collaborators was Matsumura Goshun. Originally a follower of the literary painter and poet Yosa Buson, Goshun joined Ōkyo, confused by his master's death and other personal setbacks. Goshun's quick and witty brushwork adapted to the softer, more polished Ōkyo style, but retained an individuality. He and his students are known as the Shijō School, after the street where Goshun's studio was located, or, in recognition of Ōkyo's influence, as the Maruyama-Shijō School.

Other notable individualists of the 18th century included Soga Shōhaku, an essentially itinerant painter who was an eccentric interpreter of Chinese themes in figure and landscape. Itō Jakuchū, son of a prosperous vegetable merchant from Kyoto, was an independent master of both ink and polychrome forms. His paintings in both modes often convey the rich, dense patterned texture of products displayed in a market. The other new painting style, bunjin-ga, is also called nan-ga (“southern painting”) because it developed from the so-called Chinese Southern school of painting. The idiosyncratic southern painting style was presented as one of the achievements of the literatus amateur, who found shogunal neo-Confucianism suspect and politically distorted. However, Japan's understanding of literary aesthetics was significantly influenced by the last wave of Zen Buddhist monks who fled to Japan after the Manchu takeover of China in 1644. Monks of the Ōbaku Zen sect did not reach the scale of earlier Zen immigrations to Japan , but they did bring with them numerous examples of contemporary Chinese art for interested Japanese literati and artists to study.

In the amateur ideal of Chinese bunjin, the most notable works in monochrome ink or ink and light colors were created by professional artists who made their living by producing and selling their paintings, poetry, and calligraphy. Particularly notable artists from this tradition include 18th-century masters Ike Taiga and Buson. Some of Taiga's most compelling works deal with landscape themes and the fusion of certain aspects of Western realism with personal expressiveness. Buson is remembered as both a leading poet and painter. He combined haikus with short brushed images.

Uragami Gyokudō achieved movements that were almost abstract. Tani Bunchō produced paintings in the Chinese mode, but in a somewhat more polished and representational style. An outspoken individualist, he served the shogun by applying his talents to topographical drawings used for national defense purposes. Bunchō's disciple Watanabe Kazan was an official who represented his daimyo in Edo. His interest in intellectual and artistic reforms brought him closest to illustrating classical literary ideals. His achievements in portraiture are particularly important and reveal his keen study of Western techniques. In a conflict with the shogunate over issues ultimately related to Japan's attitude toward the international community, Kazan was imprisoned and subsequently took his life.

Woodblock prints paralleled or sometimes intersected the above developments in painting with the production of ukiyo-e, or “pictures of the floating world,” which depicted the vivid, fleeting pleasures of the common people. This specialized area of visual representation emerged in the late 16th and early 17th centuries as part of a widespread interest in representing aspects of emerging urban life. Depictions of the brothel districts and the Kabuki theater dominated the subject matter of ukiyo-e until the early 19th century, when landscape and bird-and-flower subjects became popular, both in painting and woodcut form.

Since the 8th century, woodblock printing had been a relatively inexpensive method of reproducing images and text monopolized by the Buddhist establishment for the purpose of proselytization. For over 800 years, no social trend or movement had demonstrated the need for this relatively simple technology. For example, painters were the most important interpreters of the demimonde in the first half of the 17th century. The print format was mainly used for the production of erotica and cheap illustrated novellas, reflecting the generally low appreciation for printmaking. The artist engaged in the production of woodblock prints was classified as a designer, who was commissioned and often under the direct supervision of the publisher, usually the impressario of a studio or other commercial enterprise.

The simplest prints were made from monochrome ink drawings, on which the artist sometimes noted color suggestions. The design was transferred to a cherry or boxwood block by an experienced sculptor and carved in relief. A printer made prints of the inked block on paper, after which the individual prints could be colored by hand if desired. Multi-color printing required more blocks and a precise printing method to ensure exact registration from block to block. Additional details such as the use of mica, precious metals and embossing further complicated the task. The mass-produced prints were considered relatively disposable.

