The arts and culture of Japan

The arts and culture of Japan: calligraphy and painting

POSTED JUNE 7, 2021

Japan's cultural tradition extends back to the first inhabitants of the islands in the tenth millennium BC.   Over the ensuing centuries, Japan has been subject to the sudden influx of new ideas from abroad followed by long periods of minimal contact with the outside world.  The Japanese learned to absorb, imitate, and finally assimilate those elements of foreign culture that complemented their aesthetic preferences. [1] 

This is the first post in a series exploring Japanese arts and culture.  While we can only touch on a few of the many elements and eras* of Japanese culture, these brief introductions will hopefully spark some interest in the wonderful cultural tradition of Japan.  This first post is on two of the most popular forms of artistic expression in Japan - calligraphy and painting.

Calligraphy [2]

Japanese calligraphy (shodō) is one of the most well known and popular of the traditional arts of Japan.  The art of Japanese calligraphy dates back to around the 6th century, when it was introduced from China. It is still practiced today and is taught to students from elementary school through university.   

The main focus of Japanese calligraphy is simplicity, beauty and a connection between mind and body.  Shodō is closely linked to Zen Buddhism and is influenced by its ideas and values. Japanese calligraphy goes far beyond simply writing characters or words. The key to true calligraphy is to bring the mind and soul into the work and to write with your heart. To express a deep meaning, the work must show the emotions, personality and passion of the artist.  It is also said that the way of writing is the path to enlightenment. 

The three styles of Japanese calligraphy are shown below - from the left: the standard block font kaisho; the semi-italic, less formal, more fluid gyōsho; and the difficult to master abstract sōsho.  Sōsho's cursive style is intended to mimic the way that the wind blows through grass. The focus is on the emotions and aesthetics, not on actually being able to read and understand the written text.

Painting [1]

Painting is a popular form of artistic expression in Japan - practiced by professionals and amateurs alike.  Until modern times, the Japanese wrote with a brush rather than a pen and calligraphy remains one of the most admired Japanese arts.  The Japanese familiarity with brush techniques make them particularly sensitive to the values and aesthetics of painting. 

The first great external influence on Japanese culture came from China with the arrival of Buddhism in the sixth century.  During the Heian period (794-1185), the influence of Chinese culture on Japan began to wane, and the Japanese began to develop indigenous and more secular forms of expression.  In the last century of the Heian period, the horizontal, illustrated narrative handscroll, known as e-maki ("picture scroll"), came to the fore.  Dating from about 1130, the Genji Monogatari Emaki, an illustrated Tale of Genji** is one of the earliest surviving handscrolls and one of the high points of Japanese painting. 

Kanō Eitoku (1543-1590) was the grandson of the founder of the eponymous Kanō school of painting, which was the dominant style of painting in Japan from the late 15th century through the mid 19th century.  The school began by reflecting a renewed influence from Chinese painting, but developed a brightly colored and firmly outlined style for large panels decorating the castles of the nobility which reflected distinctively Japanese traditions. Eitoku's greatest contribution to painting was his development of the so-called "monumental style."  His standing screen, sliding door, wall, and ceiling paintings decorated the homes of his powerful patrons, and contemporary accounts indicate that Eitoku was one of the most highly sought-after artists of his time. 

The school of art best known in the West is that of the ukiyo-e paintings and woodblock prints.  The school originally focused on the  "demimonde", people on the edges of respectable society.  Hokusai (1760-1849) was a ukiyo-e style  painter and printmaker whose work transformed the ukiyo-e artform from a style of portraiture largely focused on courtesans and actors into a much broader style of art that focused on landscapes, plants, and animals.   He is best known for the woodblock print series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji which includes the internationally iconic print The Great Wave off Kanagawa.   

Hokusai was an early experimenter with western linear perspective among Japanese artists. His influences stretched across the globe to his western contemporaries in nineteenth-century Europe.  Many European artists collected his woodcuts such as Degas, Gauguin, Klimt, Franz Marc, August Macke, Manet, and van Gogh.  He influenced the Impressionism movement, with themes echoing his work appearing in the work of Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, as well as Art Nouveau.  

*The earliest “complex” art in Japan was produced in the 7th and 8th centuries in connection with Buddhism's arrival from China. In the 9th century, as the Japanese began to turn away from China and develop indigenous forms of expression, the secular arts became increasingly important; until the late 15th century, both religious and secular arts flourished. After the Ōnin War (1467–1477), Japan entered a period of political, social, and economic disruption that lasted for over a century and the arts that survived from that period and later were primarily secular. The Meiji Period (1868-1912) saw an abrupt influx of Western styles, which have continued to be important. [1]

**Written about the year 1000 by Murasaki Shikibu, a lady-in-waiting to the Empress Shōshi, The Tale of Genji is often called the world's first novel.   It deals with the life and loves of Hikaru Genji and the world of the Heian court after his death.

