Japanese art: From traditional to modern

"Japan is a museum of Asian art and also more than that" said Tenshin Okakura, a pioneer and leader of Japanese art in the Meiji era.

Many Asian artistic currents have entered Japan since ancient times where they have been accumulated and well preserved until today. Newer currents constantly enter Japan as well and when interact with the older trends, they create original art forms.

Traditional art in Japan has persisted hand in hand with trends and added on in different ages. Japanese traditional art and newer introductions from outside have continuously been in conflict, confrontation, harmony and unification.

It is interesting to observe stratified or coexisting elements when studying the arts of the Asuka period in Japan which nurtured Han-Wei-Liuchao’s styles from China, the Heian period that allowed the presence of Tang Chinese elements, the Song Yuan styles during the Kamakura era or the Ming Qing arts during the Muromachi period. It finds characteristics of change, harmony and adaptation in the arts then as one does today.

Modern Japanese art easily accepted this kind of coexistence of native and foreign elements due to the introduction of unfamiliar non-Asian elements Western style art in the 19th century. It took a long time for Western and Japanese art to proceed from state of confrontation to one of harmonious coexistence. This is true not only for painting but also for sculpture, printmaking and architecture.

The trend of modern art in Japan shows that Japan first discovered Western art, then transplanted it and finally adopted. Japanese did not study Western art for aesthetic purposes instead they studied it as an industrial innovations based on rationality and scientific techniques.

However, Yuichi Takahashi felt the realism of the study of Western art and had a deeper aesthetic value appeared on the scene that believed the aesthetic value of realism was more important than its practical advantages.

Later on, an industrial art schools was constructed where Italian artist Fontanesi taught there. Chu Asai studied at this school and Seiki Kuroda followed the latter by studying under Raphael Colan in Paris. Kuroda introduced French art trends to Japan from Luminarism to Impressionism and had many influences through his teaching at the Tokyo Art School. Many artists from Kyushu area, which produced many Western style painters, are the followers of this art too. Due to the influence of Western art many Japanese artists went abroad to study painting in Western countries.

Japanese modern art did not just import foreign trends. Until 1980, the Japanese of the Meiji era rushed to catch up with the West. But, after the 1980s, Japanese began to consider how to incorporate their traditions into the arts once again.

Ernest Fenollosa and Tenshin Okakura of the Kangakai Society introduced the element of spontaneity into the arts creating a new form for the common people in the Meiji period by using the most representative art currents of the times.

Hogai Kano became a central figure in this movement and an art school was built following this movement’s percepts. Yokoyama Taikan and Shunso Hishida sprung from this movement and clearly deciphered the influence of the Kangakai Society in their paintings. Such new trends in Japanese style painting can be found in Kyoto as with the literati-style painting of the Shijo Maruyama School.

The new current of Western style painting that came in with the introduction of Western culture to Japan with the revival of traditional Japanese style painting began to coexist as two powerful forces in Japanese art of the 20th century. Thus, coexistence has become a feature of modern Japanese art.

These two currents can also be found in sculpture. Koun Takamura and Choun Yamasaki are woodcarvers who belong to the traditional school. Fumio Asakura and Morie Hagiwara belong to the Western school of plastic arts. In the field of wood block printing, Kiyochika Kobayashi made new landscape woodblock prints during the Meiji Restoration and Goyo Hashiguchi and Hiroshi Yoshida followed them.

"Bunten" was the first exhibition organised by the Ministry of Education of the Japanese government held at the end of the Meiji Era in 1907, which was a result of the many different movements that came before 1907. It was also the catalysts for many new art movements to come. Many innovative elements from Western thought, literature and art began to flood Japan at the end of the Meiji era and simultaneously Japanese artists began becoming more aware of their national identity. But, however, later they founded new art movements and groups.

During the Taisho era, the art world gave birth to more democratic movements. In between 1920s to 1930s the Nika-kai Society enthusiastically introduced movements from abroad that sprung up after Post-impressionism such as: Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism and Abstraction in Japan.

The Nika-kai Society produced off-shoot groups like the "Association of 1930" and other avant-grade groups. And Dokuritsu Bijutsu Kyokai Society was also introduced during the Showa era.

One can also find original artists such as Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Tetsugoro Yorozu, Katsuo Sakata and especially Ryuzaburo Umehara, a central figure of the Kokuga-kai Society who established a unique Japanese style oil painting combining the influences of Renoir, Sotatsu and Tessai.

While viewing the Japanese style painting, it can clearly see that the members of the Nihon Bijutsuin Society had produced modern and traditional paintings.

These new art movements were inactive during World War II. But from onwards until today, these movements have been revived and have gone hand in hand with Japan’s post-war reconstruction. These revived movements stressed Japan’s efforts at democratisation. Japanese society gradually industrialised and the economic expansion affected the field of art that flourished the exchange of international art and abstract art became very popular.

Today, graphic and experimental arts have entered the realm of the previously limited field of "Fine arts". The appearance of such new trends has also brought about avant-garde art styles in Japan that has affected the art world of the past and brought about a new phase of Japanese art.

Art is a result of technique just as a good poem is based on some kind of techniques based on traditions formed by the experience of former generations. Art develops gradually in stages and cannot suddenly jump into a new phase. Considering this, it is difficult to create art movements. But when creating new art one has to stand facing both traditional and contemporary currents, which is the greatest challenge for the artists.

Japanese art history can observe repetitions of conflict, confrontation and harmony. These reactions are the way in which the Japanese people have dealt with difficult problems. It can see these kinds of repeated reactions in Japanese art since World War II in all the Japanese paintings.

All kind of artists, whether of oil, printmaking or sculptors, have faced these problems but however, they all tried hard to solve the common problems of post-war Japanese art.

International communication has brought industrial development. And now, the time has come for the Japanese art world to enter a period of humanism and concern for the environment.

(Based on this scribe’s meeting, while on Japan visit recently, with the Director of the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, Japan, various artists and other art professionals of Japan)

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