Research Paper on Japanese Art and Architecture

Introduction

Asian art has been in existence for a long time now. Most of the artists from countries like China and Japan have contributed to art in their respective countries, the entire Asian continent and have made an indelible mark on the world as well. Most notable artists from the continent include Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige, both from Japan and very talented to have graced the world with their artistic skills. The two artist were the most successful landscape painters of the 19th century Asia, and their artistic work gained global recognition for being among the best graphic art. Hokusai was born in 1760 in the ancient Edo, the modern day Tokyo, Japan (Masuda et al. 1265). He was interested in art at an early age, and at the age of 18, he joined the famous ukiyo-e master as a student and published an art the following year. Hokusai style of art incorporated the western style perspective and Japanese print-making. Utagawa Hiroshige was born in 1797, in Edo Japan, and grew up to be the student of ukiyo-e genre. Hiroshige was considered the last great master of the ukiyo-e tradition, and his work laid typical focus on scenes of urban pleasure in the modern day Tokyo city. His approach to art was poetic and ambient compared to other artists during his time (Hane 94). Hokusai and Hiroshige are both contemporary artists with various similarities and some differences in their style and approach to art and painting. In analyzing the two artists and their approach, the research paper will compare and contrast the two through studying details of style, content, and images.

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Katsushika Hokusai

Katsushika Hokusai is one of Japan's most prolific artists of the 19th century. During his time, Hokusai produced some of the most recognizable images in the history of Asian art. Hokusai is famously known for his notable art, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, and the series on Mt Fuji (Clark et al. 130). His early works included the single sheet prints of landscapes, hand paintings, and other printed things. Hokusai also concentrated on classical themes such as the samurai and Chinese subjects. His works encompassed a wide range, particularly emphasizing on not only landscape views but also historical scenes, which were characterized by the coloring of western style perspective. The artists period covered several collections from "The pictures of the floating world" art, these included picture prints, single sheet prints, book picture prints, historical novels, album prints, novelettes and sketches (Hane 94).

Hokusai drew his skills and techniques from the Japanese, Chinese and European commands, which makes it hard to understand his works as a distinct artistic tradition. However, paying attention to his craft and materials, it is possible to comprehend his works by studying the way he used his brush to interact with silk or paper (Clark et al. 130). The coloring and lighting effects he used and the varying impression of the woodblock on print were also typical of his unique style. Apart from using the western art designs in his paintings, Hokusai was also synonymous with employing great painting elements such as lines, color, shapes, volume, mass, light, and texture. In his landscape paintings, he could manipulate and organize his artistic method to create a refined composition.

The Great Wave Painting

Many of Hokusai's paintings were unique and outstanding owing to his great skill and style. From his famous Great Wave, the artistic style of the modern art was created. The Great Wave of Kanagawa is a linen print created in landscape format; the image uses an aggressive line at the tip of the wave. Design elements such as pattern, emphasis and proportion are evident in the art, meant to create the feeling of peace (Hane 94). The print was published in 1829 and is also known to be Hokusai's greatest work. In the close analysis, the image portrays the area around Mount Fuji in a stormy and threatening wave all featured in the shadowy background. With curvaceous lines, Hokusai was able to demonstrate the strength of the waves. Sharp lines are also used in the image to show the tip of the waves where water is engulfing the seemingly helpless fishermen on boats. The waves dominate the image to give the image the sense of movement and display other elements such as emphasis and proportion. The artist applies contrast in the image to create a dark context, which shows the fishermen's struggle to survive. Hokusai is known to manipulate color in his paintings, however, in the wave painting, he did not like aggressive colors. Instead, he applied dark colors such as blue to create a feeling of cold, and color white to generate the hope of survival to the fishermen (Clark et al. 130). The painting displays the rule-of-thirds composition, which is displayed by the wave one third from the left side and one third from the top down. This creates space, which minimizes clutter and helps in emphasizing the action in the painting to the left and bottom of the frame. From this image, it is clear that Hokusai employed artistic techniques and elements to bring out the message in his paintings.

The View of Mt Fuji Painting

Another painting done by Hokusai was the view of Mt Fuji No. 14. This is part of the paintings from the collection of 36 views of Mount Fuji done by Katsushika Hokusai. Mount Fuji is located to the south of the modern Tokyo city and is regarded as the most important symbol of Japan serving as a popular destination for pilgrimage. Hokusai through his stylistic techniques was able to make beautiful paintings of the mountain in 36 views in 1823. The 14th view was among the most spectacular views of the mountain, also referred to "Umegawa in Sagami Province" (Hane 94). In coming up with the design of the mountain, Hokusai employed the fusion of a novel European and Japanese traditional techniques, which helped in creating an original and compelling composition. In presenting Mount Fiji's original perspective, Hokusai shrunk the traditional big size of the mountain. This style made the Mountain look weak and vulnerable contrary to its strong and dominant figure. The European influence in Hokusai's artistry is further displayed in this painting as the artist uses the new artificial pigment known as the Berlin Blue, which is used to create the original interpretation of the landscape. The Berlin Blue element also helps to create a break from the conventional Japanese style of using natural minerals in pigment production (Stokstad et al. 57). Another element used by Hokusai is the inclusion of ordinary people, which is a new theme explored by the ukiyo-e style during his period, depicting the everyday activities and pleasures of the Edo town people.

