East Asian Arts (Japan, China and Korea)

1. ARTS 8

2. Review
1. What are the elements of arts and
principles of design used in East Asian arts?
2. What are the common subjects or themes of
East Asian arts and crafts?
The elements of arts are line, shape , form,
space and texture.
The principles of design are emphasis,
harmony, proportion, rhythm and balance.
The common subjects or themes of East
Asian arts and crafts are landscape
paintings, flowers and birds, palaces and
temples, animals, human figures, gracious
plants and bamboos and stones.

3. The East Asian countries
have distinct art forms. They
have developed them to
certain heights of excellence.
Their arts have acquired
distinct characteristics
which would tell at a glance
where they originated.
Introduction

4. Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, you
will:
1. identify the characteristics of the
arts and crafts of China, Japan,
and Korea,
2. explain their similarities and
differences, and
3. manifest the East Asian Art
characteristics in one’s artwork.

5. Observe the following
pictures.
Try to identify the East Asian country that the
picture depicts. Do they portray the
characteristics of the arts and crafts of the
three East Asian countries?

6. Make a
concept map
and write
three words
that will
describe each
picture
above. Then,
answer the
question. Do
How did you come up with your
answer? What were your basis?
Developme
nt
Japan
Cherry
blossoms
flower
Great Wall
architecture
China
Human
figures costumes
Korea

7. Characteri
stics
According to Google’s dictionary,
it is a feature or quality belonging
typically to a person, place, or thing
and serving to identify it. It is also
true for the arts and crafts in East
Asia.
You can easily identify their
artworks by their distinct
characteristics.

8. The
Characteristic
s of Arts and
Crafts in
Specific
Countries in
East Asia

9. Importa
nt
Aspects
in
East
Asian
Painting
1. Landscape Painting
• It was regarded as the highest form
of Chinese painting.
• They also consider the three concepts
of their arts: Earth, Heaven and
Humankind (Yin-Yang). Chinese
society is basically agricultural. It has
always laid great stress on
understanding the pattern of nature
and living in accordance with it.
• Oriental artists often created
landscapes rather than paintings with
the human figure as subjects

10. 2. Silk. It was often
used as the medium to
paint upon, but it was
quite expensive.
Cai Lun, invented the
paper in the 1st Century
AD, it provided not only
a cheap and widespread
medium for writing, but
painting also became
more economical.
3. Ideologies. The
ideologies of Confucianism,
Daoism, and Buddhism
played important roles in
East Asian art.
Chinese art expresses the
human understanding of the
relationship between nature
and human. It is evident in
the form of painting of
landscapes, bamboo, birds,
and flowers, etc.

11. Xie He who was a writer, art
historian and critic in 5th
century China established the
the Six Principles of Chinese
Chinese Painting.
1. Observe rhythm and movements .
2. Leave spaces for the eyes to rest
3. Use brush in calligraphy
4. Use colors correctly
5. Live up to tradition by copying the master’s
artwork.
6. Copy the correct proportion of the objects and
nature.

13. X
Korean
Paintings’
History
• It dates to 108 C.E. It has first appeared as
an independent form. It is said that until the
Joseon dynasty, the primary influence of
Korean paintings were Chinese paintings.
However, Korean paintings have subjects
such as landscapes, facial features, Buddhist
topics. Also, it has an emphasis on celestial
observation in keeping with the rapid
development of Korean astronomy.

14. Mountain and
Water are
important
features in
Korean
landscape
painting.
Landscape painting
represents both a
portrayal of
nature itself and a
codified
illustration of the
human view of
nature and the
world.

16. Among the Chinese people, painting is closely related to
calligraphy.

17. Calligraphy
It is the art of beautiful handwriting
The following are its characteristics:
1. It involves the same techniques as in traditional
painting.
2. It is done with a brush dipped in black or colored ink.
3. It does not use oils.
4. It has a strong linear focus which the features are
conveyed primarily with thin, sharply-defined lines.
5. Paper and silk are its popular materials which
paintings are also made of.
6. Poets write their calligraphy on their paintings.

18. Paintings can be mounted
on scrolls, such as hanging
scrolls or hand scrolls, album
sheets, walls, lacquerware,
folding screens, and other
media
•Logographs. These (ancient
symbols) are engraved on the
shoulder bones of large
animals and on tortoise shells.

19. Logogra
phs

20. Jiaguwen. It (Chinese: “bone-and-shell script”) is pictographic
script found on oracle bones.
Cangjie. He is the legendary inventor of Chinese writing. He got
his ideas from observing animals’ footprints and birds’ claw
marks on the sand as well as other natural phenomena. He then
started to work out simple images from what he conceived as
representation of different objects such as:

21. • It is a technique for printing text,
images or patterns used widely
throughout East Asia.
• It originated in China as a method of
printing on textiles but eventually
became a method for printing on paper.
• It was a method adapted in Japan
during the Edo period (1603-1867) and
became one of their oldest and most
highly developed visual arts.
• It is most common theme in Japan for
printmaking which describes scenes
from everyday life.
• It narrates the scene and is often
packed with figures and detail.

22. • It means "pictures of the
floating world”.
• It is best known and a most
popular style of Japanese
art, which also It is related
to the style of woodblock
print making that shows
scenes of harmony and
carefree everyday living.
• It was produced in a
diversity of different media,
including painting.
• It became an art domain of
the upper classes and
royalty but later was also
produced by the common
people.

23. In your answer sheet,
identify the characteristics of
each artwork using the table
below.
Engagemen
t

24. : Explain the
similarities and
differences of the
Chinese
calligraphy,
Japanese
woodblock
printing and
Korea painting
using the given
format . Do this
activity in your

25. Direction: In a short bond paper paint a picture showing
the characteristics of East Asian arts with a short poem
written in calligraphic style of writing.
 Remember that there are different mediums you can
use to make your painting. You may select one of the
mediums below:
1. Coffee
2 .Vegetable

26. Answer the following:
1. What are the three concepts in
landscape painting?
Earth, Heaven and Humankind

27. 2. What is the most important
feature of Korean painting?
Mountain and water

28. Woodblock printing
Answer the following:
3. Which artwork narrates scenes
from everyday life packed with
figures and detail?

29. Answer the following:
4. What artform uses the same
technique as in traditional painting?
Calligraphy

30. Answer the following:
5. Who established the six
principles of Chinese painting?
Xie He

31. Assimilatio
n
In your journal notebook, complete the
following statements.

32. I learned that ____________________
I realized that ___________________
This lesson will help me
__________
Reflection / Insights: