Modern Japanese Painting Techniques

This book makes it easy to create and admire wonderful Japanese-style paintings and portraits! Modern Japanese-style paintings are recognizable by their restrained use of three-dimensionality and perspective, reliance upon expressive lines, and the bold use of color to direct the viewer's eye. There are other ways that artists imbue their work with Japanese- inspired attributes, including through the skillful use of shape, texture, and facial expression. Author Shinichi Fukui introduces readers to 7 notable modern Japanese artists (Kazuo Kawakami, Chiaki Takasugi, Miho Tanaka, Ryohei Nishiyama, Jose Franky, Ryohei Murata, and Keiji Yano) who specialize in shin hanga-style portraiture of Japanese women. He then presents instructions to create 21 different original paintings--from sketching models, preparing and mixing paints, blocking in color, and rendering fine details. Using these techniques, and a bit of acrylic paint, readers will be able to create eye-catching works of art that express a timeless Japanese aesthetic.

Introduction. Nihonga and the historical inscription of the modern -- Exhibitions and the making of modern Japanese painting -- In search of images -- The painter and his audiences -- Decadence and the emergence of Nihonga style -- Naturalizing the double reading -- Transmission and the historicity of Nihonga -- Conclusion

The Western discovery of Japanese paintings at nineteenth-century world’s fairs and export shops catapulted Japanese art to new levels of international popularity. With that popularity, however, came criticism, as Western writers began to lament a perceived end to pure Japanese art and a rise in westernized cultural hybrids. The Japanese response: nihonga, a traditional style of painting that reframed existing techniques to distinguish them from Western artistic conventions. Making Modern Japanese-Style Painting explores the visual characteristics and social functions of nihonga and traces its relationship to the past, its viewers, and emerging notions of the modern Japanese state. Chelsea Foxwell sheds light on interlinked trends in Japanese nationalist discourse, government art policy, American and European commentary on Japanese art, and the demands of export. The seminal artist Kano Hogai (1828–88) is one telling example: originally a painter for the shogun, his art eventually evolved into novel, eerie images meant to satisfy both Japanese and Western audiences. Rather than simply absorbing Western approaches, nihonga as practiced by Hogai and others broke with pre-Meiji painting even as it worked to neutralize the rupture. By arguing that fundamental changes to audience expectations led to the emergence of nihonga—a traditional interpretation of Japanese art for a contemporary, international market—Making Modern Japanese-Style Painting offers a fresh look at an important aspect of Japan’s development into a modern nation.

This is the first monograph in English to address the art and philosophy of a group of painters regarded as seminal figures in the development of modern Japanese painting. Lead by the outspoken and widely published art critic Okakura Tenshin, a group of mostly Tokyo-based painters took on nothing less than the modernization of traditional Japanese painting. The painters who looked to Okakura Tenshin as their leader saw themselves not just as artists but as servants of the nation. Their task, they believed, was to give expression to the vitality of Meiji Japan while also helping to shape public opinion at home and abroad. Thus, they chose themes purposefully redolent with what they identified as Japanese cultural values; they experimented with painting techniques based on tradition yet revitalized through innovation. This book details how these artists came to this mission, as well as their training, their philosophical objectives, and their works.

This is an insightful and intelligent re-thinking of Japanese art history & its Western influences. This broad-ranging and profoundly influential analysis describes how Western art institutions and vocabulary were transplanted to Japan in the late nineteenth century. In the 1870-80s, artists and government administrators in Japan encountered the Western 'system of the arts' for the first time. Under pressure to exhibit and sell its artistic products abroad, Japan's new Meiji government came face-to-face with the need to create European-style art schools and museums - and even to establish Japanese words for art, painting, artist, and sculpture. "Modern Japanese Art" is a full re-conceptualization of the field of Japanese art history, exposing the politics through which the words, categories, and values that structure our understanding of the field came to be while revealing the historicity of Western and non-Western art history.

The Way of the Brush: Painting Techniques of China and Japan examines the technique, style, traditions, and methods of Chinese ink painting and how they were interpreted in Japanese art. Illustrated with over 250 images and packed with instructions, The Way of the Brush covers every aspect of brush painting, from brushstrokes, composition and the painting surface to meaning, perspective and artistic philosophy. Part One is a study of the techniques of Chinese painting and explains the elements, techniques and principles which eventually carried over into Japanese painting. Part Two is devoted to technical challenges and basic problems associated with the art, including the issue of fakes and forgeries of Chinese art in Japan. Also included are three appendices and a full bibliography.

This book is an introduction the Japanese history, culture, and society from 1185 - the beginning of the Kamakura period - through the end of the Edo period in 1868.