Nihonga
Encyclopedia
or literally "Japan
ese-style paintings" is a term used to describe painting
s that have been made in accordance with traditional Japanese artistic conventions, techniques and materials. While based on traditions over a thousand years old, the term was coined in the Meiji period
of the Imperial Japan
, to distinguish such works from Western-style paintings, or .
(Japanese paper) or eginu (silk
), using brushes. The paintings can be either monochrome or polychrome. If monochrome, typically sumi
(Chinese ink) made from soot
mixed with a glue from fishbone or animal hide is used. If polychrome, the pigment
s are derived from natural ingredients: mineral
s, shells, coral
s, and even semi-precious stone
s like malachite
, azurite
and cinnabar
. The raw materials are powdered into 16 gradations from fine to sandy grain textures. A hide glue solution, called nikawa, is used as a binder for these powdered pigments. In both cases, water is used; hence nihonga is actually a water-based medium
. Gofun (powdered calcium carbonate
that is made from cured oyster
, clam
or scallop
shells) is an important material used in nihonga. Different kinds of gofun are utilized as a ground, for under-painting, and as a fine white top color.
Initially, nihonga were produced for hanging scrolls (kakemono
), hand scrolls (emakimono
) or folding screens (byōbu
). However, most are now produced on paper stretched onto wood panels, suitable for framing. Nihonga paintings do not need to be put under glass. They are archival for thousands of years.
and layering of pigments are used to provide contrasting effects, and even more occasionally, gold
or silver
leaf may also be incorporated into the painting.
, Tomioka Tessai
, and art critic
s Okakura Tenshin and Ernest Fenollosa
who attempted to combat Meiji Japan's
infatuation with Western culture by emphasizing to the Japanese the importance and beauty of native Japanese traditional arts. These two men played important roles in developing the curricula at major art schools, and actively encouraged and patronized artists.
Nihonga was not simply a continuation of older painting traditions. In comparison with Yamato-e
the range of subjects was broadened. Moreover, stylistic and technical elements from several traditional schools, such as the Kano-ha
, Rinpa
and Maruyama Okyo
were blended together. The distinctions that had existed among schools in the Edo period
were minimized.
However, in many cases Nihonga artists also adopted realistic Western painting techniques, such as perspective
and shading. Because of this tendency to synthesize, although Nihonga form a distinct category within the Japanese annual Nitten
exhibitions, in recent years, it has become increasingly difficult to draw a distinct separation in either techniques or materials between Nihonga and Yōga.
, the Canadian artist
Miyuki Tanobe
, American artists Makoto Fujimura
and Judith Kruger.http://www.judithkruger.com/Asset.asp?AssetID=12577&AKey=ABQTA3L7, and Indian artist, Madhu Jain.http://www.madhujain.com.
Yiching Chen http://yiching.free.fr/, Taiwanese artist, teaches nihonga in workshops in Paris.
Judith Kruger has taught the course "Nihonga: Then and Now" at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and at the Savannah, Georgia Department of Cultural Affairs.
Contemporary Nihonga has been the mainstay of New York's Dillon Gallery [www.dillongallery.com]. Key artists from the "golden age of post war Nihonga" from 1985-1993 based at Tokyo University of the Arts have produced global artists whose training in Nihonga has served as a foundation. Takashi Murakami
, Hiroshi Senju
, Norihiko Saito, Chen Wenguang, Keizaburo Okamura and Makoto Fujimura
are the leading artists exhibiting globally, all coming out of the distinguished Doctorate level curriculum at Tokyo University of the Arts. Most of these artists are represented by Dillon Gallery.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese-style paintings" is a term used to describe painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
s that have been made in accordance with traditional Japanese artistic conventions, techniques and materials. While based on traditions over a thousand years old, the term was coined in the Meiji period
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
of the Imperial Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
, to distinguish such works from Western-style paintings, or .
Materials
Nihonga are typically executed on washiWashi
is a type of paper made in Japan. Washi is commonly made using fibers from the bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub , or the paper mulberry, but also can be made using bamboo, hemp, rice, and wheat...
(Japanese paper) or eginu (silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
), using brushes. The paintings can be either monochrome or polychrome. If monochrome, typically sumi
Inkstick
Inksticks are a type of solid ink used traditionally in several East Asian cultures for calligraphy and brush painting. Inksticks are made mainly of soot and animal glue, sometimes with incense or medicinal scents added...