Utagawa Hiroshige

Another icon on the Japanese art is Utagawa Hiroshige, who was also a student of ukiyo-e master Utagawa Toyohiro. Master Toyohiro is the one who helped Hiroshige to find his full expression in landscape print. Hiroshige was a typical student of ukiyo-e master. Therefore his paintings were characterized by pure elements of "Pictures of the floating world" (Watanabe 797). This technique was synonymous with the printing of women and flowers. In 1832, he published a series of 55 landscapes titled "Fifty-three stations of the Tokaido," and in 1858 came up with "One Hundred Views of Edo." From his works, it is estimated that Hiroshige made more than 5,000 prints from his woodblocks. His pictures displayed tangible beauty, with intimacy, rain, snow, mist and moonlight scenes making some of his poetic masterpieces.

Man on Horseback Crossing a Bridge Painting

Hiroshige was an ardent student of ukiyo-e master, and his work employed balance, Emphasis, harmony, movement, pattern, and proportion. Additionally, his style had great influence on western influence, which made good use of color in printing (Watanabe 797). One of his famous prints was "Man on Horseback Crossing a Bridge," which was printmaking done in 1835 as a historical and reportage image. The image uses the line, color, shape, emphasis, motion, and visual balance artistic elements. Hiroshige used lines to create a balance between the very big empty spaces underneath the bridge and the small areas where the details are concentrated. In the man crossing the bridge on a horse, Hiroshige eliminated the background to emphasize the images on the bridge. Owing from the ukiyo-e master, the artists also use people and horses to depict movement in the painting, a technique he is famed for by producing series of moving pictures that reveal dynamic progression. In this element, Hiroshige also uses graphic lines to move, and diagonal lines are always dominant for the same purpose. Hiroshige uses many pictures in his painting to create unity through repetition of similar shapes, which can be seen in the pillars of the bridge and its rail bars (Masuda et al. 1265). Unity in the image furthermore forms consistency in the stylization of motifs in the whole picture plane. The use of color is not much employed in this image as in others done by Hiroshige. However, the dark blue color depicts cold and originality of the background as seen in the sky through the moonlight.

Naruto Whirlpool Painting, 1853

The Naruto Whirlpool is a painting by Hiroshige done in 1853, from the collection of paintings in the Views of Famous Places in the Sixty-Odd Provinces. The image is a color woodblock print created with the use of carvings and application of color (Stokstad et al. 57). The technique uses water-based ink to produce a wide variety of bright colors. From the Naruto Whirlpool, Hiroshige uses different colors to create a variety of backgrounds and depict the distance between them. The use of the thick blue color portrays the rough storms of the sea; the dark brown color was used by the artist to show the deadly effects of the storm. The far-red color depicts lack of peace that is created by the whirlpool. The image portrays a combination of various elements to create harmony and unity (Hane 94). The white color is positioned on top of the painting to show hope of peace at the end of the wind. Additionally, the artist uses curved lines and contours, as usual, to demonstrate movement of the water, with sharp curves showing the speed and aggressiveness of the wind. Hiroshige also employs contrast, which becomes darker to reveal the distance.

Similarities

The two contemporary artists, Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige, borrow a lot from each other regarding technique and painting style. This also owed to the fact that they were the two most prolific and successful landscape painters of their time in Japan (Stokstad et al. 57). Much of their paintings were inspired by the ukiyo-e master, which emphasized on the pictures of the floating world. Additionally, the style focused on making paints of landscapes, beautiful flowers, birds, women and human figures. Both artists focused much of their work in the painting of landscapes displaying the great influence of the European concepts. Borrowing from the ukiyo-e style, both artists used several elements such as line, emphasis, balance, movement, pattern and so forth (Masuda et al. 1265). In his Great Wave painting, Hokusai used lines, curves, emphasis, and shape as elements of art, which are the same features and techniques applied by Hiroshige in his painting of the "Naruto Whirlpool." The two images relatively depict same artistic features and style that easily relate to each other. The great wave employs aggressive lines and other elements such as pattern, emphasis and proportion are also evident in the art done by Hokusai. On the other hand, Hiroshige's painting "The Naruto Whirlpool" is quite similar to this by the use of techniques and style.

A close analysis of the painting done by Hiroshige "A Man on the Horse Crossing the Bridge" reveals that the painting too...