Painting

• Japanese painting


  Started during the Asuka period from 522-646
• The pattern of culture which they had during the 16th century were not discarded for a new one; but these were developed further by selecting and adopting the good and attractive in Korea and China into theirs
• When Buddhism reached Japan, temple paintings were modeled from mainland China but these were modified
• The course of religious painting in Japan from the 6th to the 14th centuries

  Followed in a general way Buddhist painting in China
• Monochrome landscape school


  Brought to Japan by Zen Buddhism, derived from Sung landscape but becomes quite a different thing in Japan
• Buddhist paintings were hieratic and didactic and these had survived in the temples of Japan
• Japanese religious paintings included a wonderful tradition of portraiture, and in the details of the Buddhist paradises and scenes of the life of Buddha, there are intimations of what we call genre; landscape in backgrounds very early takes on a local character
• Yamato-e


  An indigenous style that had replaced Chinese modes of painting during the Heian period (794-1185), depicting scenery around Kyoto
• Album leaf and the illustrated handscroll (emaki)

  New formats for painting that came along with yamato-e
• The Tale of Genji Scrolls (ca. 1120) is the most famous emaki
• Horizontal story-telling scroll


  Appeared in Japanese art during the Kamakura period (1185-1333), with content and presentation that was new
• The Tomo-no-Dainagon scroll was based on history
• Monochrome ink painting


  Inspired by the Zen Buddhists, was the most remarkable development during the Ashikaga or Muromachi period (1333-1568)
• Sesshu, who painted Haboku-Sansui, was the most famous master who painted ink landscapes
• Painters during the Ashikaga or Muromachi period usually painted with "trees or temples done in detailed brushwork and masses of mountains in the background done in ink washes", but they managed 'with comparatively little detail to give a suggestion of depth, distance, and great grandeur
• They also painted other forms like birds, plants, priests, and even holy men
• Decorative screens with gold background

  Encouraged by the powerful shoguns and war lords during the Momoyama period (1568-1615), reflected in the present day
• Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons

  • A pair of six-panel folding screens using ink color, gold, and gold leaf on paper
• Several developments in Japanese art emerged during the Tokugawa or Edo period (1650-1867), including a school of decorative painters that included Korin, Sotatsu, and Koetsu
• Ukiyo-eh


  Pictures of the floating world, introduced during the Tokugawa or Edo period, using woodblock prints which were actually one of the first forms of Japanese art
• What sets Japanese art different by from other styles influenced by Buddhism was that it was "rigorously simple, simple in the matters of line, of color, and composition"