From the late 17th to the mid-18th century, apart from some stylistic changes and the addition of a few printed rather than hand-applied colors, print production remained essentially unchanged. The technical ability to produce full-color, or polychrome, prints (nishiki-e) was well known, but so labor-intensive that it was uneconomical until the 1760s. Harunobu's productions elegantly introduced new possibilities until the end of the decade . His work raised consumer expectations so much that publishers began full-color production under the assumption that consumption levels would exceed production costs.

The last quarter of the 18th century was the heyday of the classic ukiyo-e themes of fashionable beauty and the actor. Katsukawa Shunshō and his students dominated the actor print genre. His innovative images clearly portrayed actors not as interchangeable bodies wearing masks, but as distinct personalities whose poses and colorfully made-up faces were easily recognizable to the viewer. A mysterious artist who operated under the name Tōshūsai Sharaku produced stunning actor statues from 1794 to 1795, but little else is known about him. Masters of portraying feminine beauty included Torii Kiyonaga and Kitagawa Utamaro. Both idealized the female form and observed it in virtually all its poses, customary and formal. Utamaro's bust portraits, while hardly meeting a Western definition of portraiture, were remarkable for the emotional moods they conveyed. Utamaro also painted a triptych of the pleasure houses in Edo, which took him 12 to 15 years. These works feature scenes and figures from many of his woodcuts. All those works served to idealize those occasions, as in this verse by the Tang poet Bai Juyi (772-846) 'Snow, moon and flowers, at those moments I think of you longingly'. They were not just elite brothels, the geishas danced, played koto, shamisen or biwa, and read poetry. At their peak, some 6,000 women were in the licensed sex trade, Professor Davis of the Smithsonian institute investigated and concluded that the average death rate of these young women was 21 years, the leading cause of death being syphilis.

At the end of the 18th century, the palpable tightening of government censorship control forced the search for other subjects. Landscape became a theme of increasing interest. In Edo, the artist Katsushika Hokusai, who trained with Katsukawa Shunshō as a young man, broke with the studio system and successfully experimented with new subjects and styles. In the 1820s and 1830s, Hokusai created the enormously popular print series “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.” Andō Hiroshige followed with another series of landscape travelogues. Both these and other artists benefited from the public interest in scenes from distant places. Hokusai was also an important painter. His energetic depiction of the thunder god is a great example of the quirky and funny quality of his figurative painting. Hokusai was 88 years old when he painted this powerful work.

Hiroshige also painted, but his legacy consists of a large number of prints celebrating scenes of a Japan that seems to be disappearing as in his '100 Views of Edo'. It demonstrates Hiroshige's refined ability to create atmosphere. Fragmentary foreground elements were used effectively to frame a vista, a viewpoint adopted by some European painters after their studies of 19th-century Japanese prints. Although the tried and tested themes of eroticism, brothel and theater were still represented in 19th century prints, an emerging taste for Gothic and grotesque subjects also found a wide audience. Historical themes were also popular, especially those that could be interpreted as criticisms of contemporary politics. Ukiyo-e prints seemed to have transformed from a celebration of fun to a way to widely disseminate observations about social and political events. As the century closed, the printed form gave way to the development of newspaper illustration. This new form served many of the same purposes as prints and therefore dramatically reduced the print audience, but did not meet the same aesthetic needs.

Kano Sansetsu, Old plum, 1646, Four sliding door panels, ink, color, gold and gold leaf on paper (via metsmuseum.org)

Tawaraya Sotatsu, ?-1643, Waves at Matsushima, right screen of a pair (via thejapantimes)

Maruyama Ōkyo, 1733–1795, Cracked ice, 1766 (via openartimages.com)

Yamamoto Baiitsu, 1783–1856, Three friends of Winter, first half 19th century, ink and flecks of gold pigment on paper, right of a pair (via collections.artsmia.org)

Yokoyama Seiki, 1793-1865, Shijo-school, 1850, slight colour and sumi on paper, left of a pair of screens (via bonhams)

Modern period (1868–1945)

In the Japanese dating system, this period includes the Meiji period (1868–1912), the Taishō period (1912–26), the Shōwa period (1926–89), and the Heisei period (begun in 1989). In the context of the history of modern painting, we will review this period until after the Second World War.