(Chinese ink) made from soot
Soot
Soot is a general term that refers to impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of a hydrocarbon. It is more properly restricted to the product of the gas-phase combustion process but is commonly extended to include the residual pyrolyzed fuel particles such as cenospheres,...
mixed with a glue from fishbone or animal hide is used. If polychrome, the pigment
Pigment
A pigment is a material that changes the color of reflected or transmitted light as the result of wavelength-selective absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which a material emits light.Many materials selectively absorb...
s are derived from natural ingredients: mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
s, shells, coral
Coral
Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...
s, and even semi-precious stone
Gemstone
A gemstone or gem is a piece of mineral, which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments...
s like malachite
Malachite
Malachite is a copper carbonate mineral, with the formula Cu2CO32. This green-colored mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses. Individual crystals are rare but do occur as slender to acicular prisms...
, azurite
Azurite
Azurite is a soft, deep blue copper mineral produced by weathering of copper ore deposits. It is also known as Chessylite after the type locality at Chessy-les-Mines near Lyon, France...
and cinnabar
Cinnabar
Cinnabar or cinnabarite , is the common ore of mercury.-Word origin:The name comes from κινναβαρι , a Greek word most likely applied by Theophrastus to several distinct substances...
. The raw materials are powdered into 16 gradations from fine to sandy grain textures. A hide glue solution, called nikawa, is used as a binder for these powdered pigments. In both cases, water is used; hence nihonga is actually a water-based medium
Watercolor painting
Watercolor or watercolour , also aquarelle from French, is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle...
. Gofun (powdered calcium carbonate
Calcium carbonate
Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the formula CaCO3. It is a common substance found in rocks in all parts of the world, and is the main component of shells of marine organisms, snails, coal balls, pearls, and eggshells. Calcium carbonate is the active ingredient in agricultural lime,...
that is made from cured oyster
Oyster
The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified....
, clam
Clam
The word "clam" can be applied to freshwater mussels, and other freshwater bivalves, as well as marine bivalves.In the United States, "clam" can be used in several different ways: one, as a general term covering all bivalve molluscs...
or scallop
Scallop
A scallop is a marine bivalve mollusk of the family Pectinidae. Scallops are a cosmopolitan family, found in all of the world's oceans. Many scallops are highly prized as a food source...
shells) is an important material used in nihonga. Different kinds of gofun are utilized as a ground, for under-painting, and as a fine white top color.
Initially, nihonga were produced for hanging scrolls (kakemono
Kakemono
A , more commonly referred to as a , is a Japanese scroll painting or calligraphy mounted usually with silk fabric edges on a flexible backing, so that it can be rolled for storage....
), hand scrolls (emakimono
Emakimono
, often simply called , is a horizontal, illustrated narrative form created during the 11th to 16th centuries in Japan. Emakimono combines both text and pictures, and is drawn, painted, or stamped on a handscroll...
) or folding screens (byōbu
Byobu
are Japanese folding screens made from several joined panels bearing decorative painting and calligraphy, used to separate interiors and enclose private spaces, among other uses.- History :...
). However, most are now produced on paper stretched onto wood panels, suitable for framing. Nihonga paintings do not need to be put under glass. They are archival for thousands of years.
Techniques
In monochrome Nihonga, the technique depends on the modulation of ink tones from darker through lighter to obtain a variety of shadings from near white, through grey tones to black and occasionally into greenish tones to represent trees, water, mountains or foliage. In polychrome Nihonga, great emphasis is placed on the presence or absence of outlines; typically outlines are not used for depictions of birds or plants. Occasionally, washesWash (painting)
thumb|Example of a wash drawing by [[R. G. Skerrett]].A wash is a painting technique in which a paint brush that is very wet with solvent and holds a small paint load is applied to a wet or dry support such as paper or primed or raw canvas. The result is a smooth and uniform area that ideally lacks...
and layering of pigments are used to provide contrasting effects, and even more occasionally, gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
or silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
leaf may also be incorporated into the painting.
Development
The impetus for reinvigorating traditional painting by developing a more modern Japanese style came largely from many artist/educators, which included; Shiokawa Bunrin, Kōno BaireiKōno Bairei
was a Japanese painter, book illustrator and art teacher. He was born and lived in Kyoto. He was a member of the Ukiyo-e school, and was a master of kacho-e painting in the Meiji period of Japan....
, Tomioka Tessai
Tomioka Tessai
was the pseudonym for a painter and calligrapher in Meiji period Japan. He is regarded as the last major artist in the Bunjinga tradition and one of the first major artists of the Nihonga style. His real name was Tomioka Yusuke, which he later changed to Tomioka Hyakuren.-Early life:Tessai was born...
, and art critic
Art critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
s Okakura Tenshin and Ernest Fenollosa
Ernest Fenollosa
Ernest Francisco Fenollosa was an American professor of philosophy and political economy at Tokyo Imperial University...
who attempted to combat Meiji Japan's
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
infatuation with Western culture by emphasizing to the Japanese the importance and beauty of native Japanese traditional arts. These two men played important roles in developing the curricula at major art schools, and actively encouraged and patronized artists.
