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Proposal
Peculiar historical, cultural and philosophical foundations of East Asian states have facilitated relative homogeneity in local artistic endeavors, though certain peculiar details of art in such countries as China, Korea and Japan might alter greatly. Also, in light of historical trends and events, China became an Sesshū Tōyō a source inspiration for many Japanese artists, as it is shown by the body of research. However, it is still interesting to take a closer look at influences Chinese culture and representational conventions produce on Japanese art in relation to a certain period of time and certain variety of visual art. Therefore, the topic of the present research paper revolves around the impacts Chinese ink and wash painting (particularly landscape painting).
Thereby, the key research questions are rather simple: 1) Are there many similarities between the Japanese medieval ink painting and its possible precursor? 2) What are the differences between the Japanese ink painting of the Muromachi period and its Chinese precursor created during the era of the Southern Song Dynasty? The research will apply elements of both contrastive and formal analysis in order to compare the painting Winter Landscape by Sesshū Tōyō with its precursor, the painting created in China by Xia Gui and titled Winter Riverscape.
Introduction
Chinese art was shaped by long and persistent influence of East Asian cultural, political, religious and philosophical traditions, while its impacts could be traced in the artistic legacies of other Asian countries that – historically – experienced Chinese influence. History and stylistic overlaps between China and other Asian countries is particularly interesting in relation to painting as one of the most authentic and unique artistic forms. Traditional Chinese painting relied on peculiar philosophy, aesthetical perceptions and representational methods, being based on conventional techniques used in Chinese calligraphy. Interestingly, landscape painting was nearly the supreme genre in painting, while the art itself was practiced mainly by people of higher classes: monks, intellectuals and members of the bureaucratic elite. The dominant position of nature in the multiplicity of its representations was underpinned by the philosophical foundations of Zen Buddhism and Taoism and informed peculiar ways of nature’s visual representation. Moreover, Turner states that «these specific methods of visual representation, along with their theoretical and philosophical underpinnings, direct our attention toward certain important and valuable elements of nature». However, these peculiar traits of painting were not limited by the borders of China and flowed to Japan and other Asian countries, producing the impact on the local painters’ style and representation techniques. Thereby, the present essay is intended to compare and contrast a painting of one of the prominent Japanese artist, Sesshu, with the traditional Chinese landscape painting created by Xia Gui, Winter Riverscape.
Sesshū Tōyō: Background
As the existing research indicates, Sesshū Tōyō was one of the most prominent Japanese painters of the Muromachi period and a recognized master of ink painting. Sesshū was trained by a Buddhist priest and became a Zen monk himself practicing and developing his talent for visual arts. As a result, he was widely recognized in Japan and in China as a brilliant landscape painter.
Most of the painter’s works are monochrome and painted in the ink and wash technique, which was born in China and later spread beyond its borders. By the time of his activity, ink painting had risen to the level of an art iluustrative of Japanese cultural values, even despite its foreign origins. Sesshū’s artistic legacy includes numerous exquisite landscapes, while Winter Landscape of 1486 is particularly interesting due to its subject and style and illustrative of connection with Chinese painting traditions.
Winter Landscape: Overview
Winter Landscape is generally a traditional monochrome literati ink painting created with help of varying brush strokes and ink density. As East Asian approach towards aesthetics and art varies greatly from that of the West and it was rather evident in the medieval Asian painting, such paintings use a peculiar type of spatial orientation and organization in order to recreate the sense of space.
Sesshū’s painting, like other traditional Chinese and Japanese paintings, is vertical, which allows the painter to create the sense of space through ink density gradations, brushstroke intensity and specific arrangement of compositional elements. The composition is dominated by mountains occupying both the background and the middle ground; a distant house complements the background; and the foreground (particularly, the bottom right corner) includes a river with a tree on its bank.
An important trait of the painting connecting it to Asian philosophical and spiritual frameworks and – respectively – to Chinese painting traditions is a small human figure climbing up the wandering path amidst the mountains. This detail is a reflection of philosophical frameworks forming the context of the painting and of Chinese painting traditions, too. Chinese traditional landscapes often provide only schematic depictions of humans if there are any, laying emphasis on power and infinity of nature and showing the human as only a small part of it.
Sesshū created his landscapes inspired by the great Chinese painters of the Song dynasty period. In 1463, the painter had an opportunity to travel to China (ruled by the Ming at that time) and spend six years there absorbing local artistic traditions and even painting several pictures for the emperor.
Thuswise, Sesshū was one of few Japanese artists to study Chinese visual art in the Ming China. According to Lippit, Winter Landscape became a robust variation “on Chinese academic landscape idioms» and a reflection of Chinese philosophy of art. As Wang and colleagues reasonably mention, “the aesthetic basis of Chinese paintings is deeply affected by the philosophy of Chinese Taoist ideas that emphasize the harmonious relationship between human beings and the cosmos”. This philosophical background provides an explanation for higher prevalence of landscapes and nature in Chinese ink paintings and, at the same time, might have affected Japanese art as well.
At the same time, researchers suggest that the author might have been fascinated and deeply inspired by artworks of the prominent Chinese ink painter of the Song period, Xia Gui, whose style is very illustrative of major ink painting conventions.
