Transcript Japanese Art - Lakeland Regional High School

Japanese Art
Early & Modern
Chapter 8
Early Pottery
• Jomon Period
• “Cord markings”
• Technique used to
decorate their
earthenware vessels
• Incised lines, coils of
clay
• Storage, cooking, bone
burial
Patronage & Artistic Life
• Japanese artists worked on commission, some for
the royal court, others in the service of religion.
• Masters ran workshops with assistants – familyrun businesses with the oldest son inheriting the
trade.
• The master created the composition, by brushing
in key outlines, and the assistants worked in the
colors and details.
• Painting is highly esteemed in Japan
• Aristocrats learned to paint and became
distinguished/very good in the art form.
Zen Buddhism
• School of Buddhism – in East Asian societiesimported from China
• Reject worldliness, the collection of goods on
their own sake, and physical embellishment.
• Meditation is the key to enlightenment
• Zen teaches through intuition and
introspections, rather than books and
scripture.
Characteristics of Japanese Architecture
• Zen philosophy of simplicity…..
• Single story, made of wood, harmonize with the
natural environment.
• Wood is light; widely spaced intervals to support
the roof; opening the interior to the outdoors.
• Floors raised above ground – allowing air to
circulate under the building.
• Eaves were long to generate shady interiors,
steeply pitched to allow rain to run off easily.
Characteristics of Japanese Architecture
• Zen garden – stones and plants.
• Serve as a spiritual place of contemplation and
rejuvenation.
Phoenix Hall
Phoenix Hall, Byodoin, Uji, Japan, Heian period, 1053.
Phoenix Hall
• 2 bronze birds, in the shape
of a phoenix – symbol of
the protection of the
Buddha; roof itself suggests
the wings of the phoenix.
• Used a kondo (space for
Buddhist teachings)
• Airiness, lightness, raised
off the ground.
• Combination of art works:
architecture, sculpture,
painting, landscape,
reflection in water – key
element.
• Chinese influence- tile
roofs and stone base.
Characteristics of Japanese
Painting/Printmaking
• Ukiyo-e “pictures of the floating world” ….
“floating” is meant in the Buddhist sense of
the passing or transient nature of life;
• Therefore….. ukiyo-e works depict scenes of
everyday – life (genre paintings 17-19th
centuries) or pleasure: festivals, theatre,
domestic life, geishas, brothels etc.
• Represented in woodblock prints, scrolls and
painted screens.
The Burning of Sanjo Palace
• Late 13th century –
hand-scroll
• Diagonals sense of
movement/action
• Active brushstrokes
• Narrative - reads
from right to left as
unfolded
• Depersonalized
figures
Detail of The Burning of the Sanjo Palace,
Kamakura period, thirteenth century.
Handscroll, ink and colors on paper, 1’ 4 1/4”
high; complete scroll, 22’ 10” long. Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston (Fenollosa-Weld Collection).
Modern Japan
20th Century
• World War II
• Widespread devastation, loss of life and more
specifically the atomic bombing of
HIROSHIMA and Nagasaki in 1945.
Folk Pottery-- Hamada Shoji, 1962
• Functional objects
made of natural
materials.
Katisushika Hokusai
• The Great Wave off
Kanagawa (wood block)
• Against a background
with a low horizon line
typical of Western
painting, Hokusai
placed a threatening
wave in the foreground.
The
Great
Wave
Hokusai
1826-1833
•
• First time landscape
• Part of a series of prints
called Thirty-six Views of
Mount Fuji
• Personification of nature as
it seems intent on drowning
the figures in the boats.
• Mount Fuji, sacred
mountain to the Japanese –
seems to be one of the
waves.
• Design contrasts water and
sky with large areas of
negative space.
Japanese Painting/Printmaking
• Ukiyo-e - became popular millions of prints were
sold to the middle class, usually put between
1658-1858 (17th - 19th century) dominated genre
paintings.
• Won popular affection in Europe and in the
Americas as an example of innovative Japanese
art.
ARTIST: Suzuki Harunobu
Eight Views- The Evening Bell
Wood-block print, 11 ¼” x 8 ½”
ca 1765
Japanese Sculpture
• Abstract forms seen in
the haniwa figures to
realistic sculptures of
Buddhist priests.
• Earthenware, not painted
• Geometric, simple shapes
• Found in tomb sites
• Many shapes, sizes,
animals, people etc.
• Off center-eyes unequal
arms
• Tomb guardians? Spirit
guardians?
Haniwa (cylindrical) warrior figure, from Gunma Prefecture,
Japan, late Kofun period, fifth to mid-sixth century. Lowfired clay, 4’ 1 1/4” high. Aikawa Archaeological Museum,
Aikawa.
• Tori Busshi
Shaka Triad
• Shaka, Japanese name for
Shakyamuni, the historical
Buddha
• Frontal, long face and
hands; wide nose; heavy
jaw;
• Influence of Chinese art –
elongated style – Tori was
Chinese.
• Heads, hands, legs in high
relief
• Attendant bodhisattvas
• Originally placed in the
TORI BUSSHI, Shaka triad, Horyuji kondo, Nara,
Japan, Asuka period, 623. Bronze, 5’ 9 1/2”
center of the kondo
high.
Detail of the priest Shunjobo Chogen,
Todaiji, Nara, Japan, Kamakura
period, early thirteenth century.
Painted cypress wood, 2’ 8 3/8” high.
Kamakura Period
Finely painted
details
Signs of aging
Personal attributes
– beads
Naturalism
Do Now!
• Of the various art forms, which display the
distinctive aesthetic ideals and preferences of
the Japanese culture?