What is the name of Japanese art. Japan feature films

The formation of the tea ceremony (chanoyu) as one of the greatest phenomena of Japanese culture took place in a very difficult, troubled time for the country, when internecine bloody wars and feuds between feudal clans made people's lives unbearable. The tea ceremony arose under the influence of the aesthetics and philosophy of Zen Buddhism and sought to counter the mood of hopelessness with the worship of Beauty.

In those days, the rulers of the military class and wealthy merchants, gathering for political and commercial discussions, often took the opportunity to serve tea. It was considered a refined pleasure to sit at leisure in a quiet tea room, detached from life's worries and worries, and listen to the sounds of water boiling on a brazier. The great teacher Sen-no-Rikyu made tea-drinking an art. He was able to develop the art of the tea ceremony as he did, partly because of the aforementioned social background that existed.

The tea room built by Sen no Rikyu at first glance seemed very simple and even too small. But it was planned in the most careful way, with fine legibility, down to the smallest detail. It was decorated with sliding doors covered with snow-white translucent Japanese paper. The ceiling was finished with bamboo or thatch, and the open texture of the walls was highly valued. The supports were mostly wooden, retaining their natural bark. In order to create the effect of a hermitage in the design of the tea room, all useless decoration and excessive decoration were discarded.

Today, the tea ceremony is the most distinctive, unique art. It plays an important role in the spiritual and public life Japanese for several centuries. Over time, the ritual of the tea ceremony was canonized, the sequence of actions and behavior became given. Having already entered the simple wooden gates, the guests plunged into a special world, leaving everything mundane behind them and in silent concentration obeying only the laws of action.

Classical chanoyu is a strictly scheduled ritual in which the tea master (the person who brews and pours tea) and the other participants in the ceremony participate. Essentially, a tea master is a priest who performs a tea act, the rest are those who join him. Everyone has their own specific style of behavior, including both the posture when sitting, and every movement, up to facial expression and manner of speech.

During tea drinking, wise speeches are made, poems are read, works of art are considered. Bouquets of flowers and special utensils for brewing the drink are selected with special care for each occasion.

The atmosphere itself creates the appropriate mood, which is surprisingly simple and modest: a copper teapot, cups, a bamboo stirrer, a tea storage box, etc. The Japanese do not like bright shiny objects, they are impressed by dullness. D. Tanizaki writes about this: “Europeans use tableware made of silver, steel or nickel, polish it to a dazzling shine, but we cannot stand such a shine. We also use silver items... but we never polish them to a shine. On the contrary, we rejoice when this luster comes off the surface of objects, when they acquire a touch of prescription, when they darken with time ... We love things that bear traces of human flesh, oil soot, weathering and rain swelling. All items for the tea ceremony bear the imprint of time, but all are immaculately clean. Twilight, silence, the simplest teapot, a wooden spoon for pouring tea, a rough ceramic cup - all this fascinates those present.

The most important element in the interior of a tea house is a niche - tokonoma. It usually contains a scroll with a painting or a calligraphic inscription and a bouquet of flowers, a censer with incense. Tokonoma is located opposite the entrance and immediately attracts the attention of guests. The tokonama scroll is chosen with great care and is an indispensable subject of discussion during the ceremony. It is written in a Zen Buddhist style and with such archaic calligraphy that few can make out and understand the meaning of what is written, for example: "Bamboo is green, and flowers are red", "Things are things, and this is beautiful!" or "Water is water." Those present are explained the meaning of these sayings, outwardly simple, but at the same time very deep philosophically. Sometimes these thoughts are expressed in the poetic form of haiku, sometimes they are reflected in the painting of the old master, as a rule, in compliance with the principle of "wabi".

In Japan, there are many forms of the tea ceremony, but only a few are strictly established: night tea, sunrise tea, morning tea, afternoon tea, evening tea, special tea.

Night tea begins with the moon. Guests arrive at about half past eleven and leave at about four in the morning. Usually, powdered tea is brewed, which is prepared in front of the guests: the leaves are freed from veins and ground into powder in a mortar. This tea is very strong, it is not served on an empty stomach. Therefore, at first, guests are treated to a little different food. Tea is drunk at sunrise around three or four in the morning. Guests stay at the same time until six o'clock. Morning tea is practiced in hot weather, guests gather at six in the morning. Afternoon tea is usually only served with cakes around 1pm. Evening tea starts around 6pm. A special tea party (rinjitya-noyu) is arranged on any special occasions: meeting with friends, holidays, changing seasons, etc.

According to the Japanese, the tea ceremony brings up simplicity, naturalness, neatness. This is true, of course, but there is more to the tea ceremony. Introducing people to a well-established ritual, it accustoms them to strict order and unconditional fulfillment of social rules. The tea ceremony is one of the most important foundations for the cultivation of national feelings.

Himeji is one of the oldest castles in Japan.

Japanese Art of the Ancient Period
Japanese culture took shape and developed in special natural and historical conditions. Japan is located on four large and many small islands washed by the seas. Being on the very edge of the east, she experienced the periodically increasing, then again fading influence of such mainland cultures as China and Korea. Interaction periods with outside world were replaced in Japanese history by long centuries of cultural isolation (periods from the 10th to the 14th and from the 17th to the middle of the 19th centuries). The latter circumstance contributed to the development and consolidation of many unique features of Japanese culture in general and art in particular. Acquaintance with the culture of the West took place in the 16th century, when the main features of the original Japanese civilization had already been formed. Until 1854, Japan traded with China and Holland through only one port.

From the most ancient inhabitants of the Japanese islands - hunters and fishermen - came discovered as a result of archaeological excavations stone axes, harpoons, arrowheads, and hand-sculpted ceramic vessels, named after the “Jomon” pattern, which means “rope trace”, is imprinted on them. Therefore, the Neolithic culture in Japan is also called Jomon. Settlers arriving from Siberia, Polynesia, and later from Korea and China stood at different levels cultural development. This explains the fact that monuments of both the Neolithic era and the Bronze Age are found in some cultural layers. The Japanese language is close to the languages ​​of the Altaic group. When as a result of contacts with Chinese culture Since the Japanese became familiar with Chinese hieroglyphic writing, it turned out to be very difficult to adapt Chinese hieroglyphics to convey oral Japanese speech.

The initial period of Japanese culture, about which reliable data have been preserved, is called the era of kofuns (mounds) - burials, the ground part of which was an earthen mound of a characteristic shape - a combination of a circle and a trapezoid, resembling a keyhole, which symbolized the union of earth and water. They were of considerable size, they were surrounded by a double ditch with water, grass grew over the mound, and along the inner perimeter of the mound there were hollow clay figures of people, animals, models of boats and houses from 30 cm to one and a half meters high. They were called "haniwa". Inside the burial chamber there were coffins with dead representatives of the nobility, where ritual objects were placed: a mirror, a dotaku bell, whose sound was supposed to scare away evil spirits and attract the gods - the patrons of the tillers. The burials of the Yamato kings always contained such ritual symbols of power as jade pendants and swords. To exalt the kings of the Yamato clan, the beginning of history was established, the hierarchy of the gods was determined, the deity Amaterasu (“Shining from heaven”) was singled out, which transferred power over Japanese islands kings of the Yamato clan. The name "Nippon" or "Nihon", meaning "land of the rising sun", appeared in the 7th century. In 608, trips to study in China began, which continued for more than two centuries.

