[Sample Translation]
History of Japanese Art
Lecture
at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, 1890 to 1892
Okakura
Kakuzo (Tenshin)
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This
is the end of my lecture on the history of Japanese arts. My lecture is so incomplete that you should
not be satisfied with this. If you
want a complete history of Japanese arts, you must wait for another twenty or
thirty years. It is you that are
in charge of that work.
As
I told you at the beginning, the history of Japanese arts started with the
reign of Empress Suiko. There must
have been a kind of Japanese arts before, but today we do not have surviving
works of the times for discussion.
The
1,300 years from the era of Empress Suiko to the present day can be divided
into the three major periods, or seven, fourteen or eighteen periods. However, I believe the following table
shows a complete periodization of the history of Japanese arts.
Nara
Period |
Time
around Empress Suiko |
|
Time
around Emperor Tenji |
||
Time
around the Tenpyo Era |
First |
|
Second |
||
Fujiwara
Period (Heian) |
Time
around the Konin Era |
|
Time
of the Fujiwara Family |
Time
around the Engi Era |
|
Time
of the Genji-Heike Conflicts |
||
Time
of the Kamakura Shogunate |
First |
|
Second |
||
Ashikaga
Period |
Time
of the Higashiyama Culture |
|
Time
of the Toyotomi Hideyoshi |
||
Time
of the Tokugawa Shogunate |
Time
around the Kanfei Era |
|
Time
around the Kansei Era |
The
time of the upper antiquity is called the Nara period. The middle antiquity is called the
Fujiwara period. The early modern
period is called the Ashikaga period.
Between them, there is a time called the Kamakura period, which is
related with the Fujiwara period in one aspect but shows a sign of the Ashikaga
period in another. Therefore, this
period is put between the two.
Around
the reign of Empress Suiko, as the first stage of the Nara period, Chinese arts
in the Han, Wei and early Six Dynasties were imported to this country in
addition to the arts of Japanese origin.
They developed with the Buddhist culture to form a style of art. Such sculptors as Tori Busshi and
Yamaguchi-no Oguchi Atai were artists of this period.
Around
the reign of Emperor Tenji, when the arts in the Suiko style made a progress,
there was a conflict between the south and the north in the late Six Dynasties
in China. In particular, the
Northern Dynasties of China communicated with the Central Asia, Persia and
India and imported arts from the Western Regions. They were also imported to Japan through Korea or
China. Such arts, which were
entirely different from those of the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, formed another
type of arts. The mural painting
of the Horyuji Temple is based on this style.
The
arts of the Nara period reached the prime around the Tenpyo Era. However, the extremity of the prime is
decay. Therefore, it was in the
late Tenji or the early Tenpyo that the true arts of the Nara period were
created, I believe. Around the
Tenpyo Era, the arts in the reign of Emperor Shomu were in the prime. They started to decay in the reign of
Empress Koken and fell in the reign of Emperor Konin.
The
Fujiwara period, which started with the transfer of the capital to Heian-kyo,
can be called the Heian period.
The late Tenpyo of Japan falls on the Tang Dynasty in China, but the
arts imported this time were in the style of the late Six Dynasties. The arts of typical Tang style were
formed around forty or fifty years after the death of Emperor Xuanzong. Therefore, they were imported to Japan
around the time of the monk Kukai introducing the esoteric Buddhism. Such are the arts around the Konin Era,
including the Mandala of the Jingoji Temple in Takaosan in Kyoto.
Around
the Engi Era, despite the prior influence of the Tang style, the arts became
authentically Japanese. There was
such a famous painter as Kose-no Kanaoka, whose influence remained even in the
Genji-Heike times or the Kamakura period.
Under
the inertia of the prior trends, the arts were both virile and graceful, but in
a time the artists emphasized the gracefulness, ignoring the charm of
fortitude. From such artists as
Fujiwara Motomitsu and the monk Eshin (Genshin), the gracefulness prevailed and
reached the extremity in the works by Fujiwara Takayoshi or Fujiwara Takachika.
In
the early years of the Genji-Heike conflicts, the virile elements of the
Japanese arts had a chance to arise.
There was a monk painter named Toba Sojo (Kakuyu), who was a predecessor
of Tokiwa Mitsunaga and Keion.
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The
Kamakura period was divided into two.
In the first period, there were lots of reconstructions of Buddhist
temples, which were destroyed through the battles of the Genji and the Heike
and other disasters. This brought
a great chance to artists, including the sculptor Unkei, and such master
painters as Tokiwa Mitsunaga, Keion and Fujiwara Nobuzane. The second period was a time of
decline.
