What I Know after Days of Studying Japanese Art
History is the eye of culture. When culture matures, society starts to appreciate art as a leisure, or lifestyle. If you are not convinced with this idea, try to think who is the champion of consumerism? With big lump sum of money being invested on beautiful gadgets and fashion / lifestyle, one does not simply argue art is the invisible and useless.
My research of Japanese Art began with a almost 3-hour documentary, just to understand how does the much influential Tokugawa family (Edo Period) had impacted the society.
Edo period was being notable with it lasting peace period of almost 200 years and prosperous society. However, strict rules were enforced and no country were able to trade with the ancient Japanese society (except Dutch who helped the government during Shimubara Rebellion). The trading Dutch people brought fresh ideas to Japanese on several studies such as new political ideas and science & technological advancement, which are all classified under Rangaku (which means "Dutch learning" or technically "Western learning").
Fashion note: Until now I'm still wondering if the hype of wearing "long skirt" for Japanese Women back in the days were influenced by the Dutch's lady?
If you spend some time to watch a quarter of the video, you will notice most of their paintings were painting in bold, bright and flat colours, while some paintings were painted in "literali style" which uses the traditional Chinese / Buddhist record method via ink and paper. Until later when Second Industrial Revolution happened and Age of Imperialism began, Japan started to trade with Americans, which Japanese art contributed massively to the Modern Art such as Impressionism and Art Nouveau.
The beauty of Japanese Art lies within its good use of line and strong composition which ultimately gave life to the paintings (compared to Korean paintings which are calm and humorous). I could be wrong, but I seldom see the use of gradient technique in painting (which depends on genre of paintings, because different painters from different society class may paint differently).
Although most Eastern countries do share the similarity in art which is flatness, the techniques and subjects (sumo wrestler, kabuki actor, depiction of everyday life) used to create art by Japanese can be easily spotted. Most of the notable works are ukiyo-e style art, which inspired Impressionist artists to create such woodblock prints too.
READ: East Meets West
READ: Utagawa Kuniyoshi
The flatness in Japanese paintings were so pronounced that contemporary artist Takashi Murakami still create art in flat style and coined the term "Superflat" which became a new art movement similar to Pop Art made famous and commercialised by Andy Warhol.
"I’d been thinking about the reality of Japanese drawing and painting and how it is different from Western art. What is important in Japanese art is the feeling of flatness. Our culture doesn’t have 3-D."
-Takashi Murakami-
Articles related to Superflat:
Articles related to history of Anime and Manga:
"The fact that Japan is an island has also contributed to the way in which visual ideas have developed there. With clearly limited space, and the need to manage it well, the Shinto and Buddhist love of nature is harnessed. Since unlimited wilderness is not available, the essence of wilderness is sought. The art of landscaping and gardening has developed to a high level of sophistication, in which carefully designed informal arrangements create the illusion of "natural" settings, in which the essence of nature is captured and tamed. In the same way, individual flowers, trees, or other plants or animals- even insects- are isolated and celebrated by the artist; all this in the context of the ancient symbolism attached to each selected image. The way in which Japanese artists used natural forms in decorative design and painting was of importance in the development of Art Nouveau style."
In a nutshell
In my humble opinion, the essence of Japanese paintings lies within it's spontaneity of subject captured. Although it might sound cliche, Japanese used the simplest forms and lines to create movements in most paintings (including woodblock prints). It could be depictions of red-light district themes in action and folk imagery / warrior in action during Edo Period. Erotic shunga paintings were popular too!
While we constantly thought that Japanese favoured minimalism and Zen-style art visually, but the opposite is true. Japanese paintings / art are actually highly elaborate, however, by applying the thinking of minimalism (as seen in composition of painting by eliminating background or sometimes the glowing quality of skin texture) and thinking of Zen-Buddhism (as in to draw create an art by keeping the quality of nature first), the magic of Japanese design certainly requires time to master. The thinking matters more!
