JAH UNIT 5

Meiji Period

- 1868-1912 - In 1868 practical political power was restored to the emperor (Meiji). 15 years earlier, the American commodore Matthew Perry led a military/diplomatic expedition to Japan, opening the country to foreign trade. Japan began to participate in World's Fairs, curating displays of Japanese culture, often porcelain vases monumental, skilled, and intricate. - The 1870s embraced western styles and techniques in painting, known in Japanese as yōga "Western-style painting." - Other Japanese artists developed an opposite style, known as nihonga "Japanese painting." - Aligned with Euro-American post-Impressionism, artist Tomioka Tessai created his own style through a blend of influences, drawn from classical Japanese and Chinese sources. Tessai's mentor, friend, and collaborator was Otagaki Rengetsu, an artist and Buddhist nun who expressed her unique style via pottery, poetry, painting, and calligraphy. - Another unique artist was Kawanabe Kyōsai, who "translated" his experience of the drastic changes in Japan in the 19thc into caricatures. - Period furthered interplay among mediums and styles. - With new ideas about the nation-state and shifting society in the modern era, Japanese urban life was transformed - New modes of living and architectural styles that housed public institutions and homes, influenced by western concepts of domesticity. Modeled on western architecture, buildings were brick and stone instead of wood. Merging international and indigenous, an eclectic architectural style emerged, by architects like Itō Chūta, who also helped cultural preservation laws for ancient structures(temples and shrines).

Taishō Period

- 1912-1926 - continued the process of adoption/transformation of foreign models. - Japan participated in World War I and continued its colonial rule of Korea and Taiwan, from the Meiji period. - The eclectic style in architecture continued to flourish, with structures emulating modernist trends like Bauhaus and Art Deco. - The Great Kantō earthquake of 1923, not only destroyed buildings and other cultural properties, but marked a shift in Japanese society from the optimism of the Taishō period to the radicalized nationalism of subsequent decades. - the Art Deco inspired Yasuda Auditorium was built in 1925 - Nihonga continued to develop - A new style called Shin hanga developed

Kenzo Tange

- 1913-2005 - graduate of Tokyo University - Became an architect in the 1930s after seeing designs by Swiss architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965) in a Japanese magazine. - Leading post-war architect - He designed the gymnasium and swimming pool for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. They are a daring modernist blend of Japanese architecture and the latest developments in structural engineering. The roofs of the buildings are suspended from steel cables. Qualities valued in traditional Japanese architecture—flexible interiors plus integration of the building with its environment—are incorporated into a modern concrete structure. The sweeping rooflines, almost "tentlike" in appearance, simultaneously reflect Japan's vitality as a modern nation and invoke ancient Shinto shrines with their pointed finials.

Shōwa Period

- 1926-1989 - Approaching World War II, Japan saw the rise of militarism, ultra-nationalism, and increasing imperialistic ambitions, due to Japan's emulation of western colonialism. - In 1920s and 30s, Japanese poets, photographers, and painters who studied abroad, created styles in Japan that aligned with global art movements(surrealism, absurdist Dada, and futurism). - the paintings of Fukuzawa Ichirō combined surrealist imagery with political commentary; Hirai Terushichi made use of color painting and photomontage to create prints that blurred the boundary between reality and imagination. - artists were silenced in 1941 by the "thought police" that aimed to control any and all ideologies that posed a threat to the Nazi-allied Empire of Japan. - War-time painting was criticized after the war, but it is now believed apolitical paintings of the pre-war period, which romanticized subjects of "authentic" Japanese culture(Mount Fuji or bijin ("beautiful women"), can be understood as having supported the militaristic state ideology of the time. - Postwar was a period of change. From 1945 to 1952, Japan was occupied by the US, led by American General Douglas MacArthur. - From 1952 to the death of the Shōwa emperor (Hirohito) in 1989, Japan's economy redeveloped via US influence. - By 1954, the Gutai art association promoted "concrete" or "embodied" artistic expressions, pushing abstraction to its limits and foreshadowing the performance and conceptual art of the 1960s and 70s. - In later decades, the Mon-ha style/school became prominent. - The Great Kantō earthquake of 1923 and the war made scenes of destruction and contributed to memories of ruins, used as evocative subject matter by Japanese painters and photographers to this day. - Reconstruction was not only political and economic, but also literal, in the urban and architectural sense. - Modernism was adopted as the language of this reconstruction. - The architect Tange Kenzo, who worked for Maekawa Kunio, one of Le Corbusier's disciples, became one of the most consequential postwar modernists(architect and urban planner) - The Metabolist movement developed

