What is the artistic culture of Japan? How did its development take place? We will answer these and other questions in the article. Japanese culture was formed as a result of a historical movement that began when the Japanese moved from the mainland to the archipelago and civilization of the Jomon period was born.
The current enlightenment of this people is 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 the 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 XIX 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 Japanese national character is the ability to admire the current beauty of the Universe, which is expressed in many types of arts of a small country.
The artistic culture of Japan was created under the influence of Buddhism, Shintoism and Confucianism. The same directions influenced its further development.
Ancient times
Agree, the art culture of Japan is magnificent. Shintoism is rooted in ancient times. Buddhism, although it appeared before our era, began to spread only from the fifth century. Heyan time (8-12th centuries) is considered the golden era of Japanese statehood. At the same time, 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 poem called haiku (hoku). In this country, the art of calligraphy is also very developed, which, according to legend, arose from the heavenly divine images. It was they who breathed life into writing, so the population is sensitive to every sign in the spelling.
It is rumored that it was the hieroglyphs who presented the Japanese culture, since from them appeared the images surrounding the traced. A little later, a strong combination of elements of painting and a poem in one work began to be observed.
If you study the Japanese scroll, you will find that the work contains two kinds of characters. These are signs of writing - prints, poems, kolofen, and also picturesque. At the same time, Kabuki Theater gained great popularity. A different kind of theater - But - is mainly preferred by military personnel. Samurai of Japan, their severity and cruelty had a strong influence on But.
Painting
The artistic culture of medieval Japan has been studied by many experts. A huge role in its formation was played by the painting kaiga, which in Japanese means a drawing or a picture. 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 defines the sacred principle. The division of murals 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 were commonly used in the design of literary works.
A little later, in the 17th century, the country appeared printing on tablets - ukiyo-e. Masters depicted landscapes, geishas, famous actors of the Kabuki theater. This type of painting in the 18th century had a strong influence on European art. The emerging trend was called "Japaneseism." In the Middle Ages, the culture of Japan went beyond the borders of the country - they began to use it in the design of stylish and fashionable interiors around the world.
Calligraphy
Ah, how beautiful the art 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 (the “way of notifications”). Calligraphy, like writing, is a compulsory discipline in Japanese schools . 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 are developing them.
Sculpture
How did Japanese culture come about? We will study the development and types of this area of human life as much as possible. Sculpture is the oldest type of art in Japan. In ancient times, the people of this country made idol figures and utensils from ceramics. Then people began to establish statues of a hanib created from burnt 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 the statue of Amitabha Buddha, made of wood, located in the Zenko-ji temple.
The sculptures were very often made of bars, but they looked very rich: the craftsmen covered them with varnish, gold and bright colors.
Origami
Do you like the art culture of Japan? Comprehension of harmony with nature will bring an unforgettable experience. A characteristic feature of Japanese culture was the amazing origami products (“folded paper”). This skill owes its origin to China, where, in fact, parchment was invented.
First, “folded paper” was used in religious rites. This art could only study the upper class. But after the Second World War, origami left the dignitaries of nobles and found its admirers throughout the Earth.
Ikebana
Everyone should know what is the artistic culture of the countries of the East. Japan has invested a lot of work in its development. Another component of the culture of this amazing country is ikebana ("fresh flowers", "new life of flowers"). The Japanese are fans of aesthetics and simplicity. It is these two qualities that are invested in the works. Refinement 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.
Thumbnails
Probably, many have already realized that the artistic culture of ancient China and Japan is closely intertwined. And what is a bonsai? This Japanese unique ability to cultivate an almost exact miniature copy of a real tree.
In Japan, the manufacture of netsuke is also common - small sculptures, which are a kind of keychain. Often such figures in this capacity were attached to the clothes of the Japanese, who had no pockets. They not only decorated her, but also served as a distinctive counterweight. Trinkets were made in the form of a key, a pouch, a wicker basket.
History of painting
The art culture of ancient Japan is of interest to many people. Painting in this country originated in the period of the Japanese Paleolithic and developed in this way:
- Yamato period. At the time of Asuka and Kofun (IV-VII centuries), simultaneously with the introduction of hieroglyphs, the creation of a state regime on the Chinese model and the popularization of Buddhism, many works of art were brought to Japan from China. After that, in the Land of the Rising Sun, paintings in the Chinese style began to be reproduced.
- 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, in the Nara era, the contribution to the development of sculpture and art was greater than in painting. Early paintings from this series include paintings on the interior walls of the Horyu-ji Temple in Nara Prefecture, telling about the life of Shakyamuni Buddha.
- The Age of Heian. In Japanese painting, starting from the 10th century, the Yamato-e trend is highlighted, as we wrote above. Such paintings are horizontal scrolls illustrated by books.
- The era of Muromachi. In the XIV century, the style of soup-e (monochrome monochrome) appeared, and in the first half of the XVII century. artists began to print engravings on tablets - ukiyo-e.
