Paint
Painting is one of the first arts practiced in Japan. Kaiga art has adopted a wide range of styles over the centuries. It is necessary to distinguish between painting before and after 1868, the beginning of the Meiji era.
Before this date, the influence of Chinese painting can be felt in the introduction of clouds to fragment a landscape, flowers and birds. The painting of the Heian period (794-1185) and from the 17th century, of the Rinpa school are preserved from any Chinese characteristics.
Kamakura and Muromachi periods
During the Kamakura period (1185-1333), painters illustrated the lives of religious people as well as great characters, and the novels of the imperial court. A new type of monochrome painting made with washes was born. It really took off during the Muromachi period (1333-1568). Under the Ashikaga regime, portraiture gradually became more important. The face is privileged, the clothing is treated in a more summary way. Then, the half-body is chosen according to the Zen technique.
The painters, who are also calligraphers, give pride of place to the landscape. The supports, whether silk or paper, require a great mastery of the calligraphic gesture.
The Buddhist monk-painter Sesshū, a master of the monochrome wash with Chinese ink, reinterprets the lyrical movement of the Song Chinese artists by adding a Japanese touch. The composition, often from right to left and from bottom to top, emphasizes the black masses and the progressive dilution of blacks. This period also saw the predominance of the Kanō school. The most influential, Motonobu, skillfully blends light and transparent washes with large ink washes.
Momoyama period (1573-1600)
The ruling power was then particularly powerful. The Kanō school continued to decorate residences and palaces, notably Eitoku Kanō, who undertook the decoration of Hideyoshi Toyotomi's residence. The Chinese Ming were also very influential. It was at this time that the Japanese discovered oil painting, with a Virgin brought by Francis Xavier.
Edo period (1600-1868)
The Kanō are assured of official shōgun protection. Master Tan-yu decorates the Nikkō tombs and the mausoleums in Shiba Park, Edo, on behalf of the Tokugawa. He also decorated the imperial palace (Gosho) in Kyōto. The famous painting of the Tiger in the Bamboo is in the Nanzen-Ji in Kyōto.
The painter Kōetsu Honami took advantage of the influence of the Kanō and Tosa to undertake the painting of simple, stylized and colorful flower screens. Colored washes are now used. It was also during the Edo period that the print was developed. A school of painters was formed aroundukiyo-e or floating world painting, which means both ephemeral world painting and fashionable painting. These painters gradually became engravers. These woodcuts allowed to produce at low cost the representation of the pleasures of the city for a new social class. Courtesans, scenes of daily life, kabuki actors were painted and engraved. Little by little, the subjects are multiplied and we see landscapes, animals, flowers, etc. Matabei Iwasa was one of the greatest of the genre. From 1765 polychrome prints appeared with their great masters: Harunobu Suzuki and Kiyonaga Torii, then Utamaro Kitagawa, and finally Hokusai Katsushika and Hiroshige Andō, the latter two being master landscape artists.
First Western contributions
The birth of so-called contemporary painting in Japan, dates back to the eighteenth century. Curiously for a country that had been isolated until then, it called upon foreign influences, particularly Chinese, which reached Japan at that time, through the Ryūkyū and Nagasaki islands. The pictorial space was disrupted by the presence of the Dutch in Nagasaki, who introduced the laws of perspective. While the discovery of these different techniques still plays only a superficial role, painting is divided between two trends: one realistic and the other more idealistic.
The realist trend, often referred to as the Maruyama-Shijō school, in honor of the artist Ōkyo Maruyama (1733-1795), applied processes from the West to landscapes. He oscillated between a very meticulous style, which he applied to small works, and a decorative style on larger canvases. As for Goshun (Gekkei Matsumura, 1752-1811), founder of the Shijō school, he was influenced by Buson Yusa for the art of haiku. Two distinct periods can be distinguished in Goshun. The first directly from the domination of Buson Yusa's style, the second marked by a return to Ōkyo Maruyama. In Blue Heron with Hibiscus, Buson's characteristics can be admired, and in his later works, such as Plum Blossoms, a return to the monochrome technique dear to Ōkyo. The more realistic tendency develops in the school of bunjin (literati). These are intellectuals who underwent the Confucian influence. The painting imitates Chinese art with a specifically Zen touch. This school, better known as the Nanga school, appeals to the qualities of aristocratic painting rather than to a particular style. It is about affirming the nobility of feelings, states of mind and social position. Scholars, businessmen or doctors will compete to express their culture and their feelings. They use then a precious calligraphy and try to impose a delicate and silent poetry.