Heisei Period

- 1989-2019 - Corresponding to the reign of emperor Akihito, the Heisei (literally, "achieving peace") was a period of peace, but witnessed economic stagnation and natural disasters. - the Heisei period saw new art museums and the adoption of new expression among Japanese artists - Explosion of popularity in Manga and Anime - Contemporary Japanese artists use a variety of mediums to express their vision or to focus on the perfection and re-invention of a medium. - Sugimoto Hiroshi has gained international acclaim for his contemplative photographs of seascapes as well as for his site-specific sculptural and architectural works. - Mariko Mori epitomizes the multidisciplinary artist, exploring her sense of identity and developing her surreal imagery through photography, video, sculpture, installation, and performance. - Many contemporary Japanese ceramists devote themselves exclusively to the materials and practices of ceramic art; and similar to artists like Murakami, they produce new works that both honor and challenge tradition. - As of May 1st, 2019, when emperor Akihito's son, Naruhito, ascended the throne, we entered a new era for Japan, namely the Reiwa (translatable to "beautiful harmony").

Photographic Portraits of the Meiji Empress, 1873 and 1886

- A diplomatic mission wanted photographic portraits of the emperor, he did NOT like being photographed - in the 1870-80s Japan wanted to prove to the West that they were not underdeveloped - dress is very important for imperial family - the empress' role changed during the Meiji period and she was urged to be put forward and attend events with the emperor as a new modern face of Japan - the earlier image is her in traditional dress, the latter is her in European dress - Symbol of modernism and enlightenment

Dumb Type

- An interdisciplinary collective of 15 members: musicians, architects, visual artists, and choreographers to computer programmers. - Under the direction of the late Teiji Furuhashi (1960-1995), Dumb Type emerged from Kyoto Art University with a desire to challenge the art world. - The name alludes to the problems of a society saturated with information but cognizant of nothing. - Dumb Type's internationally acclaimed performances mesmerize audiences with multimedia explorations of current issues. - in pH (1990-1991) Dumb Type critically examines contemporary Japanese society, the pressures of living in a high-tech environment, and consumer culture. - The stage for pH was an oblong squash court with seating perched on scaffolding above the set. The floor functioned as a stage and as a screen with images of urban life. At one point, a man lying face down on a skateboard swirled onto the stage with arms flailing. The floor had a picture of a city seen from the air. It looked like a man was in free fall. At intervals, a large computer-controlled bar the width of the entire stage swept close to the audience as it crossed from one side to the other. A second bar moved only 16 inches above the stage. Five performers, two men and three women moving within a giant photocopying machine, were forced to anticipate the movements of the truss or be knocked down. In one "scene," the actors were supermarket shopping. Suddenly, the space was overrun with battery-powered pink fuzzy piglets and the shoppers stuffed as many piglets as possible into their shopping carts before the bar came.

Frills

- Hattori Makiko - 2012 - Ceramics, one of Japan's most classic art forms is the domain of Hattori Makiko, whose wonderfully textured creations present an illusion of the senses. Covering her creations with tiny bundles of carefully shaped clay shavings, the surfaces of Hattori's ceramic sculptures are so densely packed that they require a six-month drying period.