References: [1] Wikipedia (various articles) [2] Go! Go! Nihon blog

The arts and culture of Japan: haiku and haiga

POSTED JUNE 13, 2021

Continuing our introduction to Japanese arts and culture, we turn to the closely related arts of haiku and haiga.  Haiku is the now well-known poetic form that developed in Japan centuries ago, while haiga refers to a painting meant to complement a haiku.

Haiku

Haiku developed from a long tradition of Chinese and Japanese poetry.  The elegant short form that we know today - 3 lines consisting of 17 syllables* - arose in the 17th century in the Kyoto school of Matsunaga Teitoku, a teacher of Taoism and classical Chinese poetry.  With its Taoist roots, it is unsurprising that a haiku poem takes nature as its subject, often juxtaposes two images with the intention of harmonizing them, and tries to convey a natural movement as a universal moment. [1, 2, 3]

The arts and culture of Japan: Zen, rock gardens and tea ceremonies

POSTED JUNE 29, 2021

Zen Buddhism came to Japan from China in the 8th century, but was not established as a separate school of Buddhism in Japan until the 12th century.  Zen teaches that all human beings have the potential to attain enlightenment and emphasizes meditation as the way to achieve this awareness, equanimity, and insight into our true nature.  

In the mid-twentieth century, Zen became popular in the West, and D.T. Suzuki (1870 - 1966) is considered the single most influential person in the spread of Zen Buddhism to the West.  The Beat poets, Christian monks and mystics, the Dadaists and Expressionists, and psychotherapists have all been influenced by Zen thought and practice.  In English, "zen" has even taken on an informal meaning of peaceful and calm.

Zen seeped deeply into Japanese culture.  It is the primary influencer of both the Tea Ceremony and the Rock Garden.  

Rock Garden [7, 8, 9]

The Japanese rock garden is a miniature stylized landscape carefully composed of arrangements of rocks, water features, moss, pruned trees and bushes, and uses gravel or sand that is raked to represent ripples in water.  It is an expression of Zen principles, and these rock gardens are often called zen gardens.  Their austerity and simplicity are meant to provide an atmosphere conducive to meditation.  Classical zen gardens were created at temples of Zen Buddhism in Kyoto during the Muromachi period (1336-1573). They were intended to imitate the essence of nature, not its actual appearance, and to serve as an aid to meditation about the true meaning of existence. [3]

What we know today as the Japanese rock garden evolved from an earlier Taoist version of a garden - called the "immortal island" after the tale of a fisherman who was taken to one of the legendary immortal islands by a sea turtle whose life he had saved. In the 5th-8th centuries, a typical garden would be comprised of a large pond surrounded by lush trees. In the middle of the pond floated at least one island or sometimes just a big mountain-like rock, symbolizing the land of unfading youth and eternal life as appeared in the tale.  

When Japan moved its capital to Kyoto near the end of the 8th century, gardens took on a more specifically Japanese aesthetic.  Gardens were arranged in ways that portrayed Japanese natural landscapes, and Buddhism became a dominant, inspirational force behind their creations.  The ponds and islands remained but other elements were selected to reflect this aesthetic - lengthy covered galleries, a preference for deciduous trees and certain birds and fish. The incessantly altering state of the garden echoes the Buddhist teaching about the evanescence of our being and the never-ending cycle of death and rebirth.  

Around the late 11th century in the Heian period (8th- 12th centuries), dry rocky landscapes were built as a part of mainstream gardens.  In the Muromachi period (14th-16th centuries), the Zen rock garden was fully developed and rose to its fame and popularity, which has continued to today. While the Heian gardens mirrored the vicissitudes of life, Muromachi rock gardens completely rejected transitory phenomena and meaningless facades of material world. Garden makers in this period stripped nature bare and created Zen gardens mainly out of rocks and sand, in order to reveal the true substance of life and nature.  

The Muromachi period is the classical period of Zen rock gardens, providing the inspiration for rock garden design in the following centuries.   Zen rock gardens are basically pond gardens without water.  The wavy patterns in the sand mimic ripples in a pond and the undulating movements of streams. All the rocks in the garden also represent elements found in regular Japanese gardens, such as islands, mountains, trees, bridges and even animals. 