Meiji period
The opening to the West from 1868 onwards provoked a craze for European methods, particularly oil painting. If the style evolved, it struggled to free itself from the masters it imitated. It is to try a new way, between the Western technique and the Japanese tradition, that a new painting, called nihonga or Japanese painting, takes shape. It uses traditional techniques, and introduces various influences, including Kanō, Tosa, Kōrin, etc.. It is thanks to Ernest Fenellosa (1853-1908) or Fenerōsa, an American sociologist, student of Fine Arts in Boston, that the University of Fine Arts of Tōkyō was created.
Oil becomes the dominant technique. Research multiplies. Some return to yamato-e (images of Yamato = Japan), others to Chinese sources, others to the suiboku-ga style. No particular style emerges from these different paths.
Until the end of the Second World War, painting remained attached to literary trends. The most representative painters of this period are Tsuguharu Fujita, Meiji Hashimoto, or Kokei Kobayashi. Many Japanese painters of the 20th century came to seek inspiration in Europe and the United States.
Eres Taishō (1912-1926) and Shōwa (1926-1989)
Japanese artists brought back from their stays in Europe the legacy of impressionism. Cézanne and Renoir were the main influences of this generation. However, this period was one of questioning. Fauvism, symbolism, and especially expressionism made their mark. Among the avant-gardes of the 1920s, the Mavo Manifesto was in line with Futurism and Constructivism: Yanase Masamu used photomontage. In reaction, the Inten movement brought together artists who broke away from Western trends. One of the few women of this trend, Seien Shima (1892-1970), fought for the female cause through her self-portraits.
The Shōwa era (1926-1989) is marked by the talent of Sōtarō Yasui and Ryūzaburō Umehara, both of whom are close to Matisse for the former, Renoir for the latter. Umehara founded the Kokuga-kai group, and was the first to accept photographers into his collective.
From the 1930s, surrealism became a phenomenon, following its introduction in Japan by Fukuzawa Ichirō on his return from France. He gathered around him modernist painters, some of whom practiced nihonga, as well as photographers. The surrealist club ACC (1930-1942) is famous for its creative photography, the collage inherited from cubism and surrealism.
For his part, Saburō Hasegawa, who returned from a trip to Europe in 1929, brought abstract art to Japan. Abstraction benefited from Japanese refinement and sobriety. The renewal of Japanese art is brought by Yoshihara Jirō, head of the avant-garde Gutai movement. He claimed to be a follower of Jackson Pollock, advocated the use of raw materials, and opened the way to happening .
The Second World War, synonymous with censorship and propaganda, limited art to patriotic themes.
Prints
These works, which integrate images and texts, are in fact xylographs, as they are engraved on a block of wood. The most famous ones developed during the Edo period and are called ukiyo-e, or images of the floating world.
European fans of Japanese prints often refer to erotic prints. This art called shunga follows the sensual literature, represented by the novels of Saikaku Ihara or Kiseki Ejima. The shunga illustrate the light novels and the guides of the floating world by putting in situation such house of pleasure and such prostitute rather than another. The origins of shunga are still marked by the desire to express the naturalness of the physical relationship according to Shintō beliefs, free from any Judeo-Christian type of modesty. The shunga participate in a certain way in the sexual education of lovers and future brides. The main artists were Settei Tsukioka, Harunobu Suzuki, Kyosen Kikurensha, Koryūsaï Isoda, Shigemasa Kitao and, of course, Utamaro Kitagawa, Kunisada Utagawa and his pupil Kunimarō, finally Hiroshige Andō.
Japanese photography
The practice of photography, born in the West, matured late in Japan. It only really entered the Japanese culture in the 1950s. Various approaches are revealed, often as testimonies of a moment.
