7 Module 6: Art in East Asia

📍Make sure to check the Additional Media Playlist at the end of the Module. Many videos or articles will enhance your understanding of the written text and offer new insights on East Asian Humanities.

 

INTRODUCTION

The cultures of East Asia have bequeathed to the world an amazing and varied legacy of art that ranges from classical fine art, to popular, decorative, folk, and modern art. This unit outlines the mediums, modes, and intellectual and spiritual expressiveness of major types of art in East Asia. Since calligraphy, landscape painting, and ceramics are so central in East Asian art, stress will be given to these three categories. Thus, you will learn some of the basic styles of calligraphy, “how to read” a traditional painting, and learn to identify a number of styles of ceramics from different ages of history. These skills are aesthetically rewarding and are regarded as indices of “self-cultivation” by many in East Asia.

SOME OBSERVATIONS ON ART IN EAST ASIA

In East Asia the arts, like elements of worldview, often have a strong eclectic and syncretic nature. Many “genres” and/or mediums of expression may interact in one artistic phenomenon. In many cases, the natural surroundings may enhance the work of art, and certainly contribute to ideas of how it is to be placed. A landscape painting, for instance, may include the painting itself, calligraphy written directly on the painting—usually a poem (which can be read aloud, giving the painting an auditory dimension)—and a red name stamp, representing the art of seal cutting. Where and how the painting is displayed will depend on how it contributes to the overall setting of a room. Traditionally, placement of a work of art is done in accord to the principles of harmonious balance between nature and humankind.

Gardens as “Multi-media” Experiences

East Asian gardens may be the best example of the tendency to combine mediums for the ultimate aesthetic experience. A single garden may include artistically laid rockery, weirdly-shaped rocks, marble, plants (bamboo, pine, maple, plum, lotus, chrysanthemums, moss, etc.), tiny bonsai trees, pavilions made of wood (painted or left natural) and stone, running water and pools, archways, gates, steps, pathways, carefully placed paintings and ceramics, poems or characters carved here and there, and other features that blend together as a whole, yet allow for constant surprises at every turn. In some cases musical instruments may be played in the gardens to add another dimension. Gardens vary in set-up and “feel”—many of the most famous ones in Japan were designed by Zen masters.

A room or niche in a home will have often have a painting, ceramic, or other work of art on display. Officials, literati, and samurai (in Japan) loved collecting and displaying antique art and very “modern” style display racks were in wide use in China by the Song period. Major cities in East Asia all have large antique markets where many people go to look at or acquire aesthetically pleasing objects that link them to persons and tastes of ages long past. In many places, there are parts of town selling wares by living artists who carry on the ancient arts. In Japan and Korea such people are considered as “living national treasures.”

Variation by Cultural Area

All three cultural regions share many common traits, though there is substantial variation locally. While many artists in both Korea and Japan mastered Chinese styles, there are many instances in which uniquely Korean or Japanese styles were created. This is especially true in ceramic and decorative art, though many instances could be cited in painting and sculpture, as well. Worldview beliefs, especially Buddhism and Confucianism, influenced the arts in all three cultural areas.

Who Made the Art?

Another interesting feature of art in East Asia is who created the art. In all of the cultures, art was produced by a variety of people. In some cases artworks, especially painting and sculpture were created under the patronage of the ruling class. In Song dynasty China, for instance, there was a royal painting academy under imperial sponsorship. Many artworks, especially calligraphy and painting, were made by non-professional artists, that included scholar-officials (for example, the yangban in the Joseon dynasty Korea), monks, upper-class women, and in Japan, samurai. Many decorative works, including ceramics; carvings in jade, nephrite, and ivory; cloisonné; and lacquerware, were produced by craftsmen-artists in small shops, larger kiln or craft centers, or monasteries. Although in some cases the identities of the organizations survive, the names of individual artists are seldom known.

Buddhist Art

Influences from Mahayana Buddhist art in India spread with the teaching of Buddha on the Silk Road and through some avenues farther south in China. As the centuries passed, recognizable differences in Buddhist art of the different parts of China, Korea, and Japan developed. Of particular interest is the depiction of various representations of Buddha, bodhisattvas, and other figures at different periods in the different cultural areas.

