The art of Japan of the Edo period is well known and very popular throughout the world. This period in the history of the country is considered the time of relative peace. Having united Japan into a centralized feudal state, the Tokugawa shogunate had indisputable control over the Mikado government (since 1603) with obligations to maintain peace, economic and political stability.
The shogunate reign lasted until 1867, after which it was forced to capitulate due to the inability to cope with pressure from Western countries to open Japan to foreign trade. During the period of self-isolation, which lasted 250 years, the ancient Japanese traditions are revived and improved in the country. In the absence of war and, accordingly, the use of their fighting abilities, daimyo (military feudal lords) and samurai focused their interests on art. In principle, this was one of the conditions of politics - an emphasis on the development of a culture that has become synonymous with power in order to divert people's attention from issues related to the war.
Daimyo competed with each other in painting and calligraphy, poetry and drama, ikebana and the tea ceremony. The art of Japan in every form was perfected, and it is perhaps difficult to name another society in world history, where it has become such an important part of everyday life. Trade with Chinese and Dutch merchants, limited only to the port of Nagasaki, stimulated the development of unique Japanese ceramics. Initially, all utensils were imported from China and Korea. In fact, it was a Japanese custom. Even when the first ceramics workshop opened in 1616, exclusively Korean craftsmen worked in it.
Towards the end of the seventeenth century, Japanese art developed in three different ways. Among the aristocrats and Kyoto intellectuals, the Heian era culture was revived, immortalized in the painting and arts and crafts of the Rimp school, the classical musical drama No (Nogaku).
In the eighteenth century, in the art and intellectual circles of Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo), the culture of Chinese writers of the Ming Empire was re-discovered, introduced by Chinese monks in Mampuku-ji, a Buddhist temple located south of Kyoto. As a result, a new style of nan-ga ("southern painting") or bujin-ga ("literary pictures") appeared.
In Edo, especially after the devastating fire in 1657, a completely new art of Japan is born, the so-called culture of the townspeople, reflected in the literature, the so-called philistine dramas for the theaters of Kabuki and dzeruri (traditional puppet theater), and engraving ukiyo-yo.
However, one of the greatest cultural achievements of the Edo era was still not paintings, but decorative and applied arts. Art objects created by Japanese artisans included ceramics and varnishes, textiles, wood masks for the No theater, fans for female actors, dolls, netsuke, samurai swords and armor, leather saddles and stirrups decorated with gold and varnish, utikake (luxurious ceremonial kimono for wives of high-class samurai, embroidered with symbolic images).
Contemporary art of Japan is represented by a wide range of artists and artisans, but it should be said that many of them continue to work in the traditional styles of the Edo era.