The protestor Ken Domon (1909-1990) was quickly placed under police surveillance because of his humane outlook. He documents unemployment, misery, the sadness of a people. His Hiroshima series shows the world the survivors of the atomic bomb. At the same time, he photographs traditional society, especially Buddhist temples. He proceeds by standing still for a long time to capture what is happening in front of his eyes from a unique perspective.
Araki Nobuyoshi, born in 1940, brings the notion of intimacy into photography. His approach, which he describes as "Erotos", is rooted in both the desire for sex and life, and the attraction of death.
Daido Moriyama and Shomei Tomatsu are driven by a shared passion for Tokyo. Tomatsu (1930-2012) photographs its inhabitants with deep empathy, and follows them in his Protest series, during student demonstrations. His almost abstract gaze captures the movement and energy of his contemporaries. He is considered Moriyama's mentor, who sees him as the representative of the new photography. Born in 1938, Moriyama developed an eclectic body of work that documented all aspects of the city: the Shinjuku district, the marginalized, the sensuality of its inhabitants. The artist holds up a magnifying glass to invite us to discover the hidden treasures of his country.
Sculpture
Among all the major arts, sculpture is the least developed in Japanese culture. Most of the productions are at first linked to the Buddhist tradition. However, the refinement of the Unkei school, at the end of the 12th century, contributed to the elevation of this art in Japan. Their most beautiful representations are found in Nara.
In modern Japan, particularly in Tōkyō, statues and sculpted monuments participate in the urban landscape. For a long time, sculpture remained influenced by the West and the model of Rodin. However, after the Second World War, a trend of experimental sculpture was born. The creation of the Hakone Open Air Museum in 1969 encouraged the development of outdoor sculpture. Wood and natural materials were favored by contemporary sculptors.
Takashi Murakami
Representative of the new sculpture and a pop revival, Takashi Murakami (born in 1962) likes to stage a figure with a big head, Dob, which has become his self-portrait. His art is strongly influenced by the world of manga and otaku.
The worthy heir of Warhol first trained in nihonga, which allows him to combine traditional techniques with manga culture. His colorful works use sculpture, sometimes monumental, painting, installations and video.
Since 2001, he has been the leader of the neo-pop movement Superflat, which asserts Japanese autonomy in the face of Western references. Murakami exhibits worldwide, including in Japan at the Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art, the Aoi Gallery in Osaka, and the Hosomi Contemporary Gallery in Tokyo.
Murakami also directed the music videos It Girl by Pharrell Williams and You Should see me in a crown by Billie Eilish. One of his fiberglass sculptures sold in New York for nearly half a million euros.
Contemporary abundance
Since the Fukushima disaster in 2011, a new generation of artists has emerged. As opposed to the superflat, which reflects a superficial image of Japan, the works are now more realistic and committed. The post-Fukushima wave of artists seeks to express the doubts and disappointments of a people faced with the nuclearization of the country.
Tokyo's futuristic buildings are home to top-notch contemporary art galleries and museums. The Roppongi Hills complex has a number of exhibition venues: the National Arts Center, as well as the Mecca of the contemporary scene, the Mori Art Museum; also art galleries such as the Sky Gallery. In the Ginza district, photography is exhibited in the Canon Gallery Ginza, a real talent scout.
In Osaka, birthplace of Tadao Ando, the temple of contemporary art, the National Art Museum houses an exceptional collection of post-war art: Picasso, Ernst, Cézanne or the painter Foujita. It should be noted that the Japanese national art museums share a collective catalog: the Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art (MOMAK), the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, the Osaka National Art Museum and the Tokyo National Museum of Western Art.
On Naoshima Island, contemporary art is combined with natural beauty. Under the aegis of patron and collector Soichiro Fukutake, Tadao Ando designed the famous Benesse House Museum, opened in 1992. Ando went on to design the underground Chichu Museum, where a clever play with natural light changes the appearance of the installations as the hours pass. The place houses, among others, Monet's Water Lilies.
Some islands in the Inland Sea are dedicated to contemporary art. In addition to the year-round exhibitions, the Setouchi Triennale is a perfect opportunity to stay in the area.
