Nihonga
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Nihonga (日本画 Nihonga?) or literally "Japanese-style paintings" is a term used to describe paintings that have been made in accordance with Japanese traditional artistic conventions, techniques and materials. While based on traditions over a thousand years old, the term was coined in the Meiji period, to distinguish such works from Western-style paintings, or Yōga (洋画 Yōga?).
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[edit] Materials
Nihonga are typically executed on washi (Japanese paper) or 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 pigments are derived from natural ingredients: minerals, shells, corals, and even semi-precious stones like garnets or pearls. The raw materials are powdered into 10 gradations from fine to sand grain textures. Hide glue is used as fixative for these powdered pigments. In both cases, water is used; hence Nihonga is by definition a sub-genre of watercolor painting.
Initially, Nihonga were produced for hanging scrolls (kakemono), hand scrolls (emakimono) or folding screens (byōbu). However, most are now made to be displayed in frames, similar to Western-style paintings.
[edit] 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. 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, washes 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.
[edit] Development
The impetus for reinvigorating traditional painting by developing a more modern Japanese style came largely from art critics 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.
[edit] Nihonga outside Japan
Nihonga has a following around the world; two notable Nihonga artists who are not based in Japan are the Canadian artist Miyuki Tanobe and the American artist Makoto Fujimura.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Briessen, Fritz van. The Way of the Brush: Painting Techniques of China and Japan. Tuttle (1999). ISBN: 0804831947
- Conant, Ellen P., Rimer, J. Thomas, Owyoung, Stephen. Nihonga: Transcending the Past: Japanese-Style Painting, 1868-1968. Weatherhill (1996). ISBN: 0834803631
