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*''Japanese'': 日本画 ''(Nihonga)''
''Nihonga'' (lit. "Japan pictures" or "Japanese painting") is a term applied broadly to Japanese paintings of the [[Meiji period]] and onwards which employ traditional media and techniques. Also called "neo-traditional" painting, ''Nihonga'' emerged around the 1880s as a reaction against the prominence of ''[[yoga|yôga]]'' (Western-style oil painting) and the decline of traditional modes of painting. The style has been described as "modernist," and combines elements of the style and techniques of [[Rinpa]], [[Kano school|Kanô school]], [[Tosa school]], ''[[ukiyo-e]]'', [[literati painting]], and other traditional painting schools with elements of Western technique and style including perspective, shading and modeling, attention to light sources and shadow, and a degree of realism or naturalism, in compositions which most often feature traditional subjects or themes. Works are done not in oils, acrylics, pencil, charcoal, or other Western media, but in ink and colors on paper or silk, on hanging scrolls, handscrolls, folding screens, or other traditional formats. Gold and silver foil, mica, and other such materials employed by Rinpa, Kanô, and ''ukiyo-e'' artists are also sometimes used.
Galleries in Japan, artists' groups, and painters themselves continue to apply the term ''Nihonga'' to works produced today, and indeed ''Nihonga'' painters today continue to be commissioned to create works for traditional contexts. For example, the temples of [[Kennin-ji]] and [[Kencho-ji|Kenchô-ji]] employed painter Koizumi Junsaku to create dragon paintings for their ceilings in 2000-2002.<ref>Takahashi Tomoko. "[http://www.i-sys.info/serial/interview/14/interview14.html Interview]. Webmagazine i-sys (アイシス). 14 January 2005. (Translation by [[User:LordAmeth]] available [http://chaari.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/koizumi-junsaku-interview/ here].)</ref> The period from roughly the 1880s to 1930s, however, can be discussed as the real core period of the development of ''Nihonga'', with the question of what constitutes ''Nihonga'' in the post-war period becoming much more contested and debatable, as many artists begin to experiment and to deviate further from either traditional themes and subjects or traditional media and techniques.
==History==
===Origins===
''Nihonga'' emerged out of a reaction against movements to fully embrace Western painting styles and techniques as part of the surge towards modernity, discarding traditional Japanese painting as non-modern, as backwards and as being "of the past." A group called the [[Ryuchikai|Ryûchikai]], or "Dragon Pond Society," had been formed in [[1878]] by officials involved in Japan's participation in [[international expositions]] to promote the production of the type of works highly valued by Westerners, so as to enhance Japan's prestige and acceptance as a "modern" nation-state and equal member of the international community.
[[Ernest Fenollosa]], who had come to Japan in 1878, along with his former student [[Okakura Kakuzo|Okakura Kakuzô]], founded the ''[[Kangakai]]'' ("Painting Appreciation Society") in [[1884]] after presenting a highly critical speech to the Ryûchikai two years earlier. The pair, along with a number of artists and others who constituted this Society, worked to combat the shift to Western modes of art, and to promote an appreciation of the beauty of the traditional arts, and the value of Japan maintaining or creating its own distinctive national tradition of painting, rather than simply emulating that of the West.
To be clear, it was certainly not the case that schools of traditional painting had died out or stopped entirely at this time, or that Kanô, Rinpa, Tosa, ''ukiyo-e'', and literati painters had put down their brushes to pick up Western-style brushes for oils. All of these schools, and others, continued, to varying degrees in Tokyo, Kyoto, and elsewhere, but most were in sharp decline. Fenollosa did not regard ''ukiyo-e'' or certain other styles particularly highly, but was strongly interested in [[Buddhist art]] and in Kanô school painting, and worked with [[Kano Hogai|Kanô Hôgai]] to create a new national form of Japanese painting, which would incorporate Western techniques such as shading and modeling of forms, light and shadow, and linear perspective, and would focus on inherently Japanese themes which might appeal throughout the country. He focused especially on Buddhist imagery, believing this to be something which was innately Japanese and meaningful throughout Japan. Hôgai's "Kannon as Merciful Mother" (1883) and "Fudô Myôô" (1887) are two examples of this style envisioned and championed by Fenollosa.
Fenollosa and Okakura founded the ''[[Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko|Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkô]]'' (Tokyo School of Fine Arts) in [[1889]], the first art school in Japan dedicated to teaching traditional painting styles and methods. This represented a dramatic change from the traditional studio system of art education, in which artists studied closely and intensively under a single master, and in which schools or styles were strictly separate. Traditionally one might study under a particular Kanô artist in his personal atelier, becoming inserted into his lineage of teachers and disciples, and being dismissed from his tutelage if one began to practice under a master of, for example, ''ukiyo-e'' or the Tosa school. Here, elements of all of these schools of painting<ref>Initially the school did not teach literati painting, but this, as well as Western modes of painting would later be added to the curriculum.</ref> - in ink and mineral pigments on paper or silk - were combined into a single new "school" or style of painting, called ''Nihonga'', and classes more closely resembled the Western mode of art education; students studied under a number of different teachers, and learned more directly and more quickly (rather than merely learning by observation, only progressing to copying, and then much later to producing one's own original compositions after lengthy periods). Many of the most prominent Tokyo ''Nihonga'' painters of the time, including Kanô Hôgai, [[Hashimoto Gaho|Hashimoto Gahô]], and [[Yokoyama Taikan]], taught at the school at one time or another.
Fenollosa left Japan for the United States in [[1890]], and Okakura took over as director of the school for a number of years. However, he soon came to face opposition from certain factions within the school, and from the [[Ministry of Education]], and was forced to resign in [[1898]], forming the ''[[Nihon Bijutsu-in]]'' (Japan Art Institute) along with a number of artists (painting teachers) who followed him in resigning.
Most of the most prominent ''Nihonga'' artists traveled, studied, and showed abroad. To name just a few examples, Kanô Hôgai's "Kannon as Merciful Mother" was shown at the Paris Salon in 1883, and Yokoyama Taikan and [[Hishida Shunso|Hishida Shunsô]] traveled to India in [[1903]] and to Europe and the US afterward, while [[Shimomura Kanzan]] studied in England, funded by the Ministry of Education.
Some famous paintings of this period include the hanging scroll landscape "White Clouds, Red Leaves" (1890) by Hashimoto Gahô and "Fallen Leaves" (1909) by Hishida Shunsô, a pair of two-panel folding screens (''[[byobu|byôbu]]''), both of which display traditional themes in traditional formats in traditional media, with a combination of new, Western techniques and stylistic elements with those taken from the Kanô, Rinpa, and other schools. Yokoyama Taikan's "Floating Lights" (1909), a hanging scroll painting in mineral pigments on silk, employs traditional ''[[bijinga]]'' conventions to depict a scene in India, featuring Indian women in Indian garments (albeit with very pale faces and Japanese-looking features).
Taikan also at this time, significantly, built upon a mode or style developed by Hishida Shunsô known as ''[[morotai|môrôtai]]'' (murky, or muddy, style), in which outline is dispensed with entirely; many of the works for which Taikan is most famous dispense with form entirely, not to depict purely abstractions, but employing fields of color, blending into one another (or fading into the unpainted background) to depict waves, mist, clouds, or the like.
===The Second Generation: 1910s-1930s===
After Okakura's death in 1913, Yokoyama, Shimomura, and a number of other artists took over as the leaders of the movement in Tokyo, revitalizing the ''Nihon Bijutsu-in'' and organizing, briefly, annual juried exhibitions known as the [[Inten]].
[[Yasuda Yukihiko]], along with [[Imamura Shiko|Imamura Shikô]] and a number of others, meanwhile, founded a group known as the [[Kojikai|Kôjikai]]<!--紅児会--> sometime in the first decade of the 1900s, which, along with the ''Nihon Bijutsu-in'', with which there was little or no rivalry, served as the focus of the movement for a time. [[Maeda Seison]] and [[Kobayashi Kokei]], who joined this society in 1907 and 1901, respectively, represent two other particularly prominent members of this second generation of ''Nihonga'' painters.
