art throughout japanese history

7/28/2019 Art Throughout Japanese History

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Holly Majors

Honors Visual Arts Seminar

Art throughout Japanese History

Japan has gone through many periods, each usually, but not always, named after the

place where the main government of that time resided. The first on record is referred to as the

Jmon () period, with the Japanese term meaning literally cord pattern. It was named

after the characteristic trait of the pottery created during that time, which usually portrayed a

pattern that looked much like intricate cords on the outside of objects of everyday use. As time

progressed, the pottery evolved along with the technology, mental capabilities, and the peoples

principals. And then came the Ainu () people, who conquered the people of the Jmon

period and began their own period, the Yayoi period.

The Yayoi period was named such for the neighborhood in Tokyo in which the first

archaeological remains of that time were found. This period brought about many new types of

pottery, along with the knowledge of how to manipulate copper and bronze to create weapons,

mirrors, and ceremonial bells called dtaku (

) that were used for temples. The pottery

became more simplistic, with uncomplicated designs, and was created on pottery wheels, and

then fired in kilns, a far cry from the Jmon hand crafted pottery. The art of metal working

became more popular and started to become something more than just crudely made weapons

and plain, unadorned hammered out sheets of bronze, or mirrors.

It was also during this time that, according to old legends and ancient Chinese chronicles,

a man named Jimmu became the first emperor of Japan, though historians can find no hard

evidence that Jimmu actually existed.

The Yayoi period then smoothly progressed into the Kofun () period, a period

famous for, and named after, the kofun (literal translation ancient grave) that were created. The


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Kofun period is the oldest recorded history in Japan. The kofun became an art of their own,

being created in intricate shapes, made to look like recognizable from the air, even though they

had no way of obtaining an aerial view in order to accomplish this.

The largest kofun that was created in this time period was, and still is, called Daisen-

kofun and is found in Sakai, Osaka-prefecture, Japan. The keyhole-like tomb is 486m in length,

305m in width at the bottom, and 245m in diameter. The Japanese government believes Daisen-

kofun to be the final resting place of Emperor Nintoku, the 16th emperor of Japan.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NintokuTomb.jpg)

The next two periods in Japanese history, the Asuka () and Nara () periods,

are always closely associated with one another. They are named such because the seat of

Japanese government was located in the Asuka Valley, and then in the city of Nara. This is the

time when the crossover of Chinese and Korean art, religion, and languages happened, placing

Buddha and Buddhism as a new focal point in Japanese society, and thus in the world of art. In

this time period, temples became more widely spread, but were no longer for the paganistic gods

of the Jmon period, but Buddha, and Buddhist monks and priests. This, therefore, became a

time architectural development. Seeing as how the temples were built in order to please Buddha,

and be houses for his disciples, the people wanted them to be aesthetically pleasing and at peace

with nature, since Buddhism teaches oneness with ones surroundings. These types of

buildinngs, theGoj-no-ts (five story Pagodas) and Konds(literal translation Golden

Hall) became the main place of worship, with monks living in them and tending them, while

commoners visited often to pray before the large Buddha statues that were the focal piece in

most temples. However, their prayers differ from ours. They have a more formalized ritual of


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clapping twice, bowing once, and then clapping twice once more before they actually begin

praying.

The next period, the Heian () period, is named thusly because the capital was

transferred to Heian-ky, or present day Kyoto. During this time period Buddhist architecture

evolved even more, going so far as to stop building temples in or near cities as they had been in

the past, but instead, building them deep in mountain ranges, forcing the architects to cope with

problems of a different type, and to come up with more natural building materials that were close

at hand instead of materials that had to be carted all the way from cities that could sometime be

days, even weeks, away. Roof tops became made of Cypress bark instead of the usual ceramic

tile that had adorned the rooftops of Japan since the beginning of the kiln. Floors were made of

wooden planks instead of just being bare earthen floors, which would have next to impossible to

make practical, or comfortable, in the rocky terrain of the mountains.

In the seventh period, war broke out across Japan between two powerful warrior clans

and the winning clan, the Minamoto Clan, then created a de facto government in a village by the

sea named Kamakura, and ergo, this period was named the Kamakura period. This created a

shift, with power going from nobility to warriors, and the art followed, taking on the ever

growing realism of the time, satisfying the warriors that only cared about the skills of warfare

and the priests that wanted to make Buddhism available to the illiterate commoners of the

country.

In the Muromachi () period, also known as the Ashikaga () period,

the Ashikaga Clan took control of the shogunate (), or government, and moved it

back to Kyoto, to the Muromachi District of the city. This move back to the capitol took the art


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back to the more elite aristocratic way art was being made before the Kamakura period. Painters,

because of Chinese imports and the reawakening of Zen Buddhism in the Japanese culture,

began an entirely different style than before, with completely new subject matter. The paintings

were no longer flat looking, but now had a deep-space sense of depth, with a foreground, middle

ground, and background. The most significant painters of this period were the priest-painters

Shbun and Sessh.

The Edo period is when wood block prints, and thus some of the most famous Japanese

works of art that are known worldwide, became popular. Following the style ofSessh from the

Muromachi period, Hokusai Katsushika began creating wood block cuts of Mt. Fuji, and the

most well-known, The Great Wave of Kanagawa. Wood block prints became popular because

multiple prints could be made which meant that more people could own them, and so everyone

wanted to.

Art in modern day Japan still retains many, if not most, of the characteristics that were

learned throughout the many years of Japans colorful history. Today, even the written language

is considered an art form, Japanese calligraphy, which is seen on many things, including peoples

skin in the form of tattoos.

art throughout japanese history

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