Nihonga

- Japanese Painting - Rejected Euro-American pictorial traditions, - It broadened the traditional themes of yamato-e, with new blends of Japanese stylistic traditions like Kanō and Rinpa, and western realism. - Two artists who defined nihonga were Kanō Hōgai and Yokoyama Taikan. - Hōgai is the last great master of the Kanō school. He helped pioneer nihonga with Hashimoto Gahō, also trained in the Kanō style, and Ernest Fenollosa(American poet, art critic, professor of philosophy and curator at the Tokyo Imperial University and Imperial Museum). - Modeled on European and American universities and museums, institutions changed Japanese Cultural infrastructure. New words came into the Japanese language to translate and use foreign concepts such as "fine art" or "artist." - Thinkers like Fenollosa or Okakura Kakuzō(cultural ambassador who explained Japanese culture to elite American audiences) affected production and the reception of what constituted "Japanese art" - From Okakura's teachings on traditional Japanese culture was the nihonga painter Yokoyama Taikan. His paintings combine Japanese and western elements with unconventional techniques and symbolism. - During the Taishō period, continued to develop at the intersection of Japanese tradition, western techniques, and individual styles. The Nihonga painter Yokoyama Taikan resurrected the Nihon Bijutsuin (Japan Art Institute) after the death of its leader, the controversial but influential Okakura Kakuzō. - Fenollosa and Okakura Kakuzō (Okakura Tension) collaborated in the funding of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. Okakura was eventually invited to head the Asian art division of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in the beginning of the 1900s. Okakura students at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts were to become the leaders of the movement after he left for America

Donning Animal Skins and Braided Grass

- Konoike Tomoko- Japanese modern artist, plays with traditional and rural motifs to create surrealist sculptures and paintings, in a Japanese style. - 2011 - This work is an aluminium frame with shards of mirror creates a Japanese wolf. The species, now extinct, held a much more positive cultural role than its counterpart in Europe. It was considered a messenger of the gods, and a protector of travelers. Konoike's glittering sculpture certainly lends the creature an air of otherworldly power.

Among the Five Nations: Americans

- Kunihisna - Meiji era - 1861 - Yokohama woodblock print - intended to represent an American - woman is wearing a pineapple crown supposed to represent a Native American headdress and some of the text translates to "America" - Awkward attempt at shading

A Maiko Girl

- Kuroda Seiki - Meiji era - 1893 - oil on canvas - Yōga style - Geisha girl in training - created after his first-ever visit to the ODE capital Kyoto - In the Impressionist bright colors but his plein air realism did not follow the impressionistic emphasis on capturing the fleeting effects of light, the painting is more of a romanticization of the Yukio-e tradition of courtesan prints - Kuroda was fascinated by Geisha culture, he had a very sexist view and objectified them as did the west -

Morning Toilette

- Kuroda Seiki- went to Paris to study law but changed to Oil paintings, joined studio of French painter Rafael Colin, he was not the only Japanese painter in the studio but was most known because of his great Japanese influence, had academic(figure painting) training, style links with Impressionism. He became the department head of Western painting in Japan. - Meiji era - 1893 - oil on canvas - Yōga style - Oil painting is split into two phases (1860-70)(1890s), first is conventional and the latter is more experimental - Figure drawing was very new to Japan, drawing from live models - this is a very iconic image, painted in Paris and was a part of a prestigious salon in 1893 - he brought it with him back to Japan for an exhibition in 1895, when it was on display there was a great outrage illustrated by a French cartoonist living in Japan at the time. Outrage was due to: The painting is life size, The nude figure is a western woman, Very realistic

Mon-ha

- Late Shōwa period - exploration of materiality preoccupied artists of the mono-ha (literally "school of things"), including the Korean Lee Ufan. - Mono-ha artists created works that tested the tension between natural and manmade materials and their environment. - Mono-ha artists may have been influenced by the sociopolitical climate of distrust, protest, and counterculture that dominated the 60s and 70s.

Gutai Group

- Means "embodiment" or "concrete," - name chosen by a group of postwar artists, which included founding members Jiro Yoshihara (1905-1972) and Shozo Shimamoto (1928-2013). - They challenged preconceptions as to what constitutes art. - Formed in 1954, the group produced a range of avant-garde paintings, installations, and performances, which pre-dated many experimental developments in European and American art. - One goal was to "pursue the possibilities of pure and creative activity with great energy." - Shozo Shimamoto, at the Second Gutai Art Exhibition in 1956, created a work called Hurling Colors, by smashing bottles of paint onto canvases on the floor. - Atsuko Tanaka (1932-2005) joined the group in 1955, explored performance and the visual arts in works such as Electric Dress (1956). It was a flashing garment made of 200 lightbulbs painted in bright colors. Tanaka appeared was dynamic entity but also vulnerable, like postwar Japan. - As Japan's economy boomed, so did advertising. Tanaka's inspiration for the dress came from neon signs encouraging citizens to become avid consumers. Although her performance can be interpreted as a celebration of Japan's technological progress, it is also a dangerous fire hazard in which on risks electrocution to wear.