One example is that of the bodhisattva Guan Yin (Avalokitesvara), whose images begin as male in India, but are eventually transformed into a female in China. A famous wooden Kannon (Guan Yin), in the treasure hoard at the Horyuji Temple complex near Nara, Japan, seems to exhibit traits of both sexes. Distinctly Korean images of Buddha exist as small bronze figures of a very thin Buddha with a crossed leg—similar ones found in Japan may have ultimately been of Korean origin.

Asia, including Taiwan and Japan. The huge bronze Buddha at the Todaiji temple in Nara is the largest metal Buddha in East Asia, housed in the largest wooden structure on earth. One of the most magnificent statues of Buddha is the Seokguram Buddha near Gyeongju in South Korea, hidden for over one thousand years in a specially constructed stone vault on a mountainside. The Haeinsa Temple complex in South Korea has wonderful Buddhist murals, statues, musical instruments, and other items, as well as the 80,000 printing blocks of the Tripitaka Koreana.

The largest Buddha carving in China is at Leshan in Sichuan province, carved into the cliffs of a tributary of the Yangzi River. The Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang house some of the most fabulous Buddhist statues, carved from natural stone in the rock cliffs in eastern China. In the Dunhuang Grottoes in Gansu province, giant statues of Buddhas and painted frescoes from several hundred years of occupancy are found in over 400 caves along a small river that meanders through the harsh deserts and sand dunes of northwest China. Styles of Theravada Buddhist sculpture, paintings, and temple architecture can be found in the Dai ethnic group regions in Xishuangbanna, in southern Yunnan province.

In Japan, Zen Buddhism had a profound effect on Japanese society between the 13th and 16th centuries. Although samurai culture demanded skill in warfare, the martial arts were refined under the influence of Zen. Monks were responsible for introducing the teachings of the 6th century Indian monk Bodhidharma (Daruma in Japanese) from China and developing Zen aesthetics through art and meditative practice that included landscape painting, ceramics, and the building and maintenance of gardens. After 1600, Zen lost its patronage of the samurai government, but Zen influences spread through society, in part by efforts of artist monks. Paintings reflecting Zen concepts, ceramics, architecture, and fleeting arts such as flower arrangement, all were influenced by a contemplative Zen aesthetic, which found expression in activities such as the tea ceremony and visits to gardens like the Ryo’anji Temple in Kyoto.

In Nikko, Japan, the grand Toshogu Shrine that houses Tokugawa Ieyasu’s mausoleum was constructed using both Shinto and Buddhist styles.

Among the richest traditions of Buddhist art developed in Tibet under Indian, Central Asian, Chinese, and native influences of Bon shamanism. Buddhist monks (which at times included a large percentage of the male population) created paintings called thangka which represent Buddhist visions of the universe and states of Buddha and other figures from Buddhist lore. Vast temple complexes were adorned with huge murals relating Buddhist stories. Intricate sand paintings that are destroyed on completion and intricate butter statues demonstrate the illusion of permanency. A great amount of Tibetan art was taken by outsiders in the early 20th century or destroyed during unrest in the late 1950s and again in the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Since the 1980s, some temples have been rebuilt or restored and various art forms are again being produced. In 2004, a fabulous exhibit of Tibetan Buddhist art was held at the Columbus Museum of Art. Co-curated by John Huntington of OSU and Dina Bangdel, the exhibit represented Buddhist art as a concrete realization of the steps of Buddha’s enlightenment experience.  The Cleveland Museum of Art has several fine examples of Tibetan art.

