3. • Buddhism spread to Japan from China
• Intricate Buddhist temples built from wood. They used
wood because the islands were made of volcanic rock and
they could not use this stone to build their temples.
• The Japanese also created monumental bronze sculptures
of Buddha.
• Beginning in the 8th c., artists developed uniquely Japanese
screen and woodblock prints. Woodblock printing is making
prints by carving images in blocks of wood.
9. Flying Storehouse
The Legends of Mount Shigi
Chogosonshiji, Nara
late 12th century
handscroll ink and color on paper
1 1/2 ft. high
10. Tōshūsai Sharaku, famous Japanese print
artist, known for his portraits of kabuki
actors and sumo wrestlers
Otani Oniji III in the Role of the
Servant Edobei, 1794
The Actors Ichikawa Tomiemon (R) and Sanogawa
Ichimatsu III (L) as Kanisaka Toda and Onayo, c.
1795
11. Detail of Burning of the Sanjo Palace
13th century C.E.
handscroll, ink and colors on paper
16 1/4 in. high
12. Kano Motonobu
Xiangyen Zhixian Sweeping with a Broom
Muramachi Period, ca. 1513
hanging scroll, ink and color on paper
5 ft. 7 3/8 in. x 2 ft. 10 3/4 in.
14. Katsushika Hokusai
was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker. He was influenced by such
painters as Sesshu, and other styles of Chinese painting. Born in Edo (now
Tokyo),
Hokusai is best known as author of the woodblock
print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
15. Katsushika Hokusai
The Great Wave off Kanagawa, from Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji series
Edo Period, ca. 1826-33, woodblock print oban, ink and colors on paper
9 7/8 in. x 1 ft. 2 3/4 in.
Hokusai's most famous work, and one of the best recognized
works of Japanese art in the world is the one below. It depicts
an enormous wave threatening boats off the coast of the prefecture of
Kanagawa. While sometimes assumed to be a tsunami, the wave is, as the
picture's title notes, more likely to be a large okinami ("wave of the open
sea"). As in all the prints in the series, it depicts the area around Mount
Fuji under particular conditions, and the mountain itself appears in the
background.