Descriptive Essay : ' The ' Essay

Yayoi Kusama states in the exhibition catalog interview that her monochromatic works helps to “express to viewers inviolable dignity and inviolable life of humankind as a mystery” (Yayoi Kusama). In her new series of prints it contain various symbols like polka dots, free lines, eyes, Kusama’s portrait, shoes, books, hearts and a single handbag; all these clearly symbolize her reflection and theme of the new series of

Wabi-Sabi is an aesthetic. A world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. (“wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi”) This notion came from the three marks of existence in Buddhism (impermanence, suffering, and emptiness or absence of self nature.) Wabi translates to simple, humble or natural. Sabi translates to tarnished, or

A very strong dynamic was the influence of Buddhism along with the ongoing and progressive refining of the philosophy behind the art known as Wabi-Sabi.  “Finding beauty in the imperfect and incomplete” is an attempt to capture this philosophy which is the silent message in much of the Japanese painting, architecture, and sculpture.  The simplistic beauty of the art together with the heart of Wabi-Sabi profoundly reflect the culture of the Japanese

The Tokugawa shogunate was a transition period in which Japan began to modernize and began trading due to the arrival of Commodore Perry. Society during this period was based on strict class hierarchy with tight restrictions for social mobility. With urbanization, came an increase reliance on markets and merchants for funds which increased the need and want for trade with the Western nations. The images displayed in chapter two show the progress of events and how the Western nation influenced Japan. It begins with images of how the Japanese viewed the world, moving on towards the arrival of Commodore Perry, to the modernization of the port cities where a lot of trade occurred, to the beheading of the domain lord by anti-foreign Japanese citizens,

The Heian period was denoted as the era of the “court aristocracy, which manifested highly reformed taste in art and literature and strongly developed customs and modes of behavior” (Hane, Pg. 61). During this period, women created some of the greatest writing throughout Japan’s history, the most sophisticated and highly desired one being poetry. While traditional Chinese poetry had great emphasis “waka, a japanese-style poem of thirty-one syllables, also gained popularity at the Heian court” (Hane, Pg. 64). These poems allowed for an outsider to get an insight of Japan’s society and culture at the time. One of the underappreciated author’s of this time was Sei Shōnagon, her most famous work being The Pillow Book. Although her work has

Wabi-sabi is an aesthetic of poverty and loneliness, imperfection and austerity, affirmation and melancholy. It is the beauty of the withered, weathered, tarnished, scarred, intimate, coarse, earthly, evanescent, tentative, ephemeral. It is a broken earthenware in contrast to a Ming vase, a branch of autumn leaves to a dozen roses, a lined and bent old woman in contrast to a model, a mature love as opposed to an infatuation, a bare wall with peeling paint in contrast to a wall hung with beautiful paintings. It is also a trap. Wabi-sabi is an ever-intensifying consciousness of the need to a lapse of consciousness, an ever-broadening elation of the ordinary in which the ordinary loses its ordinariness. It is a form of beauty that overcomes the differences of beauty and ugliness, even as it overcomes the differences of ordinary and extraordinary. The

For over 250 years, Japan was under strict military dictatorship. However, between the 1670s through 1865 was the Tokugawa period or also known as the Edo period, where Japan found internal peace and economic growth (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica). Not only has Japan found stability in the Edo period, creativity flourished from the lower class of artisans and merchants through ukiyo-e printmaking. The term, ukiyo-e, is a combination of uki (floating), yo (world), and e (pictures) that originated as a Buddhist term to express impermanence of human life. Ukiyo-e was experimented and developed to become a popular art form that displayed familiar subjects, and illustrations that circulated in books. This paper examines the influence of

Though there are other important parallels, one of the most distinctive is found in art. As in all other aspects, Japan stayed similar but unique. Likenesses and contrasts can be drawn through the observation of Seeking the Tao in the Autumn Mountains and Winter Landscape. Though they may share some aspects, the Japanese painting Winter Landscape illustrates the vast differences in the art found in the two cultures. Although “landscape painting greatly influenced his work,” the painting has the distinct stamp of Zen Buddhism (306). Overall, Japanese art is a parallel of Chinese art yet still