In the mid-1870s, a wide variety of Western experts, including military strategists, railway engineers, architects, philosophers, and artists, were invited to teach at Japanese universities or otherwise assist in Japan's growth and development. change process. The goal was to absorb Western technology and culture. Also during this time, Japan was directly involved in two international conflicts: a war with China (1894-1895) and a war with Russia (1904-1905). In 1910, Japan annexed Korea as a source of labor and raw materials.

In the Taishō period, the people were given more say and government and the arts were also liberalized. The 1930s were characterized by a rise in militarism and further expansion on the Asian continent. That culminated in the Second World War. After the American post-war occupation, Japan experienced rapid growth with increasing internationalism.

In the first decade of the Meiji period, Japanese culture was infused with Western painting, sculpture and architecture. The Meiji government began to separate Shinto and Buddhism very strictly and adopted a destructive attitude towards Buddhism. Many monasteries had to sell their art, which flowed abroad. Japanese artists also suffered from the general trend of idealizing all aspects of Western culture. Large amounts of Japanese art, of which woodblock prints are the most important example, went to Western collections.

Even before the Meiji Restoration, Japan had established a bureau to study Western painting. Takahashi Yuichi was the first to have an artistic interest in oil painting in addition to a technical interest. In 1876, a school of fine arts was founded and a team of Italian painters hired. The most influential was Antonio Fontanesi, of the Barbizon school. One student, Asai Chū, later studied in Europe and his contemporary Kuroda Seiki studied in France with Raphael Collin, he is considered the father of yōga, Western-style painting.

Not only did unfamiliar materials such as oil paint and canvas have to be mastered, but also new theories of composition, shading and perspective, as well as the underlying Western philosophy of nature and its representation that had led to their development over the centuries. At the end of the Meiji period, painting schools, associations and systems of official recognition through annual exhibitions became increasingly strict. There were government-sponsored exhibitions and associations, as well as protest salons and secessionist groups, with a vibrant spirit of resistance to official control.

Ernest Fenollosa, an American, started teaching philosophy at the Imperial University of Tokyo from 1878, and had a professional passion for Japanese and Chinese art. He encouraged the Japanese to reclaim their cultural heritage. The Japanese government sponsored artists and craftsmen to participate in international exhibitions in Europe and America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Japaneseism started this gradually, with great influence of art on Western painters. The early 20th century was a time not only of assimilation of Western art forms and philosophies, but also of a revival of traditional Japanese forms.

The Taishō period increasingly deepened Western art and culture. The literary magazine Shirakaba (1910–23) was devoted to these topics, introducing Japanese artists to European Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Kishida Ryūsei's paintings, inspired by Van Gogh, Dürer and Van Eyck, illustrate the assimilation of European moods into Japanese mode. Umehara Ryūzaburō studied with Asai Chū but also with Renoir in France.

At the same time as passion for the West there was also a revival of traditional painting. Phenollosis saved the careers of the painters Kanō Hōgai and Hashimoto Gahō at the end of the 19th century. Hashimoto Gahō, a painter of the Kano school, not only painted in Japanese style using traditional techniques, but revolutionized traditional Japanese painting by incorporating the realistic expression of yôga and setting the direction for later Nihonga movement. He encouraged the use of chiaroscuro, brilliant palettes, Western spatial perspective, and dramatic atmosphere in Kanō painting. As the first professor at the Tokyo Fine Arts School (now Tokyo University of the Arts), he trained many painters who would later be considered Nihonga masters, including Yokoyama Taikan, Shimomura Kanzan, Hishida Shunsō, and Kawai Gyokudō. The nihonga movement used traditional Japanese pigments in a much more elaborate theme, as well as dramatic and atmospheric effects. Along with scrolling and screens came framed paintings.

