Japan

Japanese art although influenced by China, Korea and the western world still retains a distinctive quality of its own.

Great importance is placed on natural materials and the arts show a minimalist approach where empty space is as important as filled space.

Paintings with Buddhist themes were the earliest, these being influenced by the Chinese; however the artists developed their own style with nature and landscape as its main subjects.

Scrolls of silk and paper were the most widely used formats. Larger paintings, with rich colours and gold decorations, on screens and doors were used in houses and to decorate temples.

Zen Buddhism had a major impact on the developing style with temples setting up studios with most of the paintings being produced by monks.

The folding fan originating from this country was made from paper or silk, the smaller ones being used as accessories for the people and actors and the larger ones for decorations.

Woodblock printing began in the seventeenth century and became popular and available to all classes.

Originally the themes were mostly music, sport and theatre but after a period of time artist returned to landscape, the most famous being Hokusai’s views of Mount Fuji.

Calligraphy developed from Chinese characters to the ones now used after the Japanese began to develop their own written language.

Mostly done on paper and silk, it is also used to decorate pottery, teapots and lacquer ware. buddhist statue japan

The earliest sculpture found are clay figures from the Jomon period, are thought to be of dolls and images of gods and goddesses.

With the arrival of Buddhism the demand for sculpture grew for statues, these ranged in size from very small ivory carvings to large elaborate pieces made of wood, stone or metal.

Metal was used for usual everyday purposes, but the most recognised work was the armour and weapons used by the samurai.

Traditional performing arts fall into two categories: The Noh and Kabuki dramas derived from religious dances, use ancient language and combine ancient language, poetry, songs, music and dance.

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