- The painting of the Azuti-Momoyama era is in sharp contrast to the painting of the Muromachi period. It has a polychrome style with widespread use of silver and gold foil. 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 aristocracy.
- The era of Meiji. From the second half of the 19th century, art was divided into competing traditional and European styles. During the Meiji era, Japan underwent great social and political changes in the process of modernization and Europeanization organized by the authorities. Young promising artists were sent abroad for study, and foreign painters came to Japan to create school art programs. Be that as it may, after the initial surge of curiosity in the artistic style of the West, the pendulum swung in the opposite direction, and the Japanese traditional style was revived. In 1880, the customs of Western art were banned at official exhibitions and were sharply criticized.
Poetry
The art culture of ancient Japan is still being studied. Its feature is versatility, some synthetics, since it was formed under the influence of different religions. It is known that Japanese classical poetry emerged from everyday life, acted inside it, and its earthliness to some extent was preserved in the traditional forms of the current poem - the three-hundredth haiku and the five-hundredth tank, which are distinguished by a pronounced mass character. By the way, it is this quality that distinguishes them from the "free verse" gravitating to 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 played a special role in the society of this country. One of the most famous genres is hoku, you can understand it only by familiarizing yourself with its history.
He first appeared in the Heian era, was similar to the style of rang, which was a kind of outlet for poets who wanted to take a break from the thoughtful verses of Waha. Haikai turned into an independent genre in the 16th century, as the ranga became too serious, and haiku relied on spoken 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-stanza 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 following scheme is applied in the tank: the first stanza represents a specific natural image, and the second reflects the feeling of a person in common with this image:
- In the remote wilderness
Pheasant long-tailed snoozing -
This long, long night
Can I sleep alone? ( Kakinomoto no Hitovaro, beginning of the 8th century, translation of Sanovich .)
Japanese dramaturgy
Many argue that the artistic culture of China and Japan is fascinating. Do you like stage art? The traditional dramaturgy of the Land of the Rising Sun is divided into joruri (puppet theater), dramaturgy of the No theater (kyogen and yokyoku), Kabuki theater and shingeki. The customs of this art have five basic theatrical genres: kyogen, but, bugaku, kabuki and bunraku. All these five traditions are available today. Despite the enormous differences, they are connected by general aesthetic principles that found Japanese art. By the way, the dramaturgy of Japan originated on the stage of No.
The Kabuki Theater appeared in the 17th century and reached its climax by the end of the 18th. The form of representations that has developed over the indicated period is preserved on modern stages of Kabuki. The performances of this theater, in contrast to the scenes of No, focused on a narrow circle of fans of ancient art, are designed for the mass audience. The roots of Kabuki skills originate from the ideas of comedians - performers of small farces, scenes that consisted of dancing and singing. The theatrical mastery of Kabuki absorbed the elements of dzeruri and No.
The appearance of the Kabuki theater is associated with the name of an employee of the Buddhist shrine O-Kuni in Kyoto (1603). O-Kuni performed on the stage with religious dances, which included movements of folk dances of Nembutsu-odori. Her performances were interspersed with comic plays. At this stage, the productions were called yujo-kabuki (Kabuki courtesans), O-Kuni-kabuki or onna-kabuki (ladies' Kabuki).
Engravings
In the last century, Europeans, and then the Russians, through engraving, were faced with the phenomenon of Japanese art. Meanwhile, in the Land of the Rising Sun, drawing on a tree at first was not considered a skill at all, although it had all the properties of mass culture — cheapness, accessibility, circulation. Connoisseurs of ukiyo-e were able to achieve the highest clarity and simplicity both in the embodiment of plots and in their choice.
Ukiyo-e was a special art school, so she was able to nominate a number of outstanding masters. So, the name of Hisikawa Moronobu (1618-1694) is associated with the initial phase of the development of plot engravings. In the middle of the 18th century, the first expert on multicolor engraving by Suzuki Harunobu 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 the refined ancient art of the Heian era, the ukiyo-e virtuosos revived in the renewed urban environment an extraordinary cult of the subtle beauty of a woman.
The only difference was that instead of the Heyan proud aristocrats, engraved geishas from the entertainment districts of Edo were depicted on engravings. The artist Utamaro (1753-1806) is perhaps a unique example in the history of painting of a professional who has completely devoted his work to portraying women in various poses and toilets, in various life circumstances. One of his best works is the engraving "Geisha Osama", which is stored in Moscow, at the A. 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 painting in Japan. And what is anime (Japanese animation)? It differs from other animation genres in a greater mood for an adult viewer. There is a duplicate dividing into styles for a single target audience. The measure of crushing is gender, age or psychological portrait of the cinema viewer. Very often, the anime is a film adaptation of the Japanese manga comic book, which has also gained great fame.
The base 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 geographically close to us, but despite this, for a long time it remained incomprehensible and inaccessible to the whole world. Today we know a lot about this country. Long voluntary isolation has led to the fact that its culture is completely different from the cultures of other states.