Women Bathing

- Ogura Yuki- a nihonga painter. She became the first female artist of the Japan Fine Arts Community in 1932. Her are stylized in the traditional sensibilities and conventions of nihonga, mostly of women. - Shōwa era - 1938 - color on silk - The style that she adopted, although traditional, can also be thought of as modern when considering the Western influence that was coming into Japan during the Meiji restoration. By using traditional Japanese standards to paint, Ogura was holding onto Japanese culture in a way that distinguished her from others. - Her paintings embody the stillness and shape of the women she painted, yet with flexibility. - In this painting Ogura went for a more direct approach of observation, allowing the tiles of the bath to be seen through the slightly moving and transparent water. - Her depiction of women, flowers, and vases over the years can be studied in detail; one can see the small slight changes of a country in flux amidst a background of carefully crafted beauty and technique.

Manga and Anime

- Rose to popularity in the Heisei period - Manga: comics and their roots harken back to medieval narrative picture scrolls. - Anime: animation, goes back to early 20c and includes the controversial use as propaganda during WWII. - In the 1990s, the anime industry grew via revivals and sequels of popular 1970s productions and new genres. - Popular domestically and internationally, - Both closely related to kawaii "cute." This culture of "cuteness" is a form of escapism from the postwar period and natural disasters. - Artists like Yoshitomo Nara and Murakami Takashi use elements from manga and anime to explore the darker side of kawaii. - Artists like Murakami Takashi refer to the culture of manga and anime in their works and to older Japanese art history. - Murakami has a personal and provocative interpretation of Edo-period "eccentric" painters. Like Andy Warhol or more recently Jeff Koons, Murakami complements his works in painting, sculpture, and installation with merchandise and publications produced by his company, Kaikai Kiki.

Yorobōshi (The Beggar Monk)

- Shimomura Kanzan- Student of Okakura. His style incorporated Japanese traditions, Connell school styles as well as Renoir and Yamato-e. he took his subjects from Japanese literature and Buddhist narratives - Taishō era - 1915 - pair of six-panel screens, color and gold leaf on paper - dramatic and strikingly modern - subject derives from a noh play of the same title in which the central figure is a blind monk falsely accused of a crime and disowned by his family. He has no home. The passage here occurs at the end of the play where the blind monk looks to the west and holding the image of the Sun in his heart. He knows that it is about to set. He is one with the natural world, deeply embedded in his heart at the distant homeland that he sees in his mind's eye the entire landscape around him. - the composition spreads across the two folding screens using a flowering plum tree set against a gold ground as a unifying motif. Among the branches is the blind monk his hands pressed together in a gesture of worship. He is a thin and pitiful figure slightly hunched over his angular face resembling a noh play mask. To the left obscured by the trunk of the plum tree a cluster of brightly colored grave markers can be seen. The branches extend horizontally onto the left screen and reach out towards the Setting Sun. - Pallet is pastel and orange red and white plum blossoms - Is imbued with modern expressionism

Sound

- Shinoda Toko- Sumi ink painter, was born in 1913 in Dalian, Manchuria. She and her family returned to Japan at an early age and she began calligraphy, eventually sumi ink. - 1990 - lithograph - Working with a monochrome color scheme but occasionally known for using strokes of bright red, Shinoda evokes ideas of abstraction and adaptation from the traditional calligraphy style. She uses the empty spaces. Murals, wall paintings, and fusuma panels are just some of her creations. - After World War II, Shinoda went on several solo trips to the U.S., Europe, and back to Japan. Influenced perhaps by the boom in Abstract Expressionism, but also tied to her calligraphy roots. In 1983 she was likened to Picasso in TIME magazine. Although the recipient of many awards, Shinoda has stayed away from accepting them. She is still working today(near 107).