The nihonga artists Imamura Shikō, Yasuda Yukihiko, Kobayashi Kokei and Hayami Gyoshū used Japanese painting techniques eclectically. Maeda Seison used tarashikomi, a classic rinpa technique that applies shadow by joining successive layers of partially dried pigment. He and others of his time were fond of historical subjects.

Another form of nihonga developed from the lyric realism of the Maruyama-Shijō school of painting, such as Takeuchi Seihō. His most important student was Uemura Shōen. In her very own style, she placed the women from the ukiyo-e in a domestic environment. The Yoga-style painters formed the Meiji Bijutsukai (Meiji Fine Arts Society) to hold their own exhibitions and promote a renewed interest in Western art. In 1907, with the creation of the Bunten under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, both competing groups found mutual recognition and coexistence, and even began the process towards mutual synthesis.

In the Taishō period, yoga prevailed over nihonga. After a long stay in Europe, many artists (including Arishima Ikuma) returned to Japan under Yoshihito's reign, bringing with them the techniques of Impressionism and early Post-Impressionism. The works of Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne and Pierre-Auguste Renoir influenced paintings of the early Taishō period. The Fusain Society (Fyuzankai), emphasized styles of Post-Impressionism and Fauvism. In 1914, the Nikakai (Second Division Society) emerged to oppose the government-sponsored Bunten Exhibition.

It was the resurgent Nihonga, however, that adopted certain trends from Post-Impressionism by the mid-1920s. The second generation of Nihonga artists formed the Japan Academy of Fine Arts (Nihon Bijutsuin) to compete with the government-sponsored Bunten, and while yamato-e traditions remained strong, the increasing use of the Western perspective and Western concepts of space and light blur the distinction between Nihonga and yoga.

Japanese painting in the pre-war Shōwa period was largely dominated by Sōtarō Yasui and Ryūzaburō Umehara, who introduced the concepts of pure art and abstract painting into the Nihonga tradition, thus creating a more interpretive version of that genre. This trend was further developed by Leonard Foujita and the Nika Society to include Surrealism. To promote these trends, the Independent Art Association (Dokuritsu Bijutsu Kyokai) was founded in 1931.

With the rise of militarism in the 1930s, the visual arts were largely incorporated as a means of propaganda. The Second World War pushed painting in the direction of puritanism, heroism and optimism. Losing the war brought a distrust of native tradition and even more Westernization. During the American occupation, outside of censorship, there was still some form of protection of Japanese culture.

After the war, Japanese had easier access to Western countries, which means that abstract expressionism, minimal and kinetic art, optical and pop art can also be found in Japan. In addition, the nihonga also continued to blossom. In addition to their old themes, such as flowers, plants, animals and landscapes, urban and industrial scenes were now also painted as abstractions with traditional materials. Literati painting always remained close to the traditional. Tomioka Tessai (1837–1924) painted animated, cheerful evocations of Song dynasty poetry.

Shibata Zeshin, 1807-1891, The narrow road to Shu, lacquer paint on paper, hanging scroll (via christies)

Kanō Hōgai, 1828–1888, Hawks in a ravine, 1885-86, ink on paper (via collections.mfa.com)

Anonymous, Geishas in mountain landscape, 19/20th century reverse glass painting and watecolor diorama (via Kodner)

Hayami Gyoshū, 1894–1935, Houses in Kyoto, 1927, color on paper, one of pair of screens (via wikimedia)

Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita, 1886-1968, Portrait of Emily Crane Chadbourne, 1922, oil, silver foil, gold powder on canvas (via meer.com)

Kawabata Ryūshi, 1885–1966, Flaming grass, 1930, color on silk, pair of sixfold screens (via wikipedia)

Yuzō Saeki, 1898–1928 (via wikipedia). This style of painting will arise massively in the west in the years 1960-70.

Johan Framhout, October 2023, sources:

wikipedia.com - smarthistory.org - japantimes.co.jp - philamuseum.org - mfa.houston.blogspot.com - britannica.com - metmuseum.org - asianartnewspaper.com - etc...