In
the Ashikaga period, there were black-and-white aquarelles [Sumi-e] created for
the first time. Previously in the second
period of Kamakura, some Chinese monks came to Japan from China under the Song
or Yuan Dynasties to bring a seed of that art. Works by such Sumi-e artists as Tensho Shubun and Li Xiuwen
(Ri Shubun) were so popular among the Japanese and followed by the famous
artists such as Sesshu, Sesson or Kano Masanobu, who formed the time of the
Higashiyama Culture, the prime time of the Ashikaga period.
In
the time Toyotomi ruled Japan, the nation was finally reunited after the long
time of provincial wars. Powerful
lords of samurai built a lot of mansions.
Arts were influenced by foreign arts through the invasion to Korea by
Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Such movements
resulted in a luxurious and magnificent style of art, which broke the tradition
of the Ashikaga style. Kano Eitoku
and Kano Sanraku represent this period.
In
the time of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the Japanese arts returned to the style of
the Higashiyama period. Around the
Kanfei Era, Kano Koi and Kano Tanyu created their own style. The school led by Ogata Korin brought a
revolutionary change to the Tosa School.
The school of Hanabusa Iccho made an innovative change of the style of
the Kano School. In a time, however,
such revolutions went to the extreme, resulting in the abuses and reactions in
the time around the Kansei Era.
Around
the Kansei Era, influenced by Chinese study, which was very popular at that
time, and by the rising of the realist school, the art of the Kano School began
to change. That was the dawn of
the situation we see today.
Those
are descriptions of the vicissitudes of the Japanese arts. To conclude this, as lessons to be
learned for the future, I am going to point out several issues.
Firstly, we must note that the intense spirituality and
the valuing of ideas are the basis of the rising of arts; while, on the
contrary, the mere pursuits of forms will necessarily result in decadence.
Arts
flourished in the early Nara period when they had a spirit, but decayed when
satisfied with it and wishing for forms.
Arts in the era of Konin pursued for the spirit. Such attitude, then in harmony with
forms, led them to the prime in the Engi Era, but in the years of conflicts
between the Genji and the Heike the arts decayed in pursuit of forms. In the Kamakura period, the keen spirit
of the Engi School led their arts to the prime, but they already decayed in the
second period when their forms were completed. Also in Higashiyama period, like Shubun or Josetsu, their
spirit was so keen though their forms were not complete. In the time of Kano Motonobu and Soami,
their arts reached the Higashiyama style or the Muqi Fachang style, showing
signs of decline. Under the rule
of Tokugawa Shogunate, Kano Tanyu, the greatest master of the time, had a wish
to synthesize the arts of Higashiyama period. Even he was no match for Sesshu, but was mimicked by his
descendants, resulting in worsening of decay. Maruyama Okyo was talented enough to be a good match for
Tanyu. When the followers learned
his way, his school also declined.
The present situation is that the exquisiteness of the Kano School has
been dead for a hundred years while the Shijo-Maruyama School is just breathing
feebly.
The
rises and falls of the Japanese arts are illustrated in the previous
table. Arts rise when the
prevailing spirit is strong and keen.
They fall when they pursue forms and are bound by them. Through all the historical periods, you
can say the arts of Japan reached the summits in Tenpyo, Engi, Kamakura and
Higashiyama periods. In the
periods in between, excellent art works were really scarce. Once reaching the peak, suddenly the
arts fell. As for the sculptural
arts, they reached the top in Tenpyo period. Works by Jocho were second to them. Those by Unkei were next.
Secondly, arts follow their lineage for development and
leave their lineage when falling.
Arts
are not isolated. The forms of the
arts that make an epoch cannot be without their predecessors. Japanese arts, which had been
developing from the time of Empress Suiko to that of Emperor Tenji, completed
around the Tenpyo Era, but such completion was not done by the Tenpyo masters
alone. The basis of the prime was
already made by somebody in the previous times. Giving other examples, it is like the monk Kukai as a
predecessor to Kose-no Kanaoka; the monk Toba Sojo (Kakuyu) as a predecessor to
Tokiwa Mitsunaga or Sumiyoshi Keinin (Keion); Li Xiuwen (Shubun) and Tensho
Shubun as predecessors to the monk Sesshu; Kano Motonobu (Kohogen) as a
predecessor to Kano Eitoku. As you
see the case of Kano Tanyu, who followed Kano Koi, or the case of Maruyama
Okyo, who followed Watanabe Shiko and Ishida Yutei, no artist can be a great
master if he is isolated. It was
not unreasonable that Soga Shohaku, who stood aloof from any lineage, did not
have a great influence over the society of that time. It is really like that. You cannot expect anything to be completed in a time. Try to follow the lineage of your ideas
so that yours will be able to make a step toward completeness. When you stop such efforts once, then
forms prevail over ideas, resulting in decline of arts. In study of the history of arts,
therefore, I believe it is more important to study the predecessors than the
great masters who followed them.
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