Dotaku - ritual bronze bells - cylinders narrowed to the top, topped with wide loops with curly ledges, the walls of which are divided into squares filled with graphic images

The heterogeneous beliefs of the Japanese, which have many features of primitive animism and fetishism, are reflected in Shinto. Shinto ("the way of the gods") in its essence reflects the Japanese ideas about the universal spirituality of nature. Countless so-called "kami" (spirits) exist both in miraculous landscape objects, such as Lake Biwa and Mount Fuji, and in objects created by people - swords, mirrors, endowed with magical properties because of this. The Shinto shrine was distinguished by the simplicity of its wooden structure: a single-hall room was placed on stilts, surrounded on all sides by a veranda. The inside of the Shinto shrine was dim and empty. Believers did not enter the temple.

Para period (645-794 AD)

Nara is the name of the first capital and the only city of Japan at that time. This was the time of the establishment of Japanese statehood, the introduction of Buddhism and the creation of monuments of Buddhist art - temples, pagodas, various statues of Buddhist deities. Buddhism during this period was not so much the faith of the people as a continuation of the policy of the court. Various sects of Buddhism played a very significant role at the court, the land holdings of Buddhist monasteries grew, the monks had great influence at the court. Buddhist monasteries appear, which are groups of wooden buildings located on a rectangular walled area. Of particular importance was the wide alley leading to the front gate, the square in front of the temple, and the multi-tiered pagoda visible from afar. Wooden temples were painted with red lacquer, raised on stone foundations, and had wide curved double roofs - irimoya.

Among the early Buddhist temples are Asukadera, Horyuji, the construction of the latter was started in 607 at the behest of the then ruling Crown Prince Shotoku Taishi. The monastery consisted of 53 buildings located on an area of ​​90 thousand square meters. The facade of the temple faces south, the main buildings are located on the north-south axis, the sacred zone is north, there was a hall for sermons - kodo, kondo and a five-tiered pagoda. In Horyuji there were 265 statues, the main sculptural image was the trinity of Shakyamuni, represented by a sculpture of the founder of the creed, accompanied by two bodhisattvas. In the 8th century at large monasteries there were already workshops of sculptors. The cult of the bodhisattva Kannon spread, whose name was a translation of the Sanskrit name Avalokiteshvara (Attention to the sounds of the world). Filled with compassion for living beings, a bodhisattva is able to listen to the sounds of those who suffer, wherever they are. The cult of Avalokiteshvara originated in northwestern India and spread to China. In the Lotus Sutra, it was said that the bodhisattva took on the form of those beings that call to him. In Japan, the spread of the cult of Kannon led to the appearance of a large number of her images - the saint Kannon helping in hell, Kannon with the head of a horse spreads mercy on cattle, evil spirits - asuras are saved by the thousand-armed Kannon, Kannon with a fishing forest saves people.

Heian period (794-1185)

In 794 the capital of the state was moved to the city of Heian (now Kyoto). During the Heian period, a sophisticated court culture flourished. A Japanese syllabary was created - kana (jap. - a borrowed hieroglyph). At first, only women used this script, while the official script continued to be Chinese. During the X century. women's writing began to be used in private practice. In the XI century. the heyday of Japanese classical literature began, a brilliant example of it is the novel "Genji Monogatari", created by the court lady Murasaki Shikibu.

In the art of Heian, the main place is occupied by Buddhist images of the esoteric sects Tendai and Shingon who came from China at that time, who taught that all living beings have the essence of the Buddha. By training the spirit and body, by fulfilling the vows, anyone is able to acquire the essence of the Buddha in the process of several rebirths. The temples of these sects were built on the tops of mountains and rocky ledges, the chapels in them were divided into two parts. Inside, where the sacred image was located, ordinary believers were not allowed.

The Heian era is a time of luxury for the ruling circles. At this time, the type of dwellings shinden was formed. The walls and the conditions of a warm climate were not capital and did not have a reference value. They could very easily be moved apart, replaced by more durable ones for cold weather, or removed altogether in warm weather. There were also no windows. Instead of glass, it was stretched onto a lattice frame White paper that lets diffused light into the room. The wide cornice of the roof protected the walls from dampness and sunlight. The interior, devoid of permanent furniture, had sliding partition walls, thanks to which it was possible, at will, to create either a hall or several small isolated rooms, the floor was covered with straw mats - tatami, of the same size (180 by 90 cm).

Confucian and Buddhist texts were brought from China during the Heian period. Often they were decorated with images. Initially, Japanese artists copied Chinese "famous places", but starting from the 10th century. turn to the image of landscapes and customs home country. “Yamato-e” painting is designed, which differed from Chinese painting by using themes from Japanese poetry, short stories, novels, or from folk legends. The painting got its name from the name of the Yamato region - the southwestern part of the island of Honshu, where the statehood of Japan was formed.
The image often represented a scroll of illustrations with the corresponding text, which was taken by hand and spun from right to left, while reading the corresponding section, the illustration following it was considered.

Yamato-e painting peaked in the late Heian period. At this time, professional artists appeared who painted pictures on secular subjects on screens, sliding partitions (shoji) and scrolls - emakimono. The oldest of the scrolls is the Genji Monogatari. Emakimano scrolls were pictures-tales. The scroll of "Genji-monogatari-emaki", the famous novel by Murasaki Shikibu, has survived to this day, depicting the idle life of the aristocracy in vivid colors, it is a synthesis of calligraphy, literature and painting. In the surviving 19 of the 54 chapters of the novel, there is no single plot and through action in the illustrations. Most of the depicted scenes take place in interiors, everything visible is shown from above, there is no single vanishing point of lines, large-scale correspondence of figures and architecture, the faces of all characters are the same, only hairstyles and clothes are different. The main subject of the artist's attention is the transfer of the emotional content of the events taking place in the novel, which were well known to everyone. The main techniques are the construction of space and the use of color possibilities. To convey the inner state of the characters and the atmosphere of each scene, it is important for the artist at what angle in relation to the lower edge of the scroll the diagonal lines are directed, denoting either the beams of the structures, or the cornices of the curtains, or the edge of the veranda. Depending on the degree of emotional tension, this angle varies from 30 to 54 degrees.

Bodhisattva - Kannon appears in China, Korea and Japan mainly in female form, in hands with a jug, a willow branch and a lasso

There were no partitions in the houses of aristocrats; the best artists painted yamato-e pictures on screens and curtains. Yamato-e paintings were unity with literary works, which were also placed on screens and curtains. In anthologies of poetry of the X-XIII centuries. verses written on screens of the 9th-10th centuries are not uncommon. The largest number of such poems is contained in the anthology "Sui-shu". Just as poetry was about the four seasons, so was painting for screens. In line with folk songs, a certain system of poetic formulas developed, and then became the basis of Japanese classical poetics. So, the sign of spring was a misty haze, a willow tree, a sign of summer - a cuckoo, cicadas, autumn - scarlet maple leaves, a deer, a moon, winters - snow and plum flowers.