Tan Tan Bo Puking- a.k.a. Gero Tan

- Takashi Murakami- born 1962. He is an Artist, writer, cultural entrepreneur. Oneof Japan's most versatile, prolific, and successful contemporary artists. He is also an installation artist and filmmaker. He is well versed in art history and contemporary culture. Drawing inspiration from Ukiyo-e patterns and manga/anime. Murakami's vibrant, glossy, cartoon-like paintings, described as "superflat", and life-size figurines depicting anime characters eliminate distinctions between fine art and popular culture. - 2002, - Acrylic on canvas mounted on board - In his painting Murakami explores Japan's infatuation with fantasy by creating his own cartoonish universe filled with exploding colors, while alluding to the darker aspects of the otaku (pop culture fanatics) lifestyle. Saccharine cuteness is combined with grotesque elements such as Tan Tan Bo, who resembles a deranged Mickey Mouse, vomiting. - In 2001, Murakami founded the art production company Kaikai Kiki, which lists among its goals "the production and promotion of artwork, the management and support of select young artists, general management of events and projects, and the production and promotion of merchandise."

Metabolist Movement

- Tange Kenzo realized "Plan for Tokyo 1960" heavily influenced the Metabolist movement, which Tange himself supported. - Emblematic of Metabolism is the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Shinbashi, Tokyo, whose capsule-like rooms are prefabricated units meant to be replaced once they wore out. The "capsules" were designed as integral to a megastructure of both permanent and impermanent parts, built in the spirit of organic growth.

Reclining Woman

- Yorozu Tetsugorō- most intellectual and innovative of the yoga artists of his generation he spent 6 months in the US. He then enrolled in the Western painting section of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, experimenting with one European style after another he made his own personal expression in each of them. In 1919 due to his health, Yorozu had to move to a rural area near Tokyo. He studied and painted in the traditional literati manner, attempting to blend into it Western elements. He died from tuberculosis in 1927 at the age of 41 - this painting is of a half-naked woman reclining awkwardly in a setting of disjunctive details. - It was done in the same year of his graduation bureau, he was experimenting to meld styles of Van Gogh and Matisse - Meiji era - 1912 - oil on canvas

Picture of the Landing of Foreigners of The Five Nations in Yokohama

- Yoshikazu - Meiji era - 1861 - triptych of woodblock prints - this port saw the most visual imports and they developed Yokohama-e woodblock prints, same process as ukiyo-e, very commercial, novelty was important to sell so foreign subject became popular, many prints under this school that only lasted from 1860-64. The artist's mostly hadn't seen foreigners so they had to imagine them. - print depicts the 5 nations Japan made trade treaties with 1850-1860, US, Britain, Russia, France, and Dutch - there were print series called "people of the five nations"

Complete Enumeration of Scenic Places in Foreign Nations: City of Washington in America

- Yoshitora - Meiji era - 1862 - triptych of Yokohama woodblock prints - from a series - Imagined US city - the architecture depicted is vague, the source image is from a city in India - hot air balloons were a common theme because they thought people traveled by them in the US

Yayoi Kusama

- born 1929 - In 2006, the first woman in Japan to be awarded the Praemium Imperiale, Japan's top prizes for artists of global distinction. - Her artistic career spans many decades in Japan and America. Her work includes painting, sculpture, performance art, film, and installation. - Kusama has struggled with mental illness since childhood, and in 1977 she became a voluntary resident in a Tokyo psychiatric institution, where she still lives today. She continues to create art. - Her trademark style style is dots. They have covered canvases, sculptures, fabrics, and naked bodies. - Round motifs also appear in her mirrored installations, such as Mirror Room—Pumpkin, in 1991. It is a room filled with spotted pumpkin sculptures, duplicated in the mirror-lined walls. The pumpkin signifies a type of self-portrait, part of Kusama's hallucinatory world. - Kusama has also faced challenges as a female artist, and as a Japanese woman in America. These struggles both generate and inform her art, - In 2011 environmental installation Infinity Mirrored Room Filled with the Brilliance of Life. The visitor entered a mirrored space filled with LED lights illuminating endless reflected forms, like Gutai artist Kazuo Shiraga's spirited call to nurture individuality and originality as a safeguard against totalitarianism

