Japan

Japanese art ranges from quiet ink paintings by Buddhist monks to the colourful woodblock prints that sold by the thousand in Edo – today’s Tokyo – and later captivated Europe’s painters.

The times

From 1603 to 1868, shoguns of the Tokugawa family ruled a largely closed-off Japan. The long peace let cities such as Edo, Kyoto and Osaka grow. Merchants and craftsmen grew wealthy but had little political say – so they spent their money on theatre, fashion, teahouses and travel. This lively urban culture was called “ukiyo”, the “floating world” of pleasure.

What art set out to do

Woodblock prints were the pictures of this new public: cheap, topical and printed in large numbers. They showed kabuki actors, famous beauties, landscapes and travel destinations – poster, celebrity photo and travel brochure all in one. Older traditions such as the ink painting of Zen monks, by contrast, sought calm and the essential in a few brushstrokes.

How to recognise it

  • Clear outlines and flat colours without shading.
  • Unusual framing: cut-off trees, bridges or waves in the foreground.
  • Series of views, such as thirty-six views of Mount Fuji or the stations of the Tōkaidō road.
  • Signatures and publishers’ seals in small cartouches at the edge.

Timeline

  • 1603: Tokugawa Ieyasu becomes shogun; the Edo period begins.
  • 1765: Suzuki Harunobu prints the first full-colour “brocade pictures” (nishiki-e).
  • c. 1831: Hokusai publishes “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji”, including the “Great Wave”.
  • 1833–1834: Hiroshige publishes “The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō”.
  • 1868: With the Meiji Restoration, Japan opens up to the West.

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