Kyoto is an ancient gem of Japan.

The abundance of homonyms in the language made it possible to give the verses many meanings. Themes and plots made it possible, through a detail or a hint, in an extremely concise poetic form (31 syllables per tanka), to express the diversity of all shades of emotional states. There was a gradual transition from screens with texts to screens without text. This is how the actual pictorial genre subdivisions were formed - shiki-e (“pictures of the four seasons”) and mei-se-e (“pictures of famous places”).
The composition of such paintings did not correspond to any of the categories Chinese painting. The greatest fusion of nature and man will become characteristic of various genres of Japanese art.

Kamakura period (1185-1333) and Muromachi period (1333-1568)

At the end of the 12th century, the capital was moved again, power in the country as a result of a bloody civil strife was seized by the Minamoto clan, whose head moved the capital to his settlement of Kamakura, whose name became the name of the next stage in the history of Japan. The military class of the samurai came to power in the country, from among which came the shoguns - the actual military rulers of Japan, the emperor, who remained in Nara, retained only nominal attributes of power. The sophistication of the court culture of the samurai preferred simplicity. The monasteries of the Zen sect no longer included pagodas, the temples resembled rural huts. From the end of the XIII century. under the influence of the pantheistic ideas of the Zen sect, the landscape began to embody the idea of ​​the presence of Buddhist deities in any landscape objects. In the monasteries of Kamakura, the iconography of portraits of the Minsk Patriarch has developed: a seated and calm pose with an emphasized characteristic of the face, the hypnotic power of the gaze. Under the influence of the Zen sect, sculpture is relegated to the background, painting, especially landscape painting, expresses the attitude of the people of this era.

The Muromachi period begins with the events of 1333, when the feudal lords of the southeastern regions of the island of Honshu captured and burned Kamakura, returning the capital to Heian. It was a time of internal strife and wars of feudal clans. Leading for the time of troubles was the teaching of the adherents of the Zen sect that, having achieved unity with nature, one can come to terms with the hardships of life and achieve unity with the world. In the first place in Japanese art, under the influence of the Zen teaching that the "body" of the Buddha is nature, landscape painting is put forward. In the second half of the XII century. painting with black ink penetrated into Japan from China. The Japanese who predominantly practiced such painting were members of the Zen sect. They created a new style, which explained the new creed (shigaku - a combination of painting and poetry). 15th and 16th centuries - the time of the maximum flourishing of ink painting, the leading master of which was Sesshu Toyo (1420-1506). In parallel with this style, the yamato-e style also existed.

Changes in socio-political relations, which brought the military class to the fore, also led to the appearance in the 16th century. Sein architectural style. The previously single volume of the house is now divided with the help of sliding doors (shoji), sliding partitions (fusuma). A special place for classes appeared in the rooms - a shelf for books and a window with a wide window sill and a niche (tokonoma) where a bouquet or a stone of a whimsical shape was placed and a vertical scroll was hung.

In the XVI century. In the history of Japanese architecture, tea pavilions appear in connection with the need for the correct conduct of the tea ceremony. Tea was brought to Japan during the Kamakura period by Buddhist monks as a potion. The tea ritual (cha-no-yu) was introduced at the initiative of the Zen monk Murata Shuko and required a special method for its implementation. Thus, a new type of architectural structure was formed - chashitsu (pavilion for the tea ceremony), in its constructive basis it was close to a residential building, and in its function - to a Buddhist temple. The supports of the tea pavilion were wooden, the ceiling was finished with bamboo or reed. Inside a hut lined with mats, 1.5 or 2 tatami with adobe walls, small windows of different levels, a tokonoma niche with a hanging monochrome landscape and a flower in a vase, there was a hearth, a shelf for utensils.

During the Muromachi period, the art of gardening flourished. Japanese gardens are different. Small gardens are most often located at temples or associated with a traditional home, they are designed to be viewed. Large landscaped gardens designed to be perceived from the inside.

Kondo - (jap. golden hall) - the main temple of the Buddhist complex, containing icons, statues, wall paintings

The Zen temple garden was built according to the principle of a monochrome landscape scroll. Instead of a sheet of paper, the artist used the expanse of a lake or a platform covered with pebbles, instead of stains and washouts of the thick - stones, mosses, foliage of trees and shrubs. Gradually, flowers disappeared from the garden, they were replaced by mosses and shrubs, stones began to be used instead of bridges. Some gardens were landscape, hilly (tsukiyama). Tsukiyama gardens were a combination of natural elements such as rocks, mosses, trees, ponds, with an obligatory pavilion on the shore. The oldest landscape garden is located in Kyoto and belongs to the Sohoji Monastery. Dry gardens were called "hiraniva", i.e. flat. Hiraniva is a "philosophical" garden, as he demanded a developed imagination from the viewer. The hiraniwa garden “was left of stones, sand, pebbles. Closed on three sides by a wall that surrounded it, the garden was intended only for contemplation. At the end of the XV century. created one of the most famous dry gardens in the Ryoanji monastery. It includes 15 stones located on a rectangular gravel area. In the hiraniwa garden of Daitokuji Monastery, created in 1509, nature is represented by compositions of stones and pebbles. One of the parts of the garden was called the "ocean of the void" and consists of two low pebble hills in the middle of a rectangular area. Gardens could complement each other.

At the end of the XV century. the court school of decorative painting Kano was formed. The founder of the school Kano Masanobu (1434-1530) came from a military class, becoming a recognized court professional artist. His landscapes had only foreground, everything else was covered in a misty haze. The emphasis on one particular subject of the image would become characteristic of the Kano school. The main place in the work of the artists of the Kano school was occupied by decorative wall paintings and screens with genre painting. Wall paintings have become the main component of the synthesis with the architectural form and a means of influencing the figurative meaning of the architectural space. In turn, the features of the architectural form required certain stylistic qualities of the paintings, which is why a new stylistic canon was gradually formed, which was preserved in Japanese painting up until the 19th century.

Shinden is a type of residential building. Rectangular in plan, the single-hall main building, facing the square with its southern facade, and framed by galleries from the east and west

Momoyama period (1X73-1614)

And this time the era of feudal wars came to an end, power in the country passed to successive military dictators - Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Iyaesu Tokugawa. It was a time of urban growth, the secularization and democratization of culture, the penetration of new value orientations. Cult architecture has lost its former significance. The new rulers of Japan declared their power by building grandiose castles, the construction of which was caused by the appearance of firearms in Japan and a corresponding change in combat and defense tactics. The castle has become a fundamentally new type of Japanese architecture. The asymmetrically located territory of the castle, surrounded by a moat and guard and corner towers, included a central square and many courtyards and rooms, underground shelters and passages. The living quarters were located in a wooden building located on the territory of the castle with a strict hierarchy of the internal space, reflecting the social hierarchy. The interiors of the castles, immersed in twilight, were best suited for decorative wall paintings, grandiose in size, filled with bright colors on a golden background.

