This document discusses the exchange of artistic styles and techniques between Japan and the West from the 15th century onwards. It notes that materials like ink and oil paints influenced where and how art was made in each culture. After 1850, with increased global exchanges, Japanese artists began traveling abroad to study Western techniques while Western artists came to Japan to teach. This led to the development of distinct Nihon-ga and Yō-ga styles of Japanese painting and the establishment of art schools. The document explores specific artists that showcased exchanges in subject matter and composition between the cultures, as well as materials like woodblock prints that influenced Impressionists. It traces how Japonisme influenced Western artists like van Gogh, Cassatt

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Website
bit.ly/japanwest

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Japan and the West: 9
Fine Arts

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'Western' Art?

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Japanese Art?

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?

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Shiba Kokan (1747-1818)

Worked mainly in Edo

Translated and wrote
works on astronomy

Produced maps
This portrait by Takahashi Yuichi.

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地球全図略説 Chikyu Zenzu Ryakusetsu

1793

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“Asukayama“ c.1800

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Landscape painting
Tenshō Shūbun 天章周文 mid-c15
Landscape of the Four Seasons

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East(s) meets West
A meeting of China,
Japan and the West
Late c.18
Shiba Kokan

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Materials and techniques

How and where you can make pictures depends
(partly) on the materials you have to work with…
− Ink, paper, silk brushes
− Oil-paints, canvas, stiff brushes

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Materials and techniques

How and where you can make pictures depends
(partly) on the materials you have to work with…
− Ink, paper, silk brushes
require a flat surface, wind is a problem!
− Oil-paints, canvas, stiff brushes
after mid c19 (paint in tubes!), development of
box easel, painting en plein air (outside)
becomes easier (natural light!)

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Artists at work...

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Seeing & showing reality
Christ entering Jerusalem
Lorenzetti, 1320

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Seeing & showing reality
Death of the Historical
Buddha (Nehan), Kamakura
period (1185–1333), 14th
century

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Perspective!

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Perspective!
Paolo Uccello: The Battle of San Romano, 1438-40

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Symbolic space
Nanban Ships c16.

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Practical 'art'

蛮 ( 蕃 ) 書調所 (1855 onwards)

“Tokugawa Institute for Barbarian Learning”

“The need to prepare fortifications against
foreign invasion brought the government to
employ artists to sketch sites and trajectories.
[TIBL] included instruction in painting as a
utilitarian discipline, related to map-making
and descriptive drawing”
Jansen, M. B. (2002). The making of modern Japan. Harvard University Press. p476-8

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K bu Daigakkoō (Technical College)

Founded 1871 by Yamao Yōzō after a 7-year stay
overseas. Aided by Henry Dyer.

1878 technical art school founded:
− Antonio Fontanesi – painting
− Vincenzo Ragusa – sculpture
− Giovanni Cappellati – architecture

Teachers and students influenced much western-
style art & architecture during early Meiji period.

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K bu Daigakkoō (Technical College)

Founded 1871 by Yamao Yōzō after a 7-year stay
overseas. Aided by Henry Dyer.

1878 technical art school founded:
− Antonio Fontanesi – painting
− Vincenzo Ragusa – sculpture
− Giovanni Cappellati – architecture

Teachers and students influenced much western-
style art & architecture during early Meiji period.

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After 1850s...

Increased exchanges of many sorts between Japan
and 'the West' (US and Europe mainly)

Increasing awareness of 'national identity' in Japan

Increased awareness of differences between Japan
and the 'the West' also, necessity of distinguishing
between the two

Nihon-ga ↔ Yō-ga 日本画 ↔ 洋画

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New Schools & Trends

'Western-style' oil-painting quickly became popular

Japanese artists began to travel abroad to study,
European artists came to Japan to teach

Followed by a reaction in support of native artistic
styles
− Formation of Ryuchi-kai in 1879, support from
Fenollosa etc.
− Creation of terms Yō-ga and Nihon-ga

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New Schools & Trends

Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908)
1882: Five features of Nihon-ga
1. Does not try to photographic veracity 写真のような写実を追わない。
2. No use of chiaroscuro (no shadows) 陰影が無い。
3. Outlines 鉤勒（こうろく、輪郭線）がある。
4. Flat colours 色調が濃厚でない。
5. Concise expression 表現が簡潔である。

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Early Meiji Y -gaō

Kawakami Togai
(1827-81)

1870: Landscape 風景

Studied western art from
books of Dutch painting

Had to make his own
brushes and 'canvas'
from paper and cloth

Suicide after accusation
of selling maps

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Early Meiji Y -gaō

Takahashi Yuichi
c1877: Salmon 鮭

Trained with Charles
Wirgman (Briton working
for Illustrated London
News)

Advocated establishment
of Japan's first 'art
museum'

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The end of “Early Meiji”
Asai Chū
Spring Furrows
1888

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Meanwhile, in Europe...
View from the Window at Le Gras (1826 or 1827), Nicéphore Niépce

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Daguerreotype
c1850
Edgar Allan Poe, 1870

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Japan Exported

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Japan Exported
Paris: “La Porte Chinoise”
1863: E. de Soye, returning
from Japan, opened a shop with
his wife at 220 rue de Rivoli
dealing in Oriental commodities.

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James McNeill Whistler

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La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine

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Variations in Flesh
Colour and Green
—The Balcony
1864-79
J.A.M. Whistler

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Japonisme!
Jeunes femmes
regardant des
objects japonais
1869
James Tissot

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Portrait of
Emile Zola
1868
Edouard Manet

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Degas
Edgar Degas, 1879, Two Ballet Dancers

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1890s
Fontanesi
browns / yani

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1890s
Kuroda Seiki
purples /
murasaki

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1894: Kamo River
Kume
Keiichiro

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What was exchanged?

Subject matter

Composition

Materials/Techniques

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Subject Matter

What are 'appropriate' or 'correct'
subject for art?

Everyday life ('realism'?)

'Nature'

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Composition

Different aesthetics regarding
arrangments in space

Japanese and 'western' ideas of
balance

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Materials/Techniques

Oil paints (variety of colour/depth)

Canvas / paper

Woodblock prints
− Use of black outline
− Areas of flat colour
− Chiaroscuro

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Vincent van Gogh
Portraits of Pere (Julien) Tanguy, 1886-7

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Plum Trees
Hiroshige, 1857 – van Gogh, 1887

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Mary Cassat (1844-1926)
Woman Bathing, 1890-1
Tea, 1880

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Henri Riviere
Thirty-Six Views of the Eiffel Tower, 1902.
Influenced by Hiroshige, Hokusai.

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Pablo Picasso
Portrait of the Art Dealer Pedro Manach
1901

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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
1864-1901

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Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968)
Café, 1949

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アッツ島玉砕 Death on Attu, 1943

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Performing Arts