Xia Gui in Chinese ink and wash painting tradition
In order to identify typical traits borrowed by Japan from Chinese ink painting, Xia Gui’s painting Winter Riverscape can be considered. First of all, it becomes obvious that both Japanese and Chinese painting traditions made use of the same motifs and subjects, while it is personal interpretations, spiritual contents and technique that might differ. Both in Winter Landscape and in its Chinese precursor it is possible to trace a harmonious connection between nature – great and venerable – and humankind. For instance, small houses are embedded in the landscape, while traces of human activity are also visible in the boat near the bank and in the wanderer walking up the lane.
Xia Gui’s painting, too, distributes compositional elements in a number of layers: the rocky river bank with a house, a boat and several trees, the smooth tones of the river in the middle and the opposite rocky bank emerging in the distance. Like in Sesshu’s painting, vertical arrangement facilitates multilayered portrayal of spatial relations, while the painting is traditionally monochrome.
Taking a closer look at Xia Gui’s ink painting, one could trace one of the main ideas characterizing Chinese ‘literati’ painting and transmitted to other Asian cultures: it is important how a painter uses his brush and that he makes every single brushstroke meaningful. Ink and wash painting promotes strict economy of ink and brushstrokes, assigning the painter with the task of creating the most sensual and aesthetically pleasing picture with the minimal number of brushstrokes.
As Gu puts it, ink and wash painting made visual language more efficient, and this moved landscape painting beyond mere visual imitation – right to the dimension of impression and expression. Winter Riverscape is a bright example of this tradition: the painter uses a balanced combination of ‘wash’ application of ink and single brushstrokes. For instance, Xia Gui uses minimum of strokes to depict rocks in the background, creating fine outlines and complementing them with wash density gradations. Meanwhile, intensity of single brushstrokes increases in the foreground where the trees, rocks, boat an house have darker and more distinguished outlines.
Chinese influence in Winter Landscape: similarities and differences
The aforementioned traditions dominating in Chinese ink painting were transmitted to Japanese painting and are quite visible in Sesshū’s Winter Landscape: one can see interplays of thicker and thinner lines, darker and lighter brushstrokes and various shades of gray. However, Japanese artistic tradition tended to absorb and transform external influences, adding unique local details to techniques and styles.
This tendency is visible in Winter Landscape as well: the painter developed his own style via adding harshness and strength to depictions of trees, objects and houses and other textural elements. As Xia Gui belonged to the southern school of ink and wash painting whose style was more subjective, expressive and lyrical; his retreat from subtleness is quite justified. In Xia Gui’s painting (which falls within the period of Southern Song dynasty), brushstrokes are also more harsh and saturated in comparison to basic ink and wash conventions; however, their harshness and saturated blackness are balanced with help of misty negative spaces and rivers painted with subtle transparent wash gradations.
The Muromachi period in Japan’s history is marked by exceptional Chinese influence which not just made landscape painting a dominant artistic form, but also stimulated increase in influence of Zen Buddhism.
The southern tendency for expressivity and subjectivity came to Japan together with popularization of Zen Buddhist teachings, though it was processed even more in Japanese context and produced an authentic approach towards ink painting. Thus, the work of the Japanese painter is far less ‘subtle’ in wash application and brush strokes.
The manner of painting seems more similar to expressionism: despite general Chinese spatial organization and motif, the technique used by Sesshū is bolder and, say, more primitivist. Even more, harshness of brushstrokes is not completely balanced with help of smooth gradients of washes: even background or negative space areas of the painting are toned with diluted ink in a rather ‘lumpy’ manner.
It could be suggested that it is the tendency for brushstroke economy that was altered in Japanese ink painting, with Sesshū Tōyō granting more emotional, or sensational, significance to the technique and its key element.
Finally, an important trait Japanese ink painting borrowed and internalized from China is non-photographic representation of the painting subject, i.e., nature in all of its forms. In other words, portrayals of nature, humans and other elements is rather stylized, non-naturalistic.
In Sesshū Tōyō’s and Xia Gui’s paintings, representations of nature are not too naturalistic and precise. However, as Okamoto states, these interpretations are “very naturalistic studies of nature”. In other words, the manner of depiction typical from Chinese and Japanese painting traditions is far from Western-type naturalism and realism, portrayals are very much focused on the painter’s personal experiences and sensations processed and turned into visual codes.
Conclusion
Japanese ink painting is rather popular even nowadays and one should know that its roots lie in the unique artistic culture of China, especially medieval painting traditions. Taking inspiration from the earlier Chinese ink masters and applying Eastern philosophical frameworks such as Zen Buddhism and Taoism, Japanese ink painters – represented by Sesshū Tōyō – managed to create a peculiar synthesis of Chinese ancient traditions and Japanese authenticity.
While both painting traditions are quite similar in terms of aesthetic dispositions and philosophical underpinnings, Japanese painters not just went to China to enhance their skills and absorb painting techniques but also facilitated a healthy merger of two similar cultures living side by side for centuries. As the present research has shown, Japanese ink paintings are often inspired by or products of the painter’ fascination with Chinese visual traditions.
Illustrations
Xia Gui. Winter Riverscape, late 13th–early 14th century. 22.5 x 21.2 cm, ink on silk. Ross Collection. http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/winter-riverscape-28398
Sesshū Tōyō. Winter Landscape, 1486. 47.8 cm x 30.2 cm, ink on paper. Tokyo National Museum. http://web-japan.org/museum/suiboku/suiboku01/suibok01.html
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