Musō Soseki (1275-1351), the most famous monk of his time, is considered the father of of Zen landscaping, creating some of the oldest rock gardens and popularizing the technique.  He is credited with the construction of 66 Zen temples throughout Japan, and with the design of dozens of Zen gardens.  Besides being a temple and garden designer, he was also a teacher, calligrapher, and poet.  His poem "Ode to the Dry Landscape" captures the nature of the Zen garden:

Without a speck of dust being raised,

the mountains tower up,

without a single drop falling,

the streams plunge into the valley.

Soseki designed and established a temple at Kamakura, Japan.  Completed in 1327, the Zuisen-ji Temple is known for its pure Zen rock garden behind the temple's main hall. The temple's many flowers and blooming trees in the other parts of the temple grounds, have gained it since antiquity the nickname "Temple of Flowers".  Below is part of Soseki's rock garden, a nearby pond and the restored main hall at Zuisen-ji.

You don't have to be a Zen monk to design, create and enjoy the tranquility of a rock garden.  Links to two excellent articles about the design of these peaceful spaces are below.  

Notes

*Today most tea ceremonies are less formal affairs, often limited to the enjoyment of a bowl of thin tea perhaps preceded by a sweet.

**Kaiseki ryori is atraditional Japanese multi-course haute cuisine served in a prescribed order.  You can find a description of the courses and dishes here.  

***A tatami room is a room whose floor is covered with tatami mats - thick, woven straw mats that measure about one by two meters in size.  

Sources: Various Wikipedia articles, [1] alimentarium  [2] Japan-Guide - 1 [3]  Architecture Art Designs  [4]  Metropolitan Museum  [5] Apollo Magazine [6] Moving Japan [7]   Den Garden  [8] Onmark Productions [9] Japan-Guide - 2

The arts and culture of Japan: music and theater

POSTED JULY 21, 2021

Music

Traditional or classical Japanese music is an area where the uniqueness of Japanese culture clearly stands out.  To Western ears, the music can seem exotic as well as meditative and soothing.  The instruments are different, performance and theater play a much larger role, and the classical Western concepts of melody, harmony and repetition are replaced by something you immerse yourself in, rather than "follow".  It revolves around loose timing to diverse sounds, including the imitation of nature or the use of silence. [1]

Along with Buddhism, new musical forms and instruments from the Asian mainland had arrived in Japan by the 8th century and began to influence its music.  Among the new influences, Chinese court music, which was mostly presented with dancing, made a significant impact on the music of Japan.  

In the ensuing centuries, classical Japanese music developed additional styles, often incorporating traditional Japanese folk music and emphasizing performance and theater.  For more on the history of music in Japan see the Encyclopedia Japan's article. "Traditional Music of Japan". 

Much of the exotic nature of Japanese music is due to the musical instruments used.  The shakuhachi, shamisen, koto, and taiko are popular traditional instruments still played today.  Videos of performances with these instruments are below.

Theater

Japanese music has been connected with poetry, religious rites and performances that celebrated specific holidays and festivals since the very beginning.  However, the emergence of the classic noh theater in the 14th century was a true breakthrough in the "spectacle" dimension of music.  Noh is a combination of theater, literature, music and dance, which complement one another to create an inseparable whole.  In Noh there is little plot.  The performance depends more on music and movement to tell the story, which is often based on tales from traditional literature, with a supernatural being transformed into human form as a hero narrating the story.  The actors wear intricately carved masks, many of which are deliberately asymmetrical so that they evoke different emotions when viewed from the right side, left side, top, and bottom.  The music itself often follows the principle of  jo-ha-kyū, characterized by a slow start, the pace increasing further in the work, and a peaceful ending.  [5, 10]

Another dramatic form in which music plays a significant role is kabuki, which developed in the late 17th century and reached its peak of popularity in the mid-18th century.  When it originated, kabuki used to be acted only by women and was popular among common people. Later, a restriction was placed by the Tokugawa Shogunate forbidding women from participating, and, to the present day, it is performed exclusively by men.  Kabuki is rich in showmanship, known for its highly stylized dancing and singing.  A kabuki performance involves elaborately designed costumes, eye-catching make-up, outlandish wigs, and exaggerated actions performed by the actors.  Plots are usually based on historical events, heart-warming dramas, moral conflicts, love stories, tales of tragedy of conspiracy, or other well-known stories. [9]

Both noh and kabuki have been designated by UNESCO as an "intangible cultural heritage".  Videos below explore these unique art forms in more detail.

Notes

*Interestingly, Gregorian chant, a form of unaccompanied sacred song, developed about the same time in the West - mainly in western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries .  [4]  

References: [1] Christian Science Monitor  [2]  Tokyo Restaurants Guide   [3] Encyclopedia Japan [4] Wikipedia [5] Oyakata  [6] Live Japan  [7] Culture Trip  [8] Artelino  [9] Japan Guide    [10] The Atlantic