''Nihonga'' paintings of this period, as of the previous period, vary widely in their subjects, and to a great extent in their style as well. While one of Imamura Shikô's more famous works depicts scenes in the tropics (based on a trip to India in 1914) on a handscroll in a lighter palette and a style resembling literati painting more closely than anything else, works such as "[[Byodoin|Amidadô]]" (1915) by Kobayashi Kokei and "[[Minamoto no Yoritomo|Yoritomo]] in a Cave" (1929) by Maeda Seison employed bold colors to depict historical scenes and sites.
This period saw a great boom of interest among the painters (and more widely) in historical fashions, ancient treasures, and the like. Many artists traveling in the West, or in Kyoto and Nara, studied great treasures of the past, including profoundly famous and art historically significant Chinese works, and Japanese works which had been inaccessible either because of their location overseas, or secreted away in temples, shrines, or other private collections. One example of a famous work studied and copied by ''Nihonga'' artists at this time is the so-called "Admonitions Scroll" attributed to Gu Kaizhi (c. 344 - c. 406), acquired by the British Museum in 1903, which Kobayashi Kokei and Maeda Seison studied and copied on a trip to London in 1922. Works such as Maeda Seison's "Yoritomo in a Cave" and "Falling Flowers"<!--落花--> (1904) by [[Kikuchi Keigetsu]]<ref>Szostak, John. "[http://szostak-nihonga-research.blogspot.com/ Kikuchi Keigetsu 菊池契月 "Falling Flowers" 落花, 1904]." Nihonga Research (blog). 28 September 2010.</ref> reveal extensive familiarity with the details of armor and other military accouterments of the time of the [[Genpei War]] (1180s).
===Kyoto Nihonga===
Though Yokoyama Taikan, Hishida Shunsô, [[Yasuda Yukihiko]], and [[Imamura Shiko]], among others, spent time in Kyoto and [[Nara]], teaching, painting, and studying ancient and historical treasures, Kyoto had vibrant and active neo-traditional movements of its own, more directly linked to the continuation, or transformation, of lineages of painters trained in the [[Maruyama school|Maruyama]] and [[Shijo school|Shijô schools]]. As a result, the line between ''Nihonga'' and what came before is more blurred as it applies to Kyoto painters, many of whom are included among ''ukiyo-e'' artists (e.g. [[Kawanabe Kyosai|Kawanabe Kyôsai]]) or literati painters (e.g. [[Tomioka Tessai]]) in accounts of Edo period art, and also sometimes described as ''Nihonga'' artists. Similarly, literati painting in and around Kyoto is considered in some accounts to have continued straight into the 20th century; an exhibition entitled "Literati Modern" organized by the Honolulu Academy of the Arts included a great many artists who are commonly labeled as ''Nihonga'' artists.<ref>Berry, Paul and Michiyo Morioka (eds.) ''Literati Modern: Bunjinga from Late Edo to Twentieth-Century Japan''. Honolulu: Honolulu Academy of Arts, 2008.</ref>
A leading figure in the emergence of ''Nihonga'' in Kyoto was [[Takeuchi Seiho|Takeuchi Seihô]], who studied under Maruyama-Shijô painter [[Kono Bairei|Kôno Bairei]] and who is perhaps best known for his "Moon Over Venice" (1904), which is done, of course, entirely in traditional materials and format (ink on paper hanging scroll), but in rather Western styles, the work resembling to a great extent depictions of the same site by the English painter J.M.W. Turner.
[[Uemura Shoen|Uemura Shôen]], the first woman to receive the Order of Cultural Merit, and a student of Seihô's, was hardly the only prominent woman ''Nihonga'' artist active in Kyoto at this time; though very few, if any, women artists are cited as being prominent in Tokyo ''Nihonga'', Kyoto-based women ''Nihonga'' painters were fairly numerous and prominent. Nevertheless, Shôen has been described as "Japan's most notable female painter of the pre-World War II period,"<ref>Mason. p369.</ref> and is known (as are most female ''Nihonga'' artists) primarily for her ''bijinga''.
==References==
*Conant, Ellen (ed.). ''Nihonga: Transcending the Past''. The Saint Louis Art Museum, 1995.
*Mason, Penelope. ''History of Japanese Art''. Second Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. pp363-370.