Kano Eitoku (1543-1590). The creator of a new style of murals, designed to glorify military dictators. He first developed the principle of a single composition on large horizontal surfaces, enlarging the forms, abandoning small parts to convey not only silhouettes, but also the dynamics of their forms. Eitoku is characterized by the desire to increase the flatness of the picture, to enhance its decorative qualities. So, in places symbolizing empty space, there are spots with an admixture of gold powder. The space of the composition unfolded not in depth, but along the gaze.
In 1576, on the shores of Lake Biwa, a hitherto unknown castle was erected with a colossal seven-story tower, which was supposed to demonstrate the power of the dictator Oda Nobunaga. A feature of the castle was the presence of not only official, but also private chambers. The main decorations of the rooms were wall paintings, which were commissioned to be carried out by Kano Eitoku, who worked on them for three years with a large group of assistants. Kano Eitoku, who was hurried by the dictator with the execution of the order, began to enlarge the forms, using a thick brush made of rice straw, resorting to a laconic artistic language. The main place was occupied by the image of trees, flowers, birds and animals. The color scheme was bright, there was no color nuance.

The change in the social situation in the country after the Tokugawa shoguns came to power led to a ban on the construction of castles.
In the work of artists of the first third of the XVII century. new traits begin to take over. In painting, the desire for balanced, calm compositions, the growth of ornamental forms, the interest in the culture of the Heian era and the works of yamato-e became more noticeable. Distinctive feature Kano schools of this time - ornamentality and increased decorativeness. When in the second quarter of the XVII century. the construction of castles was forbidden, the screen became the main form of decorative painting. The monumentality of Kano Eitoku left decorative painting. Art acquired a personal coloring that influenced its stylistic qualities. decorative painting 17th century most often inspired by the heroes and themes of classical literature, reflecting the range of interests of the tribal aristocracy, and the dachshund of the emerging bourgeois elite. Decorative painting developed in the old capital - Kyoto.

Ogata Korin became the spokesman for the taste of new consumers of art - city dwellers, merchants and artisans. new representative Kano schools.

Emakimano is a horizontal scroll made of paper or silk pasted on a base framed with a brocade border with a wooden roller at the end.

Ogata Korin (1658-1716) lived like a rich rake, constantly visiting the "fun districts". Only after the ruin, faced with the severe need to earn a living, he began to paint fabrics and painting. Ogata Korin dealt with both ceramics and lacquerware, painted kimonos and fans. How
master, he began by getting to know traditional painting and her methods. Korin always strove for compactness, balance of forms, a characteristic feature creative manner- focus on the development of several plot motifs, their repeated repetition and variation. In the work of Ogata Korin, for the first time, work from nature appeared. In the painting of the screen “Red and White Plum Tree”, the plot motif taken by Korin goes back to classical poetry with its images of early spring and awakening nature. On both sides of the stream, on a golden background, flowering trees are written: a stocky, with a thick curved trunk and almost vertically rising branches, a red plum tree and another, indicated only by the foot of the trunk and sharply curved, as if falling to the water, and therefore suddenly shot up a branch, strewn with white flowers.

Kano Eitoku hawk on a pine tree. Screen. Detail from the end of the 16th century.

Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743), in contrast to his older brother Ogata Korin, gravitated towards spiritual values ​​from his youth, was a follower of Zen Buddhism, knew Chinese and Japanese classical literature, No theater, tea ritual. On the territory belonging to the Ninnaji temple, Kenzan received permission to build his own ceramic kiln, which produced products for 13 years until 1712. He did not strive for profitability, he was guided by the idea of ​​​​creating highly artistic products. For the first time, he used traditional ink painting techniques in volumetric painting. Kenzan began to use color, he wrote on a damp shard, the porous clay absorbed the paint, like paper in ink painting. Like his great contemporary poet Basho, who turned the popular low genre of haiku into a revelation, Ogata Kenzan showed that ordinary ceramic plates, cups, vases can be both utilitarian objects and at the same time poetic masterpieces of art.

Edo period (1614-1868)

In 1615, samurai were resettled from Kyoto to Edo. The importance of the class of merchants, merchants and usurers, concentrated in Mara, Kyoto and Osaka, increased. For representatives of these social groups was characterized by a secular perception of life, the desire to free themselves from the influence of feudal morality. For the first time, art addresses the themes of everyday life, including the life of the so-called. fun neighborhoods - the world of tea houses, Kabuki theater, sumo wrestlers. The appearance of woodcuts was associated with the democratization of culture, since engravings are characterized by circulation, cheapness and accessibility. After household painting engraving became known as ukiyo-e (literally - the mortal changeable world).

The production of engravings has gained a wide scope. The early period in the development of ukiyo-e graphics is associated with the name of Hasikawa Moronobu (1618-1694), who depicted uncomplicated scenes from the life of the inhabitants of tea houses, artisans, combining events at different times, unrelated to each other, on one engraving. The background of the engravings remained white, the lines were clear. Gradually, the range of topics of engravings expanded, the interest not only in the external, but also in the inner world of the characters became deeper. Japanese engraving in 1780-1790. enters its heyday. Suzuki Haranobu (1725-1770) first began to reveal the inner world of heroes in such engravings as "Beauties plucking a plum branch", "Lovers in a snow-covered garden". He was the first to use the rolling technique, which creates a transition from dark to light tone, varied the thickness and texture of the lines. He never cared about real colors, the sea in his engravings is pink, the sky is sandy, the grass is blue, everything depends on the general emotional mood scenes. One of his the best works"Lovers Playing the Same Shamisen" was created on the theme of the Japanese proverb - "If music promotes love, play."

Tokonoma - a niche in the interior of a tea house

Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) - an outstanding ukiyo-e master. His work began with the albums "The Book of Insects", "Songs of Shells". In his half-length, bust-length portraits of women, Utamaro for the first time uses mica powder, which creates a shimmering background. Perfect beauty Utamaro with a graceful shape and fit of the head,
thin neck, small mouth, short black eyebrows. In the series "Ten female characters"and" Days and hours of women "he sought to identify different types of appearance and character of women. In the late 90s. in Utamaro, he addresses the theme of motherhood in such engravings as “Mother with a Child” and “Ball Game”, at the same time he creates triptychs and polyptychs on historical themes, resorting to indirect designation (the heroes of the country are depicted as beauties). Teshusai Shyaraku created a series of portraits of kabuki theater actors and sumo wrestlers. He abandoned the generally accepted traditions, making the grotesque his main technique. The third period in the development of ukiyo-e prints falls on 1800-1868. At this time, the influence on japanese art Dutch and German etchings. For the creativity of the artistic dynasty Utagawa, the rejection of the search for individuality, the desire for formal elegance became the characters. The heyday of the landscape genre in engraving is associated with the name of Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). Hokusai studied ancient and modern trends Japanese art, knew the art of China and got acquainted with European engraving. Until almost 50 years old, Hokusai worked in the traditional manner of ukiyo-e artists. Only in the Manga albums (a book of sketches), the first volume of which was published in 1812, did Hokusai find his field of art. Now he painted everyday scenes, landscapes, crowds.

