Fujiwara Paintings

Nakamura Hiroshi was a reportage painter in Japan, Nakamura became deeply involved in depicting the protests against US military bases in the mid 1950's. Nakamura sketches the US military base in Tachikawa near in Tokyo which becomes the basis of a large-scale oil painting titled the Sunagawa #5.

Introduced by a mission from Korea in 552 C.E., Buddhism has long been a central theme in Japanese artwork. Since the king of Paekche, a kingdom in the South East of the Korean peninsula, first gave the Japanese emperor a bronze Buddha statue, the Buddhist art forms that were periodically introduced from China and Korea were tempered in the crucible of local custom and usage, to yield a rich tradition of religious art.

Man Ray like many other artists did not care to have his personal life shown in his art. He wanted to be viewed and recognized for his work which included sculptures, paintings, and photography. Man Ray was mostly influenced by Stieglitz's photographs. Man Ray used a similar style to Stieglitz. He captured images that created an unvarnished look at the photos' subject. Man Ray discovered a new way to create his photos; by accident in his work room he discovered how to manipulate objects in his photos on pieces of photosensitive paper.

Descent of Amida and the Twenty-Five Bodhisattvas is a hanging scroll from the Kamakura period in 13th century demonstrating Amida Buddha and 25 bodhisattvas swiftly descending over the mountains into a village. The artist used real gold paint and small slivers of gold to create patterns to add radiance to the people descending from the mountain. That usage of gold in art work is known as Kirikane and it is one of the great achievements of early Japanese Buddhist. The gold really stands out from the rest of the landscape because it is all dark colors. The symbolic meaning of this hanging scroll is that Amida would come down from the heavens to the home of a dying person in hopes of having their soul escorted into paradise. I like this painting

First party of my gallery starts from the first picture of the English-French war until the Gruerica painting all slanted towards the right. This section portrays the evil acts committed by humans on humans because of money, power and stupidity which can include racism to really all the other reasons. The purpose of this part of the gallery is to always have in mind all the heinous actions done upon us because of stupid notion so we can learn from it and never to make it again. More importantly to understand we are all one. The reason for the paintings and the photograph being slanted is to think as each one of us one domino so if one falls we fall.

First, let’s talk about Ise Jingu situated in Japan. It is the largest Shinto shrine located in the city of Ise. Millions of people make their pilgrimage to this shrine for either tourism or religious purposes. It holds a lot of both spiritual and historical value of Japan. Spiritually as the shrine was made in light of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu Omikami, and the traditional progenitor of the imperial Japanese family, later another God Toyaku Okami being another sacred being, being worshipped. (Pletcher) The architectural design of the shrine consists of many rows of buildings but the most distinct are two large huts, being the inner (Naiku) and outer shrine (Geku). (Pletcher) Naiku was first constructed, which had the Goddess of Amaterasu, later Geku with the intention of worshipping Toyaku Okami, the god of food and benevolence. (Pletcher) The shrine is surrounded by a thick forest, which the buildings were made from. Using the essence of nature, or “ke”, the priests and priestesses used the surrounding trees as the buildings blocks of the shrine, as the trees had much devotion and spirituality of the Japanese people.

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,

Confucianism and Daoism were two ancient religions that influenced traditional Chinese ink painting and calligraphy’s style, creation, and design. The Chinese worship their ancestors and came up with the idea of Confucianism similar to the idea of the Egyptian pharaohs whom believed in the afterlife. With great respect for tradition, innovation is not important; thereby painters often produced old artwork of an older master whom they admired. This reveals the concept of Confucianism: respect the past. For example, the painting Whispering Pines on a Mountain Path by Fan Kuan is showing both the idea of Daoistic Yin and Yang, and the Confucianistic idea of respect for the past. This Chinese landscape painting is an imaginative creation intended

Mu-Qi’s ink painting Six Persimmons and the Inca sculpture, Silver Representation of a Maize Plant both depict food which reflects their society’s cultural and religious values. Mu-Qi’s painting of the six persimmons reflects the importance of meditation and the Zen Buddhism value of living a simple life. The simple arrangement of the six fruit on the lower half of the page creates a large amount of negative space. The negative space and the simplicity of the six fruit painted in the crisp ink allude to the values of the Zen Buddhists. The ink is skillfully used, free of mistakes which alludes to the idea of perfecting oneself through meditation and self reflection. The depictions of the Persimmons are important to the artwork because they

