1.

The Start of the Edo Period

After the victory of Tokugawa, a new government was formed: the Tokugawa
shogunate. They would rule Japan for over 250 years and created peace and
prosperity. During this time, the city of Edo developed culture with the increase of
artists and merchants becoming important producers and consumers. Edo can be
separated into two periods: Kan’ei and Genroku.

2. Kan’ei Era
The Kano school of painting was directed under Kano Tan’yu, Sanrak, and Sansetsu.
Tan’yu moved to Edo to become a painter of the Tokugawa shogun where he was a
collector of Chinese paintings. Porcelain was another medium that was introduced
through Korean potters and through the international appeal of Chinese porcelain.
With political turmoil in China (the downfall of the Ming dynasty), this allowed for
Japanese porcelain to enter the market thanks to the Dutch. They followed the
trend of the Chinese “white-and-blue”.

3. Nabeshima porcelain and Bunjin

This porcelain was derived from Japanese visual repertory, rather than from other
outside influences. The smooth-surfaced and well-defined shaped ceramics were
used for tea ceremonies, chanyu and sencha, during the Edo period. Japanese
bunjin were influenced by Chinese philosophers, painters, and calligraphers.
Japanese used these motifs in their worlds such as paintings of landscapes and
poems in ink wash, allowing both countries to defy social normalities. These literati
practices however created tension between rebellious and highly individualistic
artists.

4. Development of Bunjin and other cultural aspects of the Edo

As this form of painting developed, new forms of realism sprouted from painter
Maruyama Okyo through his naturalistic birds, animals, human figures, and
landscapes. He was trained with European techniques of shading and one-point
perspective but integrated the Japanese motifs in his works and was integrated
into the Maruyama school. As the Edo period developed in urban culture,new
forms of entertainment such as kabuki theatres formed. Tourists flocked to these
performances as well as shrines, temples, and famous sites (meisho).

5. Ukiyo-E, Yamato-E and the End

Woodblock prints were also developed during this time with images of beautiful
women (bijin) were created by Hishikawa Moronobu, an early ukiyo-e master.
Ukiyo-E was a successor to Yamato-E, a practice indicating the earlier days.
Matabei created scenes of everyday life that were very personal and broke
tradition. Hokusai was a woodblock printer, as well as a paintor that adopted
various monikers thought his life and was known for his imagination with a classical
and contemporary understanding of Japan. During the end, artist Korin created a
school where ingenious designs based on traditional themes and motifs were
rendered in gold, slider, and bold colors.