japan landscape gardens

At the age of 70, Hokusai created his series "36 Views of Mount Fuji", on each of the engravings the artist depicts Mount Fuji. The combination of the genre theme with the landscape is a feature of Hokusai. Unlike the ancient landscape painters, Hokusai shows the earth from below. At the same time, he creates the series "Journey through the waterfalls of the country", "Bridges", "Big Flowers", "100 Views of Fuji". Hokusai could transfer things from unexpected side. In the 100 Views of Fuji engravings, the mountains either emerge from the darkness of the night, like a vision, or are visible behind the bamboo stalks, or are reflected in the lake. Hokusai's follower Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858) painted nature much more realistically. A river agent by profession, he traveled a lot around the country, creating his series "53 Tokaido Stations", "8 Views of Lake Omi", "69 Views of Kishikaido". The art of Hiroshige approaches European painting, completing the two-hundred-year heyday of ukiyo-e engraving.

Japan? How did it develop? We will answer these and other questions in the article. Japanese culture was shaped by historical movement, which began when the Japanese moved from the mainland to the archipelago and the civilization of the Jomon period was born.

The current enlightenment of this people was strongly influenced by Europe, Asia (especially Korea and China) and North America. One of the signs of Japanese culture is its long development in the era of complete isolation of the state (sakoku policy) from all other countries during the reign of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which lasted until the middle of the 19th century - the beginning of the Meiji era.

Influence

How did the artistic culture of Japan develop? The civilization was significantly influenced by the isolated regional location of the country, climatic and geographical features, as well as natural phenomena (typhoons and frequent earthquakes). This was expressed in the extraordinary attitude of the population towards nature as a living being. A feature of the national character of the Japanese is the ability to admire the current beauty of the universe, which is expressed in many types of art in a small country.

The artistic culture of Japan was created under the influence of Buddhism, Shintoism and Confucianism. These same trends influenced its further development.

ancient times

Agree, the artistic culture of Japan is magnificent. Shintoism has its roots in ancient times. Buddhism, although it appeared before our era, began to spread only from the fifth century. The Heian period (8th-12th centuries) is considered the golden era of Japan's statehood. In the same period, the picturesque culture of this country reached its highest point.

Confucianism appeared in the 13th century. At this stage, there was a separation of the philosophy of Confucius and Buddhism.

Hieroglyphs

The image of the artistic culture of Japan is embodied in a unique versification, which is called In this country, the art of calligraphy is also highly developed, which, according to legend, arose from heavenly divine images. It was they who breathed life into writing, so the population is kind to every sign in spelling.

Rumor has it that it was hieroglyphs that gave Japanese culture, since images surrounding the inscribed appeared from them. A little later, a strong combination of elements of painting and poetry in one work began to be observed.

If you study a Japanese scroll, you will find that the work contains two kinds of symbols. These are signs of writing - seals, poems, kolofen, as well as picturesque. At the same time, Kabuki theater gained great popularity. A different type of theater - But - is preferred mainly by military personnel. their severity and cruelty had a strong influence on No.

Painting

Artistic culture has been studied by many specialists. A huge role in its formation was played by kaiga painting, which in Japanese means drawing or painting. This art is regarded as the oldest type of painting of the state, which is determined by a huge number of solutions and forms.

In it, a special place is occupied by nature, which determines the sacred principle. The division of painting into sumi-e and yamato-e has existed since the tenth century. The first style developed closer to the fourteenth century. It is a kind of monochrome watercolor. Yamato-e are horizontally folded scrolls that are commonly used in the decoration of works of literature.

A little later, in the 17th century, printing on tablets appeared in the country - ukiyo-e. Masters depicted landscapes, geishas, famous actors the kabuki theatre. This type of painting in the 18th century had a strong influence on the art of Europe. The emerging trend was called "Japanism". In the Middle Ages, the culture of Japan went beyond the borders of the country - it began to be used in the design of stylish and fashionable interiors around the world.

Calligraphy

Oh, how beautiful the artistic culture of Japan is! Comprehension of harmony with nature can be seen in each of its segments. What is modern Japanese calligraphy? It is called shodo ("way of notifications"). Calligraphy, like writing, is a compulsory discipline. Scientists have found that this art came there simultaneously with Chinese writing.

By the way, in ancient times, a person's culture was judged by his level of calligraphy. Today, there are a large number of writing styles, and Buddhist monks develop them.

Sculpture

How did Japanese culture come about? We will study the development and types of this area of ​​human life in as much detail as possible. Sculpture is the oldest type of art in Japan. In ancient times, the people of this country made figurines of idols and dishes from ceramics. Then people began to install statues of khaniv, created from baked clay, on the graves.

The development of sculptural craft in modern Japanese culture is associated with the spread of Buddhism in the state. One of the most ancient representatives of Japanese monuments is considered to be the statue of the Buddha Amitabha, made of wood, placed in the Zenko-ji temple.

Sculptures were very often made of beams, but they looked very rich: the craftsmen covered them with varnish, gold and bright colors.

Origami

Do you like the artistic culture of Japan? Comprehension of harmony with nature will bring an unforgettable experience. characteristic feature Japanese culture has become amazing products of origami (“folded paper”). This skill owes its origin to China, where, in fact, parchment was invented.

At first, "folded paper" was used in religious ceremonies. This art could be studied only by the upper class. But after the Second World War, origami left the homes of the nobles and found its admirers all over the Earth.

Ikebana

Everyone should know what the artistic culture of the countries of the East is. Japan has invested a lot of work in its development. Another component of this culture wonderful country is ikebana ("living flowers", " new life colors"). The Japanese are fans of aesthetics and simplicity. It is precisely these two qualities that are invested in the works. The sophistication of images is achieved through the beneficial use of the natural beauty of vegetation. Ikebana, like origami, also served as part of a religious ceremony.

Miniatures

Probably, many have already understood that artistic culture Ancient China and Japan are closely intertwined. And what is a bonsai? It is a Japanese unique skill to cultivate an almost exact miniature replica of a real tree.

In Japan, it is also common to make netsuke - small sculptures that are a kind of keychain. Often such figurines in this capacity were attached to the clothes of the Japanese, which had no pockets. They not only decorated it, but also served as an original counterweight. Key rings were made in the form of a key, a pouch, a wicker basket.