Yasuda Auditorium

- built in 1925 on the campus of the University of Tokyo - epitomizes the brief but consequential Taishō period. - Designed in an Art Deco mode and similar to the University of Cambridge - sponsored by one of the founders of the Yasuda zaibatsu. - intended as a temporary resting facility for the emperor when he visited the university. As such, the auditorium embodied the socio-cultural influence of the new financial magnates, the rising nationalism concentrated in the persona of the emperor, the adoption of the European Art-Deco architectural style, and the affirmation of the university as a modern research center.

Encountering with Immortal Women

- by Tomioka Tessai - Taishō era, - 1919 - hanging scroll, ink and color on silk - In the bunjinga/nanga style - the subject comes from the Japanese folk tale twist on a Chinese legend: two lucky men meet immortal ladies dressed in brown clothes. The male protagonists are collecting herbal medicine in the mountains when two beautiful women appear. Disguised by their gray and blue farmer's garb the ladies divinity is hinted by the lovely deer standing behind them. Each man falls in love with an immortal and the lovers go back to the paradise and take residence. The paradise is represented as a Chinese palace with red wares in the background. A few months later both men suddenly recall they have their own wives and children in the human world so they managed to leave and carefully mark the portal. Back at the village they find out a century has passed and their families are dead. They go back to the mountains and can no longer find the entrance. - Tessai had a firm grasp of the energetic brushwork of Chinese literati painting and he catered to the Japanese preference for vibrant colors by adding bright green and red to enliven the monochromatic ink landscape - Tessai and his generation of Nanga masters were well respected and their works pursued ardently even after their death the rapid progress of the literati style never regained its territory lost to the yoga and nihongo movements in the 20th century.

Poet Kutsugen (Ch: Qu Yuan)

- by Yokoyama Taikan - Meiji era - 1898 - hanging scroll, color on silk - Nihonga style, combines elements of yoga including perspective and shading with traditional Japanese techniques such as the use of water-based pigments on silk - Taikan was known for his controversial style based on the rim pavel Cavallari and unwavering loyalty to his teacher. When Okakura was forced to resign from Tokyo School of Fine Arts due to a dispute with the Ministry of Education Yokoyama and others followed him and formed a private Institute dedicated to Nihonga in 1898. - the painting suggests the mood of the artists in the newly established Academy in the countryside struggling financially - the subject is the Chinese poet qu yuan who fell from favour with his ruler and in his despair drowned himself after composing his most famous poem. Here he stands heroically against a wind that whips the shrubbery beside him and raises dust clouds behind - the painting is a comment on the battle between Okakura and the establishment - the Morotai or murky style in the fuzziness of the painting shown here attempts to bring Western techniques of space and light into the traditional medium by reducing the reliance on line. Some critics mockingly called it muddled style, also known as the Buried line technique where the thinnest lightest possible lines are used to aid color and modeling

Mingei

- early 20th century. - Movement focuses on the overlooked beauty of art and crafts made by average people that are used in daily life(folk art). - challenged society's narrow definition of art. - focuses on everyday objects, unlike highly refined art by professional artists. - is also a response to Japan's rapid industrialization, it elevates things made in large quantity by the hand's of the common people, rather than in a factory. - can also be seen as a method of cultural and historical preservation. Every item has its regional story and they were threatened with the rise of factory production in Japan. Similar to the industrial rev in England that led to the Arts and Crafts Movement. - Soetsu Yanagi(1889-1961) invented this movement with Buddhist principles of simplicity - Sōetsu was born in Tokyo(1889). He spent his formative years in the rapidly industrializing Meiji period. He took an interest in art and philosophy from a young age. In 1910, he formed a literary society called Shirakabaha "the White Birch Society."They published a magazine Shirakaba. The group took interest in other art forms: folk art. The magazine was discontinued after the Great Kanto Earthquake. In 1914 Yanagi saw Joseon Dynasty ceramics in South Korea, which led to him founding the Korean Folk Art Museum in Seoul(1924). He then looked at Japan's folk art, starting with Buddhist art. This resulted in him coining the term "mingei' in 1925 together with Kanjiro Kawai (1890-1966) and Shōji Hamada (1894-1978). - The name "mingei" combines min "the common people", and gei (the same character used in geisha), "art", and is an abbreviation for minshuteki kōgei "popular industrial arts". - In 1926, Yanagi officially announced the Mingei Movement.