When I first researched the term “sabi”, the books that I read before were all written by Westeners. They described the term “sabi” as lean, withered or something that has aged well. However, the deeper I researched into the term, the more I discovered that the term also often occurs in the Manyōshū (Traditional Japanese poems); It has the connotation of desolateness (sabireru means “to become desolate”). 15th Century tea master Shukō, founder of one of the first ever schools of tea ceremony affirmed the importance of the term “sabi” within tea ceremonies. “The concept “sabi” carries not only the meaning “aged” - in the sense of “ripe with experience and insight” as well as infused with the patina that lends old things their beauty” - but also

In addition, Japanese paintings show off how beautiful Japan is and how culturally sound it still is to this day. Japanese art is one of the oldest and most refined of the Japanese arts ranging back to the 8th century “(Most)”. Another article states that Japanese painters hit a high demand during the 1970’s, the traditional style they used turned into the art trend of those days. Many Japanese painters were honored with many awards and prizes due to the new demand for traditional Japanese styled art “(Most)”. Lastly, many of the Japanese paintings we observe today have been around for hundreds of years. Tensho Shubon is one of the most renowned Japanese painters and his paintings have been around since the early 15th century “(10)”. Overall,

Post-war Japanese society is a world where High and Low art is blurred together by otaku, such as anime, and social class. However, Takashi Murakami straddles the line. Murakami spills a mix of Nihanga and Otaku into the canvases, plastic toys, handbags, shoes, etc; endorsing his own theory/style named “Superflat”. Using strategical subject matter such as popular Japanese comic figures combined with ukiyo-e(traditional Japanese block prints), and addressing these contrasting qualities to outside cultures; Murakami intensifies what Pop Art accomplished, art versus material. On other feelings, one could argue that “Superflat” isn’t a unique, Japan-identified style, that “Superflat” is a humiliation to the Contemporary Art world because of its commercialism. Lastly, that is a continuation of the already well developed Pop Art. On the supporting side, Murakami’s “Superflat” is a high-energy, cross-culture style that serves as a new way to represent the high and low of art that is considerably unique to Japan. To support this, Murakami’s past and present artwork will have to be established chronologically to illustrate how the timeline affects his work.

Masami Teraoka is a captivating model of the connection between the perception of tradition and an all-embracing attention in universal notions. In the 20th century, the Japanese art

In Praise of Shadows, Jun’ichiro Tanizaki discusses about traditional Japanese aesthetics in contrast to the changes occurring in architecture, drama, food, beauty and other aspects of Japanese culture in conjunction with the rush of progress; the adoption of western values. This created an unbalanced clash of two contrasting culture- the western’s bright progressive and aggressive modern technology challenging Japanese’s softer, quieter aesthetic tradition.

In china, painting, calligraphy and poetry are traditionally referred to as the “three perfections” of the cultivated scholar. The three are constructed as ethico-aestetic acts. They are usually evaluated as to their efficacy in fostering the harmonious relationship of social exchanges within the circumstances that are concrete within a particular social context. The Chinese poetic tradition believes in the existence of correlations that are fundamental and mutually implicating between the nature patterns and the human culture.

Mai Mai Sze presents a logical methodology breaking down the often-misunderstood complexity of Daoism. Sze describes tao “in the simplest sense…path” (The Way of Chinese Painting, 17). Continued, “Step-by-step progress requires care and deliberation and, by extension, careful and deliberate conduct or behavior from an inner motivation.” This journey was not something one could accomplish overnight; instead it is understood as a way of living out ones life to the fullest. This journey was not only into one’s own mind, but also into what surrounds them. Including tools, control of the medium was a necessity, just as restrain over the sensitivity of the brush was needed when writing Chinese characters. A minor error in a character could change the entire meaning of the symbol. Symbols are often associated with Chinese culture. From the calendar year to writing, Chinese symbolism is utilized significantly. One symbol often recognized by the Western world is the Yin Yang; however the meaning is often misunderstood. The theory of the Yin Yang is presented as a balance between Male Principle (sun, right) and Female Principle (moon, left). As the two converge inward, they also radiate outward reflecting the ideology of Tao itself. This development of proportion and attention to fine detail required