Week XIV
Week XIV

TRADITIONAL JAPAN: LATER PAINTING (Momoyama and Tokugawa Periods)

Key Works:

  • Himeji Castle
  • Sotatsu, "Waves at Matsushima" (La Plante, Figure 26.10, Colorplate 17)

    HISTORY:

    TERMS:

    PAINTING SCHOOLS:

    TIME LINE: (late 16th to early 17th century)


    *Family names of painters are given first, given names follow. Artists are often known by their given names.

    NOTES: How did painting schools differ prior to and after political isolation? Why?

    SEVENTEENTH CENTURY JAPANESE ART

    The highly decorative mode of painting that flourished in the seventeenth century in Japan characterizes native Japanese taste. Painting was executed on large-scale surfaces: sliding door panels (fusuma) or folding screens (byobu)--usually in pairs. The style is characterized by the use of bold colors with gold leaf and by the use of stylized motifs do the houses of royalty, the aristocracy, and commoners. The most popular themes demonstrate a revival of the basic Japanese concerns with the natura l world and with people and their activities such as genre themes as horse races, theatrical performances, bathhouse prostitutes, and even Westerners.
    The pair of byobu represented here is by Sotatsu (active c. 1600-40) are called the ³Matsushima Screens² because they are thought by some scholars to depict Matsushima, one of the sankai, or three most beautiful landscapes in Japan. The bay near Sen dai, far to the north of Kyoto, is dotted with small pine-capped islands. Other scholars argue that these byobu are not specific and only represent exceptionally beautiful views of landscape. Still others argue that because the islands in the pictures r esemble rocky configurations along the shore near Ise, these byobu illustrate a poem from The Tales of Ise that deals with the feelings of a man, who banished from the capital, gazes at the agitated surf and white-capped water as he crosses a beach. Beca use the twelfth-century illustrators of The Tale of Genji used natural elements to reflect human emotions, there is historical precedent for this interpretation. Whatever the subject, there is no question that the artist Œs vision has distorted reality, as is evident in painting where gold clouds turn into rocky shores where pine trees cling and grow.
    One of the favorite books of Imperial Prince Toshihito (1579-1629) was The Tale of Genji (see Week XIII: Part 1), and many of the details of the Imperial Villa he commissioned at Katsura (see Week XIII: Part 2), southwest of Kyoto, were inspired by the tenth-century nov el. The last palace built by the novelıs main character, Genji, was called Katsura, and it too was located along the Katsura River. As described in the novel, it was subdued and relatively unostentatious. It contained a large lake with several artifici al islands, a rustic fishing pavilion, and a lodge next to the racetrack for the games that were held there in conjunction with the festivals a the Kamo shrine in Kyoto. Toshihitoıs new royal seventeenth-century residence consisted of a main shoin (large residence) with a bamboo-floored moon-viewing platform, a smaller shoin, and a music room placed in the garden, all set out in accordance with descriptions in The Tale of Genji.
    One of the imperial familyıs important symbolic roles was to maintain traditional Japanese culture, which was accomplished at Katsura villa by retaining native choices in design and in decorative style. Traditional Japanese aesthetic expression is r ecalled in all elements of the house--the use of natural wood structural members, irregular and asymmetrical planning of room sizes and their positions, sliding paper doors as illustrated in The Tale of Genji manuscripts (see Week XIII: Part 1 ) and in the abrupt contra sts of textures in the rocks, plants, water, and dry areas of the gardens.
    At other villas of the period, the rank of the individuals, so important in samurai culture of this period, was emphasized through different floor levels or by the placement of connotative images in the tokonoma, the shallow, recessed platform where paintings and flower arrangements or objects of value were placed. Because Katsura Villa was designed for the imperial family as a place where they could put aside issues of class in a relaxed atmosphere, there are no such provisions for emphasizing rank . This less formal character is consistent with The Tale of Genji.
    Seventeenth-century art in Japan was dominated by a spirit of reflection and a return to established traditions. The standard set by the nobility focused on the art of tea and on such classics of Japanese literature as The Tale of Genji and The Tale s of Ise. Japanese aristocrats were expected to know The Tales of Ise by heart. The Katsura Villa and the screens by Sotatsu are characterized by the self-assuredness and return to historical precedent so important in this period of political stability and economic prosperity.

    From: Linduff, K.M., "Seventeenth Century Japan," in Art Past/Art Present, by D. Wilkins, B. Schultz, and K. Linduff, New York: Abrams, 2000, 4th ed.