<references/>
[[Category:Art and Architecture]]
[[Category:Meiji Period]]
''Nihonga'' (lit. "Japan pictures" or "Japanese painting") is a term applied broadly to Japanese paintings of the [[Meiji period]] and onwards which employ traditional media and techniques. Also called "neo-traditional" painting, ''Nihonga'' emerged around the 1880s as a reaction against the prominence of ''[[yoga|yôga]]'' (Western-style oil painting) and the decline of traditional modes of painting. The style has been described as "modernist," and combines elements of the style and techniques of [[Rinpa]], [[Kano school|Kanô school]], [[Tosa school]], ''[[ukiyo-e]]'', [[literati painting]], and other traditional painting schools with elements of Western technique and style including perspective, shading and modeling, attention to light sources and shadow, and a degree of realism or naturalism, in compositions which most often feature traditional subjects or themes. Works are done not in oils, acrylics, pencil, charcoal, or other Western media, but in ink and colors on paper or silk, on hanging scrolls, handscrolls, folding screens, or other traditional formats. Gold and silver foil, mica, and other such materials employed by Rinpa, Kanô, and ''ukiyo-e'' artists are also sometimes used.
Galleries in Japan, artists' groups, and painters themselves continue to apply the term ''Nihonga'' to works produced today, and indeed ''Nihonga'' painters today continue to be commissioned to create works for traditional contexts. For example, the temples of [[Kennin-ji]] and [[Kencho-ji|Kenchô-ji]] employed painter Koizumi Junsaku to create dragon paintings for their ceilings in 2000-2002.<ref>Takahashi Tomoko. "[http://www.i-sys.info/serial/interview/14/interview14.html Interview]. Webmagazine i-sys (アイシス). 14 January 2005. (Translation by [[User:LordAmeth]] available [http://chaari.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/koizumi-junsaku-interview/ here].)</ref> The period from roughly the 1880s to 1930s, however, can be discussed as the real core period of the development of ''Nihonga'', with the question of what constitutes ''Nihonga'' in the post-war period becoming much more contested and debatable, as many artists begin to experiment and to deviate further from either traditional themes and subjects or traditional media and techniques.
==History==
===Origins===
''Nihonga'' emerged out of a reaction against movements to fully embrace Western painting styles and techniques as part of the surge towards modernity, discarding traditional Japanese painting as non-modern, as backwards and as being "of the past." A group called the [[Ryuchikai|Ryûchikai]], or "Dragon Pond Society," had been formed in [[1878]] by officials involved in Japan's participation in [[international expositions]] to promote the production of the type of works highly valued by Westerners, so as to enhance Japan's prestige and acceptance as a "modern" nation-state and equal member of the international community.
[[Ernest Fenollosa]], who had come to Japan in 1878, along with his former student [[Okakura Kakuzo|Okakura Kakuzô]], founded the ''[[Kangakai]]'' ("Painting Appreciation Society") in [[1884]] after presenting a highly critical speech to the Ryûchikai two years earlier. The pair, along with a number of artists and others who constituted this Society, worked to combat the shift to Western modes of art, and to promote an appreciation of the beauty of the traditional arts, and the value of Japan maintaining or creating its own distinctive national tradition of painting, rather than simply emulating that of the West.
To be clear, it was certainly not the case that schools of traditional painting had died out or stopped entirely at this time, or that Kanô, Rinpa, Tosa, ''ukiyo-e'', and literati painters had put down their brushes to pick up Western-style brushes for oils. All of these schools, and others, continued, to varying degrees in Tokyo, Kyoto, and elsewhere, but most were in sharp decline. Fenollosa did not regard ''ukiyo-e'' or certain other styles particularly highly, but was strongly interested in [[Buddhist art]] and in Kanô school painting, and worked with [[Kano Hogai|Kanô Hôgai]] to create a new national form of Japanese painting, which would incorporate Western techniques such as shading and modeling of forms, light and shadow, and linear perspective, and would focus on inherently Japanese themes which might appeal throughout the country. He focused especially on Buddhist imagery, believing this to be something which was innately Japanese and meaningful throughout Japan. Hôgai's "Kannon as Merciful Mother" (1883) and "Fudô Myôô" (1887) are two examples of this style envisioned and championed by Fenollosa.