Daiitoku myôô, the Wisdom King of Great Awe-inspiring Power was created in the eleventh century. This painting is illustrated on silk and is mounted to a frame. The artist is unknown for this painting; like many works of this time period. Thus, it may have been a commissioned piece. The work was probably used mainly in religious practice and would have been hung inside a temple or outside the entrance. Daiitoku myôô is a guardian figure and would have been displayed to help ward off evil spirits. It would have also been used to help protect Buddhist followers and protect the religion as a whole. He is thought to frighten all non-believers of Buddhism into believing what the religion preaches.

The origin of Ikebana can be traced back to the sixth century during the Asuka period of Japan, when Buddhism was introduced to the Japanese (Stalker, 2017). The inspiration of Ikebana was from the Buddhist worship ritual of offering flowers to the spirits of the dead. The development of Ikebana was evolved from arranging flowers for the Buddhist altar as part of religious rituals (TwWiki, 2017), to becoming one of the most distinctive Japanese cultural art expressions. These researching suggested the practice of Ikebana is a combination of two Japanese primary religious belief system, Buddhism and Shito, where both beliefs have close relationships with nature, furthermore, the main feature defining Shito is Kami, the spirits that perceived in the natural world, these beliefs echo how Ikebana using living flora materials to characterize the living.

Rooves in first century China were in a spire-like form called chatra, and they resembled the stages of enlightenment that Buddha achieved under the Bodhi tree. Relating the Kao gong ji and the walls from which the Buddhists reside in, several buildings have specialized walkways for meditation because of the significance of worship in their culture. The cardinal directions are prominent in the architecture when looking at the White Horse Temple; the temples main entrance follows the principled regulation of buildings by having the main gate face south, causing the building to be painted red in accordance with the south. When looking atop The White Horse Temple, the square and spire-like rooves are clear indicators of the symbolism the architects were attempting to convey; Buddha’s stages of enlightenment until finally reaching the top. Therefore, first century China used elements such as structure, cardinal directions, and the various stages of enlightenment to display their religion into their

Portrait of an Arhat (Rakan) was created in Edo period of the Japanese art culture. This period started in 1615-1868 when culture expression started to really blossom for the Japanese culture (Singer). From statues, lavish paintings, and religion the art speaks vibrant vibrations. This culturally diverse period gets its name from the city of Edo, known as Tokyo modern day. Which became the headquarters of the government when Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542 – 1616) unified the country (Department of Asian Art). The Tokugawa regime was started in 1603, when the emperor, in “recognition of Ieyasu’s supremacy on the battlefield”, appointed him shogun. Shogun is the highest military position you can carry in Japan (Singer). After this Japan had strict laws on not using motor vehicles were put into place. Going into the 1630s, contact with the outside world was stopped through “official prohibition of foreigners” (Department of Asian Art). Around 1720 Edo had a population of “more than one million residents having more population than London or Paris at the time” (Singer). According to Art of Edo Japan Kyoto, was city of temples and shrines. It was the leading center of arts and crafts production with a population of close to 400,000 (Singer).

This Paper will be an analysis of the development of Japanese landscape painting, analyzing the historical context behind these paintings and what led to the changes in style. Both of these paintings are representative of their specific culture during this rapidly changing time and these changes will be discussed in relation to the artwork. I am going to be discussing Japanese landscape painting, the outside influences shaping Japanese landscape painting but also focusing on the internal elements of Japanese culture shaping the style of artworks. The changing techniques and styles as well as the changing political climate will all be looked at.

Ikebana is a form of Japanese flower arrangement, which is closely related to Japanese’s religion and nature. It is different from other countries’ flower arrangements. Ikebana has different purposes and effects. Ikebana is not just a flower arrangement but also a spiritual concept about the harmony of Heaven, Earth, and Man. Furthermore, it is also an art that appreciates the beauty of nature. This paper will discuss how Ikebana represents a Japanese culture. It is based on the principle of Ikebana, the impact on architecture, and the impact on Japanese also how Ikebana supports harmony in life, which is the important concept in Japanese culture. Nonetheless, it will also discuss the functions of Ikebana in Modern Japan.