History of painting

Art culture ancient japan interested in many people. Painting in this country originated during the Japanese Paleolithic period and developed in this way:

• Yamato period. During the time of Asuka and Kofun (4th-7th centuries), along with the introduction of hieroglyphs, the creation of a Chinese-style state regime and the popularization of Buddhism, many works of art were brought to Japan from China. After that, Chinese-style paintings began to be reproduced in the Land of the Rising Sun.
• Nara time. In the VI and VII centuries. Buddhism continued to develop in Japan. In this regard, religious painting began to flourish, used to decorate the numerous temples built by the aristocracy. In general, during the Nara era, the contribution to the development of sculpture and art was greater than in painting. early paintings This cycle includes murals of the inner walls of the Horyu-ji Temple in Nara Prefecture, telling about the life of Buddha Shakyamuni.
• Heian era. In Japanese painting, starting from the 10th century, the trend of yamato-e is distinguished, as we wrote about above. Such paintings are the horizontal scrolls used to illustrate books.
• The era of Muromachi. In the XIV century, the Supi-e style (monochrome watercolor) appeared, and in the first half of the XVII century. artists began to print engravings on boards - ukiyo-e.
• The painting of the Azuchi-Momoyama era stands in sharp contrast to the painting of the Muromachi period. It has a polychrome style with extensive use of silver and during this period, the Kano educational institution enjoyed great prestige and fame. Its founder was Kano Eitoku, who painted ceilings and sliding doors to separate rooms. Such drawings adorned the castles and palaces of the military nobility.
• Maiji era. Since the second half of the 19th century, art has been divided into competing traditional and European styles. During the Maiji era, Japan underwent great social and political changes through the process of modernization and Europeanization organized by the authorities. Young promising artists were sent abroad to study, and overseas artists came to Japan to create school art programs. Be that as it may, after the initial surge of curiosity about artistic style In the West, the pendulum has swung back and Japanese traditional style has been reborn. In 1880, Western art practices were banned from official exhibitions and heavily criticized.

Poetry

The artistic culture of ancient Japan is still being studied. Its feature is versatility, some synthetics, as it was formed under the influence of different religions. It is known that Japanese classical poetry emerged from everyday life, acted within it, and this earthiness of it was preserved to some extent in the traditional forms of today's poetry - three-line haiku and five-line tanka, which are distinguished by a pronounced mass character. By the way, it is precisely this quality that distinguishes them from the "free verse" gravitating toward elitism, which appeared in Japan at the beginning of the 20th century under the influence of European poetry.

Have you noticed that the stages of development of the artistic culture of Japan are multifaceted? Poetry in the society of this country played a special role. One of the most famous genres is haiku, you can understand it only by familiarizing yourself with its history.

It first appeared in the Heian era, was similar to the renga style, which was a kind of outlet for poets who wanted to take a break from the thoughtful verses of wah. Haikai developed into a genre in its own right in the 16th century as renga became too serious, and haiku relied on colloquial language and was still humorous.

Of course, the artistic culture of Japan is briefly described in many works, but we will try to talk about it in more detail. It is known that in the Middle Ages one of the most famous literary Japanese genres was tanka (“laconic song”). In most cases, this is a five-line, consisting of a pair of stanzas with a fixed number of syllables: 5-7-5 syllables in three lines of the first stanza, and 7-7 in two lines of the second. As for the content, the tanka uses the following scheme: the first stanza represents a specific natural image, and the second reflects a person’s feeling that echoes this image:

• In the distant mountains
  Long-tailed pheasant dozing -
  This long, long night
  Can I sleep alone? ( Kakinomoto no Hitovaro, early 8th century, translated by Sanovich.)

Japanese dramaturgy

Many argue that the artistic culture of China and Japan is mesmerizing. Do you like performing arts? The traditional dramaturgy of the Land of the Rising Sun is divided into joruri (puppet theatre), dramaturgy of the Noh theater (kyogen and yokyoku), kabuki theater and shingeki. The customs of this art include five basic theatrical genres: kyogen no, bugaku, kabuki and bunraku. All of these five traditions are still present today. Despite the colossal differences, they are connected by common aesthetic principles that underpin Japanese art. By the way, the dramaturgy of Japan originated on the stage of No.

Kabuki theater appeared in the 17th century and reached its apogee towards the end of the 18th. The form of performances that developed over the specified period is preserved on the modern stage of Kabuki. The productions of this theatre, in contrast to the stages of No, focused on a narrow circle of admirers of ancient art, are designed for the mass audience. The roots of Kabuki skills originate from the performances of comedians - performers of small farces, scenes that consisted of dancing and singing. The theatrical skill of Kabuki absorbed the elements of joruri and no.

The appearance of the Kabuki theater is associated with the name of the worker of the Buddhist sanctuary O-Kuni in Kyoto (1603). O-Kuni performed on the stage with religious dances, which included the movements of the folk dances of the Nembutsu-odori. Her performances were interspersed with comic plays. At this stage, the productions were called yujo-kabuki (kabuki of courtesans), o-kuni-kabuki or onna-kabuki (ladies' kabuki).

Engravings

In the last century, Europeans, and then Russians, encountered the phenomenon of Japanese art through engraving. Meanwhile, in the Land of the Rising Sun, drawing on a tree was not at first considered a skill at all, although it had all the properties of mass culture - cheapness, availability, circulation. Ukiyo-e connoisseurs were able to achieve the highest intelligibility and simplicity both in the embodiment of plots and in their choice.

Ukiyo-e was a special art school, so she was able to put forward a number of outstanding masters. Thus, the name of Hisikawa Moronobu (1618-1694) is associated with the initial phase of the development of plot engraving. In the middle of the 18th century, Suzuki Harunobu, the first connoisseur of multi-color engraving, created. The main motives of his work were lyrical scenes, in which attention was paid not to action, but to the transmission of moods and feelings: love, tenderness, sadness. Like exquisite ancient art In the Heian era, ukiyo-e virtuosos revived the extraordinary cult of the refined beauty of a woman in a renovated urban environment.

The only difference was that instead of the proud Heian aristocrats, the prints depicted graceful geisha from the entertainment districts of Edo. The artist Utamaro (1753-1806) is, perhaps, a unique example of a professional in the history of painting, who completely devoted his creation to depicting ladies in various poses and dresses, in various life circumstances. One of his best works is the engraving "Geisha Osama", which is kept in Moscow, in the Pushkin Museum of Painting. The artist unusually subtly conveyed the unity of gesture and mood, facial expressions.

Manga and anime

Many artists try to study the painting of Japan. What is anime (Japanese animation)? It differs from other animation genres by being more attuned to an adult viewer. Here there is a duplicative division into styles for an unambiguous target audience. The measure of crushing is the gender, age or psychological portrait of the moviegoer. Very often, anime is a film adaptation of Japanese manga comics, which also received great fame.

The basic part of the manga is designed for an adult viewer. According to 2002 data, about 20% of the entire Japanese book market was occupied by manga comics.

Japan is close to us geographically, but, despite this, for a long time remained incomprehensible and inaccessible to the whole world. Today we know a lot about this country. A long voluntary isolation has led to the fact that its culture is completely different from the cultures of other states.

