JAPANESE ART

• Japanese art is one of the

world’s greatest treasures.
• From unique styles of ink
painting and calligraphy,
through innovative
ceramics and magnificent
woodblock prints, the
contributions of Japanese
artists are unmatched.
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• Diverse factors contributed to the development of

Japanese art. Both technologically and aesthetically, it
has for many centuries been influenced by Chinese
styles and cultural developments, some of which came
via Korea.
• More recently,Western techniques and artistic values
have also added their impact. However, what emerged
from this history of assimilated ideas and know-how
from other cultures is an indigenous expression of taste
that is uniquely Japanese.
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• People living in Japan were the first known people to

use pottery. Pottery from Japan dated to 10,000 B.C. is
the oldest known in the world. Pottery is made by
cooking soft clay at high temperatures until it hardens
into an entirely new substance---ceramics.
• The pottery of the Jomon people was decorated with
markings made by pressing lengths of cord into the wet
clay before firing. The people who made it did not use a
potter's wheel.
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• While Japan was still in the Stone Age, China was

making great advances in the arts and sciences. It
makes sense then that the Japanese, once exposed
to these advances through contacts with China,
would try to bring some of them to Japan.
• Many of the cultural and artist forms brought from
China and Korea were rooted in Buddhism, which in
turn was influenced by the cultures of India and Tibet.
Other forms from Persia and even Europe arrived via
China and the Silk Road.
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• Between the fifth and ninth centuries Japan was a active

importer of culture, particularly from China and Korea.
Among the major imports were written characters,
Buddhism, Confucianism, and knowhow and plans to
build cities.
• The 19th century and the early 20th century---when
much of the world first learned about the extent and
depth of Japan's culture--- was a time when Japan
exported culture: van Gogh copied Japanese
woodblock prints, Charlie Chaplin befriended kabuki
actors and Madame Butterfly and The Mikado were
popular among Western audiences.
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• Nature, and specifically mountains, have been a favourite subject of

Japanese art since its earliest days. Before Buddhism was
introduced from China in the 6th century, Shinto was the exclusive
faith of the Japanese people.At its core, Shinto is the reverence for
the kami, or deities, who are believed to reside in natural features,
such as trees, rivers, rocks, and mountains.
• In Japan, nature is not a secular subject. An image of a natural
scene is not just a landscape, but rather a portrait of the sacred
world, and the kami who live within it.
• This veneration for the natural world took on many layers of new
meaning with the introduction of Chinese styles of art – along
with many other aspects of Chinese culture – throughout the
first millennium.