Fenollosa and Okakura founded the ''[[Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko|Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkô]]'' (Tokyo School of Fine Arts) in [[1889]], the first art school in Japan dedicated to teaching traditional painting styles and methods. This represented a dramatic change from the traditional studio system of art education, in which artists studied closely and intensively under a single master, and in which schools or styles were strictly separate. Traditionally one might study under a particular Kanô artist in his personal atelier, becoming inserted into his lineage of teachers and disciples, and being dismissed from his tutelage if one began to practice under a master of, for example, ''ukiyo-e'' or the Tosa school. Here, elements of all of these schools of painting<ref>Initially the school did not teach literati painting, but this, as well as Western modes of painting would later be added to the curriculum.</ref> - in ink and mineral pigments on paper or silk - were combined into a single new "school" or style of painting, called ''Nihonga'', and classes more closely resembled the Western mode of art education; students studied under a number of different teachers, and learned more directly and more quickly (rather than merely learning by observation, only progressing to copying, and then much later to producing one's own original compositions after lengthy periods). Many of the most prominent Tokyo ''Nihonga'' painters of the time, including Kanô Hôgai, [[Hashimoto Gaho|Hashimoto Gahô]], and [[Yokoyama Taikan]], taught at the school at one time or another.
Fenollosa left Japan for the United States in [[1890]], and Okakura took over as director of the school for a number of years. However, he soon came to face opposition from certain factions within the school, and from the [[Ministry of Education]], and was forced to resign in [[1898]], forming the ''[[Nihon Bijutsu-in]]'' (Japan Art Institute) along with a number of artists (painting teachers) who followed him in resigning.
Most of the most prominent ''Nihonga'' artists traveled, studied, and showed abroad. To name just a few examples, Kanô Hôgai's "Kannon as Merciful Mother" was shown at the Paris Salon in 1883, and Yokoyama Taikan and [[Hishida Shunso|Hishida Shunsô]] traveled to India in [[1903]] and to Europe and the US afterward, while [[Shimomura Kanzan]] studied in England, funded by the Ministry of Education.
Some famous paintings of this period include the hanging scroll landscape "White Clouds, Red Leaves" (1890) by Hashimoto Gahô and "Fallen Leaves" (1909) by Hishida Shunsô, a pair of two-panel folding screens (''[[byobu|byôbu]]''), both of which display traditional themes in traditional formats in traditional media, with a combination of new, Western techniques and stylistic elements with those taken from the Kanô, Rinpa, and other schools. Yokoyama Taikan's "Floating Lights" (1909), a hanging scroll painting in mineral pigments on silk, employs traditional ''[[bijinga]]'' conventions to depict a scene in India, featuring Indian women in Indian garments (albeit with very pale faces and Japanese-looking features).
Taikan also at this time, significantly, built upon a mode or style developed by Hishida Shunsô known as ''[[morotai|môrôtai]]'' (murky, or muddy, style), in which outline is dispensed with entirely; many of the works for which Taikan is most famous dispense with form entirely, not to depict purely abstractions, but employing fields of color, blending into one another (or fading into the unpainted background) to depict waves, mist, clouds, or the like.
===The Second Generation: 1910s-1930s===
After Okakura's death in 1913, Yokoyama, Shimomura, and a number of other artists took over as the leaders of the movement in Tokyo, revitalizing the ''Nihon Bijutsu-in'' and organizing, briefly, annual juried exhibitions known as the [[Inten]].
[[Yasuda Yukihiko]], along with [[Imamura Shiko|Imamura Shikô]] and a number of others, meanwhile, founded a group known as the [[Kojikai|Kôjikai]]<!--紅児会--> sometime in the first decade of the 1900s, which, along with the ''Nihon Bijutsu-in'', with which there was little or no rivalry, served as the focus of the movement for a time. [[Maeda Seison]] and [[Kobayashi Kokei]], who joined this society in 1907 and 1901, respectively, represent two other particularly prominent members of this second generation of ''Nihonga'' painters.