Nihonga was not simply a continuation of older painting traditions. In comparison with Yamato-e
Yamato-e
Yamato-e is a style of Japanese painting inspired by Tang Dynasty paintings and developed in the late Heian period. It is considered the classical Japanese style...
the range of subjects was broadened. Moreover, stylistic and technical elements from several traditional schools, such as the Kano-ha
Kano school
The ' is one of the most famous schools of Japanese painting. The Kanō school of painting was the dominant style of painting until the Meiji period.It was founded by Kanō Masanobu , a contemporary of Sesshū and student of Shūbun...
, Rinpa
Rimpa school
, is one of the major historical schools of Japanese painting. It was created in 17th century Kyoto by Hon'ami Kōetsu and Tawaraya Sōtatsu...
and Maruyama Okyo
Maruyama Okyo
, born Maruyama Masataka, was a Japanese artist active in the late 18th century. He moved to Kyoto, during which he studied artworks from Chinese, Japanese and Western sources. A personal style of Western naturalism mixed with Eastern decorative design emerged, and Ōkyo founded the Maruyama school...
were blended together. The distinctions that had existed among schools in the Edo period
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
were minimized.
However, in many cases Nihonga artists also adopted realistic Western painting techniques, such as perspective
Perspective (graphical)
Perspective in the graphic arts, such as drawing, is an approximate representation, on a flat surface , of an image as it is seen by the eye...
and shading. Because of this tendency to synthesize, although Nihonga form a distinct category within the Japanese annual Nitten
Japan Art Academy
is the highest ranking artistic organization in Japan. The Academy discusses art-related issues, advises the Minister of Education on art-related issues, and promotes art is the highest ranking artistic organization in Japan. The Academy discusses art-related issues, advises the Minister of...
exhibitions, in recent years, it has become increasingly difficult to draw a distinct separation in either techniques or materials between Nihonga and Yōga.
Nihonga outside Japan
Nihonga has a following around the world; notable Nihonga artists who are not based in Japan are Hiroshi SenjuHiroshi Senju
Hiroshi Senju is a Japanese painter known for his large scale waterfall paintings. These waterfall paintings often focus at the base of the waterfall where the falls crash into the pool below, usually cropping out the top of the falls...
, the Canadian artist
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
Miyuki Tanobe
Miyuki Tanobe
Miyuki Tanobe, CM, OQ is a Canadian painter.Miyuki Tanobe was born in 1937 in Morioka, Japan. She was named Miyuki, which means “deep snow”, for there was a violent snowstorm raging on the day she was born....
, American artists Makoto Fujimura
Makoto Fujimura
Makoto Fujimura is a 21st Century Contemporary Artist. He graduated with a B.A. from Bucknell University, then studied in a traditional Japanese painting doctorate program for several years at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music with several notable artists such as Takashi Murakami...
and Judith Kruger.http://www.judithkruger.com/Asset.asp?AssetID=12577&AKey=ABQTA3L7, and Indian artist, Madhu Jain.http://www.madhujain.com.
Yiching Chen http://yiching.free.fr/, Taiwanese artist, teaches nihonga in workshops in Paris.
Judith Kruger has taught the course "Nihonga: Then and Now" at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and at the Savannah, Georgia Department of Cultural Affairs.
Contemporary Nihonga has been the mainstay of New York's Dillon Gallery [www.dillongallery.com]. Key artists from the "golden age of post war Nihonga" from 1985-1993 based at Tokyo University of the Arts have produced global artists whose training in Nihonga has served as a foundation. Takashi Murakami
Takashi Murakami
is an internationally prolific contemporary Japanese artist. He works in fine arts media—such as painting and sculpture—as well as what is conventionally considered commercial media —fashion, merchandise, and animation— and is known for blurring the line between high and low art...
, Hiroshi Senju
Hiroshi Senju
Hiroshi Senju is a Japanese painter known for his large scale waterfall paintings. These waterfall paintings often focus at the base of the waterfall where the falls crash into the pool below, usually cropping out the top of the falls...
, Norihiko Saito, Chen Wenguang, Keizaburo Okamura and Makoto Fujimura
Makoto Fujimura
Makoto Fujimura is a 21st Century Contemporary Artist. He graduated with a B.A. from Bucknell University, then studied in a traditional Japanese painting doctorate program for several years at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music with several notable artists such as Takashi Murakami...
are the leading artists exhibiting globally, all coming out of the distinguished Doctorate level curriculum at Tokyo University of the Arts. Most of these artists are represented by Dillon Gallery.