Details Category: Fine Arts and Architecture of the 19th century Posted on 08/14/2017 18:30 Views: 1604

In the first half of the XIX century. Ukiyo-e still dominated Japanese painting. In 1868, after the Meiji revolution and the opening of the borders, the achievements of Western civilization became more accessible in Japan, and ukiyo-e gradually fell out of fashion, being replaced by photography.
But first things first.

Ukiyo-e style

Ukiyo-e(Japanese paintings (images) of the changing world) - a trend in the visual arts of Japan. Initially, this Buddhist term was used in the meaning of "mortal world, vale of sorrow." But in the Edo period, with the advent of specially designated city blocks, in which the kabuki theater flourished and were the homes of geishas and courtesans, the term was rethought, and it began to be understood as "the world of fleeting pleasures, the world of love."
Ukiyo-e prints are the main type of woodcut in Japan. This art form became popular in urban culture in the second half of the 17th century. The founder of ukiyo-e is a Japanese painter and graphic artist. Hisikawa Moronobu.

H. Moronobu “Autumn in Asakusa. Cherry blossoms in Ueno Park. Screen painting. Freer Gallery (Washington)
Initially, the engravings were black and white, made in ink. From the beginning of the XVIII century. some works were painted by hand with a brush.
Ukiyo-e prints were intended mainly for city dwellers who could not afford more expensive pictorial paintings.
Ukiyo-e themes are pictures of everyday life: beautiful geishas, ​​sumo wrestlers, popular kabuki theater actors, and later landscape prints.

Katsushika Hokusai "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" (1823-1831)
During the period of the XVIII-XIX centuries. notable artists were Utamaro, Hokusai, Hiroshige, and Toshusai Syaraku.
At a time when the ukiyo-e style began to go out of fashion in Japan, it gained popularity in Western Europe and America, art historians began to massively buy engravings.
Japanese engravings inspired many European artists who worked in the style of Cubism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism: Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, and others. This influence was called "Japanism".

Vincent van Gogh "Portrait of Papa Tanguy" (1887-1888). Canvas, oil. Rodin Museum (Paris)

Notable ukiyo-e artists:

Hisikawa Moronobu (17th century)
Kitagawa Utamaro (XVIII century)
Kawanabe Kyosai (19th century)
Katsushika Hokusai (XVIII-XIX centuries)
Utagawa Hiroshige (19th century)
Utagawa Kunisada (19th century)
Utagawa Kuniyoshi (19th century)
Keisai Eisen (19th century)
Suzuki Harunobu (19th century)
Toyohara Kunitika (19th century)
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (19th century)
Ogata Gekko (XIX-XX centuries)
Hasui Kawase (XX century)

Consider the work of some of them.

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)

Katsushika Hokusai. self-portrait
Famous Japanese ukiyo-e artist, illustrator, engraver. Worked under many aliases (at least 30). Born into a craftsman's family, he began painting at the age of 6. Working in a bookstore, he learned to read and write. Then he worked in the workshop of an engraver - engraving was very popular in Japan at that time.
In 1793-1794. starts independent life an artist, rather heavy in material terms, but saturated with art - he studies different schools of painting: the Kano schools (landscapes, images of birds and animals, everyday scenes; they decorated the doors of sliding screens with a pattern); Sotatsu school (picture Everyday life Japanese and japanese landscapes on sliding doors). The artist gradually begins to develop his own style.
In 1796, the artist began to use what later became widely famous alias Hokusai. In 1800, at the age of 41, the artist began to call himself Gakejin Hokusai ("Painting Mad Hokusai").
The artist comprehends the picture of the world through the awareness of the significance, the special value of the everyday life of people, their work and concerns. The life of nature, its meaning and beauty in the landscapes of Hokusai become clear only thanks to the presence in them of people engaged in their usual affairs. Hokusai spent most of his life traveling around the country, sketching everything he saw. Hokusai was known not only as an engraver, but also as a writer, poet and painter.
He was the first of the Japanese engraving artists, in whose work the landscape gained importance. independent genre. Hokusai's landscapes captured the lively and majestic nature of Japan.
For my long artistic activity he created about 30,000 drawings and engravings and illustrated about 500 books.
The heyday of Hokusai's creativity dates back to the 1820s and early 1830s. At this time, he created his best landscape series. These series amaze with the depth and richness of Hokusai's artistic vision - from a broad philosophical understanding of the worldview in the series "36 Views of Mount Fuji" (1823-1829), showing the epic grandeur of nature in the "Bridges" series (1823-1829), admiring its elemental power in "Waterfalls" (1827-1830) to a subtle lyrical experience of nature in the series "Poets of China and Japan" (1830).

Katsushika Hokusai South Wind. Clear day". Colored woodcut (1823-1831) from the series "Thirty-six Views of Fuji"
One of the most significant works Hokusai, in which the originality of his work as an artist-thinker is most fully revealed, is the series "36 Views of Fuji". Most of the sheets in this series represent various genre scenes: a fisherman throwing his nets; sawyers working in a wood warehouse; a cooper making a tub, etc. All these scenes are set in a landscape with Mount Fuji in the background.
Creativity Hokusai caused numerous imitations, the number of his students was very large. But almost all the followers of the artist are characterized by the assimilation of only the external side of his creative method.

Surimono

Surimono is a type of traditional Japanese art, colored woodcut, which served as a gift among the Japanese urban intelligentsia. Anniversaries, the birth of a son, the onset of cherry blossom season, the upcoming New Year, etc. could be the reason for such a gift. The genres of surimono were diverse: the image of figures, the image of animals, flowers and birds, the landscape.
The image created by visual, poetic and technical means had to have integrity. Surimono is both art, and a game, and a way of entertainment, part of the everyday life of the townspeople.

Katsushika Hokusai "Carps" (surimono)
The merit of Hokusai in the rise of the popularity of surimono is great: he makes it the most important of the types of Japanese woodcuts.
People on Hokusai's surimono are "alive". Depicted against the background of the landscape, they actively interact with it: they cover their eyes from the sun with their hands, point to the clouds, peer into the endless expanses, sometimes even turning their backs to the viewer.

Katsushika Hokusai. Surimono

Manga

"Manga" (Jap. literally "drawings of Hokusai") is one of the most important works in the artist's creative heritage, created by him at the zenith of fame. "Manga" is an expression of Hokusai's views on creativity, his philosophy, reveals the secrets of the master; it is valuable not only as a milestone in the life of Hokusai, but also as an important source of information about the culture and art of Japan in the era of late feudalism. Hokusai's Manga is often referred to as "the encyclopedia of the Japanese people". Most of the drawings depicted scenes from city life; there were many sketches of people. The collection was a diary where the master entered everything he saw in life in the form of drawings (not text).

Katsushika Hokusai "Contemplation of Mount Fuji" (1814) Manga
Hokusai, like Japanese art in general, had a significant impact on European art XIX century, including French Impressionism. The theme of Hokusai's engravings is present in the works of Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and others.
The last significant representative of Japanese engraving in the first half of the 19th century. landscape painter Ando Hiroshige.

Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858)

Utagawa Hiroshige is a Japanese graphic artist, a representative of the ukiyo-e direction, a master of color woodcuts. Author of at least 5400 engravings. In lyrical landscapes with genre motifs, he conveyed the unsteady states of nature, the atmospheric effects of snow and fog. Worked under the pseudonym Ando Hiroshige.
He lost his father and mother early. fine arts I started studying after I saw the work of Hokusai.
Hiroshige was a student of the engraver Utagawa Toyohiro (1763-1828). The first work that brought Hiroshiga fame was the series of prints "53 Tokaido Stations", printed in 1834. Continuing the landscape genre of Hokusai, Hiroshige develops it in his own way.
The Tokaido was one of the five roads that connected Edo with other parts of Japan. It ran along the eastern coast of Honshu. Along it were located 53 postal stations, where travelers were offered accommodation, food and stables.
In 1832, Hiroshige traveled through the Tokaido as part of an official delegation transporting horses for the imperial court. Landscapes made a strong impression on the artist, and he made many sketches. Upon returning home, he created a cycle of 53 works. The success of this series made Hiroshige one of the most significant and recognized printmakers.

A. Hiroshige. 1st Station: Shinogawa

A. Hiroshige. 30th Station: Maisaka

A. Hiroshige. 32nd station: Shirasuka
IN natural beauty nature of Hiroshige attracts expressiveness.
Hiroshige's work completes the period of brilliant flowering of Japanese color woodcuts of the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries. Engraving 1850-1860 did not put forward a single major artist, stylization and eclecticism are becoming more and more pronounced in it.
In 1868, a bourgeois revolution took place in Japan, and in the 1880s it became a monarchy. These events marked the beginning of a new stage in the history of Japanese art, because. Japan entered the world system of capitalist countries. In the art of Japan of this period, numerous schools and groupings arose. Some of them took the path of mastering European art, other Japanese artists (for example, Kuroda Kiyoteri (1866-1924) left to study in Europe. But there were also those who sought to preserve the purity of national traditions.
Late 19th-early 20th century in the art of Japan was a time of revision of the old artistic tradition, the development of European art, the search for a new one, as well as its own way of development.

Applied Arts of Japan

The heyday of Japanese applied art began at the end of the 16th century. In the 19th century wood carving, bone carving, ceramics, and porcelain were widely used.
It should also be said about netsuke- miniature sculpture, a work of Japanese arts and crafts. Netsuke is a small carved key chain that was used on traditional Japanese clothing, kimono and kosode.

Netsuke depicting Hotei (the god of communication, fun and prosperity). Ivory, contemporary work
The first netsuke appeared in Japan in the second half of the 16th and early 17th centuries. From the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century. netsuke were made for export. They are still being made today. These are souvenir products produced by a conveyor method, not very High Quality. But the art of netsuke did not disappear. And today there are masters whose specialty is netsuke carving.

Netsuke with a secret

Japan is an amazing eastern country located on the islands. Another name for Japan is Country rising sun. The mild warm humid climate, mountain ranges of volcanoes and sea waters create magnificent landscapes among which young Japanese grow up, which undoubtedly leaves an imprint on the art of this small state. Here people with early years they get used to beauty, and fresh flowers, ornamental plants and small gardens with a lake are an attribute of their dwellings. Everyone is trying to organize for themselves a piece of wildlife. Like all eastern nationalities, the Japanese have retained a connection with nature, which is honored and respected throughout the centuries of the existence of their civilization.

Air humidification: the WINIX WSC-500 air washer generates fine particles of water.. Operating modes of a sink of Winix WSC-500: A sink of air "WINIX WSC-500" has a convenient automatic operating mode. At the same time, the most optimal and comfortable humidity in the room is maintained - 50-60%, and the plasma air purification and ionization mode (“Plasma Wave™”) is enabled by default.

Japanese architecture

For a long time Japan was considered a closed country, contacts were only with China and Korea. Therefore, their development took place along its own special path. Later, when various innovations began to penetrate the territory of the islands, the Japanese quickly adapted them for themselves and remade them in their own way. The Japanese architectural style is houses with massive curved roofs that allow you to protect yourself from constant heavy rains. The real work of art is imperial palaces with gardens and pavilions.

Of the places of worship found in Japan, one can distinguish wooden Shinto temples that have survived to this day, Buddhist pagodas and Buddhist temple complexes that appeared in more late period history, when Buddhism entered the country from the mainland and was declared the state religion. Wooden buildings, as you know, are not durable and vulnerable, but in Japan it is customary to recreate buildings in their original form, so even after fires they are rebuilt in the form in which they were built at one time.

Sculpture of Japan

Buddhism had a strong influence on the development of Japanese art. Many works represent the image of the Buddha, so numerous statues and sculptures of the Buddha were created in the temples. They were made of metal, wood and stone. Only some time later, craftsmen appeared who began to make secular portrait sculptures, but over time, the need for them disappeared, so more and more often, sculptural reliefs with deep carvings began to be used to decorate buildings.

Miniature netsuke sculpture is considered the national art form in Japan. Initially, such figures played the role of a keychain, which was attached to the belt. Each figurine had a hole for a string, on which the necessary items were hung, since clothes at that time did not have pockets. Netsuke figurines depicted secular characters, gods, demons or various items who had a special secret meaning, for example, a wish for family happiness. Netsuke are made of wood, ivory, ceramics or metal.

Japanese arts and crafts

The manufacture of edged weapons was elevated to the rank of art in Japan, bringing the manufacture of the samurai sword to perfection. Swords, daggers, sword frames, elements of combat ammunition served as a kind of male jewelry, denoting belonging to a class, so they were made skilled craftsmen, decorated with precious stones and carvings. Also among the folk crafts of Japan is the manufacture of ceramics, lacquerware, weaving and woodcut craftsmanship. Japanese potters paint traditional pottery with various patterns and glazes.

Japan painting

At first, Japanese painting was dominated by a monochrome type of paintings, closely intertwined with the art of calligraphy. Both were created according to the same principles. The art of making paint, ink and paper came to Japan from the mainland. In this regard, a new round of development of the art of painting began. At that time, one of the types of Japanese painting was the long horizontal scrolls of emakinomo, which depicted scenes from the life of the Buddha. Landscape painting in Japan began to develop much later, after which artists appeared who specialized in scenes from secular life, writing portraits and military scenes.

In Japan, they usually drew on folding screens, shoji, walls of houses and clothes. The screen for the Japanese is not only a functional element of the home, but also a work of art for contemplation, which determines the general mood of the room. The national kimono clothing also belongs to the objects of Japanese art, carrying a special oriental flavor. Decorative panels on gold foil using bright colors can also be attributed to the works of Japanese painting. The Japanese achieved great skill in creating ukiyo-e, the so-called woodcut. The plot of such paintings was episodes from the life of ordinary citizens, artists and geishas, ​​as well as magnificent landscapes that became the result of the development of the art of painting in Japan.