''Nihonga'' paintings of this period, as of the previous period, vary widely in their subjects, and to a great extent in their style as well. While one of Imamura Shikô's more famous works depicts scenes in the tropics (based on a trip to India in 1914) on a handscroll in a lighter palette and a style resembling literati painting more closely than anything else, works such as "[[Byodoin|Amidadô]]" (1915) by Kobayashi Kokei and "[[Minamoto no Yoritomo|Yoritomo]] in a Cave" (1929) by Maeda Seison employed bold colors to depict historical scenes and sites.
This period saw a great boom of interest among the painters (and more widely) in historical fashions, ancient treasures, and the like. Many artists traveling in the West, or in Kyoto and Nara, studied great treasures of the past, including profoundly famous and art historically significant Chinese works, and Japanese works which had been inaccessible either because of their location overseas, or secreted away in temples, shrines, or other private collections. One example of a famous work studied and copied by ''Nihonga'' artists at this time is the so-called "Admonitions Scroll" attributed to Gu Kaizhi (c. 344 - c. 406), acquired by the British Museum in 1903, which Kobayashi Kokei and Maeda Seison studied and copied on a trip to London in 1922. Works such as Maeda Seison's "Yoritomo in a Cave" and "Falling Flowers"<!--落花--> (1904) by [[Kikuchi Keigetsu]]<ref>Szostak, John. "[http://szostak-nihonga-research.blogspot.com/ Kikuchi Keigetsu 菊池契月 "Falling Flowers" 落花, 1904]." Nihonga Research (blog). 28 September 2010.</ref> reveal extensive familiarity with the details of armor and other military accouterments of the time of the [[Genpei War]] (1180s).
===Kyoto Nihonga===
Though Yokoyama Taikan, Hishida Shunsô, [[Yasuda Yukihiko]], and [[Imamura Shiko]], among others, spent time in Kyoto and [[Nara]], teaching, painting, and studying ancient and historical treasures, Kyoto had vibrant and active neo-traditional movements of its own, more directly linked to the continuation, or transformation, of lineages of painters trained in the [[Maruyama school|Maruyama]] and [[Shijo school|Shijô schools]]. As a result, the line between ''Nihonga'' and what came before is more blurred as it applies to Kyoto painters, many of whom are included among ''ukiyo-e'' artists (e.g. [[Kawanabe Kyosai|Kawanabe Kyôsai]]) or literati painters (e.g. [[Tomioka Tessai]]) in accounts of Edo period art, and also sometimes described as ''Nihonga'' artists. Similarly, literati painting in and around Kyoto is considered in some accounts to have continued straight into the 20th century; an exhibition entitled "Literati Modern" organized by the Honolulu Academy of the Arts included a great many artists who are commonly labeled as ''Nihonga'' artists.<ref>Berry, Paul and Michiyo Morioka (eds.) ''Literati Modern: Bunjinga from Late Edo to Twentieth-Century Japan''. Honolulu: Honolulu Academy of Arts, 2008.</ref>
A leading figure in the emergence of ''Nihonga'' in Kyoto was [[Takeuchi Seiho|Takeuchi Seihô]], who studied under Maruyama-Shijô painter [[Kono Bairei|Kôno Bairei]] and who is perhaps best known for his "Moon Over Venice" (1904), which is done, of course, entirely in traditional materials and format (ink on paper hanging scroll), but in rather Western styles, the work resembling to a great extent depictions of the same site by the English painter J.M.W. Turner.
[[Uemura Shoen|Uemura Shôen]], the first woman to receive the Order of Cultural Merit, and a student of Seihô's, was hardly the only prominent woman ''Nihonga'' artist active in Kyoto at this time; though very few, if any, women artists are cited as being prominent in Tokyo ''Nihonga'', Kyoto-based women ''Nihonga'' painters were fairly numerous and prominent. Nevertheless, Shôen has been described as "Japan's most notable female painter of the pre-World War II period,"<ref>Mason. p369.</ref> and is known (as are most female ''Nihonga'' artists) primarily for her ''bijinga''.
==References==
*Conant, Ellen (ed.). ''Nihonga: Transcending the Past''. The Saint Louis Art Museum, 1995.
*Mason, Penelope. ''History of Japanese Art''. Second Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. pp363-370.
<references/>
[[Category:Art and Architecture]]
[[Category:Meiji Period]]
