Later Japan1334 to the Present – Part 1

Dry cascade and pools, upper garden, Saihoji temple, Kyoto, Japan, modified during the Muromachi period, 14th century.Arrangements of rock and sand on the hillsides of the garden, especially the dry cascade and pools are treasured examples of Muromachi dry landscape gardening.

Toyo Sesshu, splashed-ink landscape, Japan, Muromachi period, 1495.

One of the few painters who actually travelled to China, Sesshu was a Zen monk like many ink painting masters. The painter of a splashed-ink picture paused to visualize the image, loaded the brush with ink, and then applied primarily broad, rapid strokes, sometimes even dipping the ink on the paper. The result often hovers at the edge of legibility, without dissolving into sheer abstraction. This balance between spontaneity and a thorough knowledge of the painting tradition gave the pictures their artistic strength. Ink painting was just one of the many types of painting that flourished during the Muromachi period.

Tosa Mitsunobu, Tale of Genji, Muromachi period, early 16th c.

The two major schools that emerged during the Muromachi period were the Tosa School and the Kano School.. In this painting, Tosa Mitsunobu follows the tradition of earlier Genji illustrations by showing a continued emphasis on colorism and two-dimensional display of the narrative elements. Mitsu-nobu is the key figure of what art historians call the Tosa School.

Kano Motonobu, Zen Patriarch Xiangyen Zhixian Sweeping with a broom, Muromachi period, ca. 1513

The son of a painter and the son-in-law of Tosa Mitsunobu, Kano Motonobu established an efficient workshop -- the Kano School -- which became a virtual national academy. Here he depicts a monk experiencing the moment of enlightenment. As Xiangyen swept the ground near his near his rustic retreat , a stone struck against a stalk of bamboo. The patriarch Zen training was so deep that the resonant sound propelled him into awakening. The work shows Motonobu’s precise mode of painting in ink and light color.

Tea-ceremony water jar, or Kogan (“ancient stream bank”), Momoyama period, late 16th century

Starting around the late 15th century, admiration of the technical brilliance of Chinese objects gave way to an appreciation of the virtues of rustic Japan-ese wares. This new aesthetic of refined rusticity,or wabi, included the design of simple tea rooms and houses that evoked the hut of a recluse in the mountains (Zen). The coarse stoneware body, simple form, and casual decoration reflect this aesthetic.

Sen No Rikyu, Taian teahouse (interior), Myokian Temple,Momoyama period.

The room’s dimness and tiny size (about 6 ft.) produce a cavelike feel & force intimacy among the tea hoist and guests. The guests enter from the garden outside through a small sliding door that forces them to crawl inside. Such conditions emphasize a guest’s passage into a ceremonial space --set apart from the ordinary world -- where, in theory, all are equal.

Kano Eitoku, Chinese Lions, Japan, Momoyama period, late 16th c.

The grandson of Motonobu, Kano Eitoku was the dominant painter of such murals and screens. This painting of Chinese lions on a single six-panel screen shows the colorful beasts powerful muscled bodies, defined and flattened by broad contour lines. Lions were unknown in eastern Asia except as such stylized images derived from Buddhist iconography.

Hasegawa Tohaku, Pine Forest, Monoyama period, late 16th c.

Tohaku had close connections with Zen temples and sometimes painted in ink monochrome using loose brushwork with brilliant success. His wet brush strokes -- long and slow, short and quick, dark and pale -- present a grove of great pines shrouded in mist.

Eastern façade of Katsura Imperial Villa, Kyoto, Edo periodBuilt between 1620 and 1663, this building dates from the time of the tea ceremony’s greatest popularity. Many of the villa’s design features & tasteful subtleties derive from earlier teahouses, but it moves away from Rikyu’s wabi extremes, incorporating elements of courtly gracefulness.

Honami Koetsu, Boat Bridge, writing box, Edo period, early 17th c.

Koetsu’s writing box exhibits motifs drawn from classical poetry.

.

Ogata Korin, White Plum Blossoms, Edo Period, ca. 1710-1716Korin carried the decorative tradition of the Momoyama era into the 18th century.

Yosa Buson, Cuckoo Flying over New Verdure, Edo period, late 18th c.

Maruyama Okyo, Peacocks and Peonies, Edo period, 1776Okyo looked to a variety of east Asian styles and also to the West. His sketches of animals, insects, and plants suggest an almost Western emphasis on observation, and indeed, Western approaches to naturalistic depiction had become fairly wide known in Japan by this time. From the Dutch enclave in Nagasaki, European and Chinese books, including those with discussions and illustrations of Western pictorial art had been filtering into Japan.