Boro Fashion

- means worn down or ragged, describing a building or clothing, or it can refer to the tattered clothes themselves. - The boro style is celebrated by the Mingei Movement - Instead of focusing on the fine silk worn by the upper classes, boro shows the beauty in the cotton and hemp clothing worn by the peasants, especially in the northern territories of Japan. - Throughout the Edo period, people found innovative ways to recycle and reuse everyday objects, primarily out of necessity. - Until the 1600s, all clothing peasants wore was common hemp, locally grown and spun. Cotton goods were first introduced to Japan from China in the 15thc, and in the 16th century, farmers began to adopt Chinese cultivation methods to produce it domestically. - geography meant that cotton wouldn't reach Northern Japan, as the cotton plant could not grow there. During the Edo period, traders sailed up the coast to sell used cotton, mostly indigo color(associated with modern boro fashion), since it was easiest to dye cotton indigo. - Women in farming communities would cotton scraps and use them to make noragi "farmer's clothing", futongawa "futon covers", pillows, aprons, and other items. - Seamstresses in northern Japan invented a sewing technique, called sashiko. A simple running stitch is sewn in repeating/interlocking patterns, through several layers of fabric, sewing hemp and cotton scraps together for durability and warmth. It also made interesting patterns, adding creativity that distinguishes one from another. The same clothing might be used for as many as three or four generations. - Instead of throwing out old cloth, they would be patched over and over. - Boro has not always been appreciated. After WWII, these tattered clothing were viewed with shame as a symbol of Japan's shortages and poverty. - Now people recognize it as a symbol of a unique cultural heritage that should be celebrated. - modern fashion designers are even attempting to replicate the boro style in their own clothing lines

Shin Hanga

- new modes and styles of printmaking that revitalized ukiyo-e and incorporated elements of modern design and western-inspired realism. - kept the multiple hands traditionally involved in the design and production of ukiyo-e woodblock prints - another mode of Japanese printmaking that emerged in the 1910s, known as sōsaku hanga, emphasized individual expression and featured a sole creator in charge of all aspects of the print's production (from drawing to carving to printing). Sōsaku hanga resonated, and drew upon, contemporaneous thinkers and writers like Natsume Sōseki who advocated self-expression.

Kaika-e

- prints during the Meiji period that promoted the idea of modernism and enlightenment as a way to keep up with the west - ends in 1889, Meiji constitution which is the first modern Japanese constitution and so they stop trying to prove modernization

Principles of Mingei

- should be produced in large quantities by hand. - should be inexpensive, simple, and practical in design. The simplicity and inexpensiveness are what should give this art its charm. The design should also have arisen naturally over time for utilitarian use. - Not only functional but also used by the masses. the beauty of these objects comes from use, not sust admiration. It gives them their cultural and regional authenticity. - should represent the region in which it was produced. Each object represents a small cultural legacy that gives it a value beyond its aesthetics. - Traditionally, It is anonymous, and artists should not expect recognition. However, modern attitudes have changed on this principle. The idea is that they should be appreciated as objects of the masses, not attributed to specific artisans. Now many people agree that society should embrace and celebrate the artisans and craftspeople who help keep traditions and culture alive and that this should be reflected in how the government designates certain people as Living National Treasures.

Yōga

- western style painting - A pioneering yōga artist, Takahashi Yuichi assisted Antonio Fontanesi, the "foreign advisor" appointed by the Meiji government to teach oil painting at the newly established Technical Fine Arts School in Tokyo. - Further developed by painters like Kuroda Seiki, who studied extensively in Paris and worked in Japan into the 1920s, yōga largely embraced contemporaneous styles of French painting, from the Barbizon School to Impressionism, and their practices(from painting from nature and contemporary subject matter)