Interactions between East and West

Although China was a major creative force in the art of East Asia, Chinese culture was influenced considerably at different times by the cultures of India, Central Asia, and even the Mediterranean. Influences of Greco-Roman architecture and sculpture, especially styles of columns and the drapery and representation of human figures in some Buddhist statues, were incorporated into traditions of Buddhist art in India and made their way across the Silk Road as far as Japan. The Western painting techniques of perspective, portraiture, and full canvas painting, were introduced (with limited influence) into China and Korea by Jesuits beginning in the Ming dynasty. By the late 18th century, some Japanese artists were experimenting with European landscape techniques and oil paints. Influences went the other way, as well, sometimes through complicated channels. For instance, the Dutch introduced the secrets of porcelain (favored in part because it held alcohol well) into Europe from Japan by the 17th century, stimulating the blue and white ware industries in Delft (located in Holland) and other cities. The blue and white pattern was actually Ming dynasty Chinese, though the cobalt blue pigment was Persian in origin. To complicate the story, the Japanese had earlier gotten porcelain secrets from a whole village of Korean potters kidnapped in the invasions of the late 16th century.

In the 18th century an interest in things Chinese, known as “Chinoiserie,” swept Europe and influenced garden design, fashion (such as French women with parasols and folding fans, which were actually a Japanese invention), and an interest in East Asian art. Commodore Perry’s opening of Japan in the 1850s stimulated a similar interest in things Japanese called “Japonisme.” This wave of interest began in Europe in the 1860s and stimulated Impressionist artists like Vincent Van Gogh. An American version of Japonisme crested in the 1880s and 1890s and continued into the 1920s. The fever for things Japanese included exhibitions of and publications on Japanese art. Several American artists, some who spent time in Japan, employed Japanese techniques, often producing creations on Japanese themes. These artists of the late 1890s and early 20th century included painters John La Farge and Robert Blum; woodblock artists Helen Hyde and Bertha Lum; and architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Edna Boies Hopkins, who had a connection with The Ohio State University, also created woodblock prints.

Edna Boies Hopkins graduated from the Art Academy of Cincinnati in 1899 and married John Hopkins in 1904. The couple took a world tour, spending part of it in Japan. John was later head of the Department of Fine Arts at The Ohio State University. Edna, who wore pants and dyed her hair red, lived a rather flamboyant life in New York. She held exhibitions of her prints in Paris, including at the Louvre.

CLASSIC TRADITIONAL ARTS

Appreciating Calligraphy

Calligraphy is the art of writing Chinese characters with a brush. It has traditionally been considered the most respected art form, where individual works of calligraphy have been highly sought after by Chinese collectors for centuries. Valued for its beauty and execution, good calligraphy directly communicates life force (“qi”) in every stroke and gives moral insight into the heart/mind of the artist. Excellent calligraphy was the mark of learning and cultivation among scholar-officials in East Asia, as well as learned samurai, artist-monks, and cultivated women. Some Chinese emperors, such as Song Huizong, of the Song dynasty, are remembered as much for their calligraphy as their ability to rule.

In more recent times, the calligraphy of the late Chairman Mao Zedong has been recognized in the PRC for its excellence. Calligraphy was the mark of a person’s cultivation and embodied both personality and moral integrity. Each stroke is carefully scrutinized and once executed cannot be “fixed up” by going back over a line. Since scholars were often called upon to write poems or dedications in public, it was essential to have excellent calligraphy in order to avoid losing face. In some cases, a few calligraphers ability took on an almost mythical quality. The Korean scholar Kim Gu (1488-1534) is said to have produced such powerful writing that the characters literally seemed alive. Towards the end of his life he wrote a large version of the word “to fly” and displayed it on his wall. Sometime later the paper began to mysteriously float around the room before disappearing. It was later discovered that he had died at the same moment. (Yoo 1988: 117)

Calligraphy is still practiced by many people today, often using models that date back to the 4th century CE. Five basic styles, with many variations are followed. The very early styles are still appreciated and produced as decorative art and often used in making name seals. More “regular” styles were used in official and everyday writing (and became the basis for printed characters), while the more cursive styles (difficult to read, though extremely beautiful) border on abstract art. Bookstores and special calligraphy supply shops offer copybooks, models, brushes, ink stones and other equipment that is nearly identical to that used in Chinese painting.

How to Read an East Asian Painting

Few examples of painting exist before the Han dynasty in China, though images inscribed in stone (which may have been painted), colorful weaving, and tomb murals that depict humans and supernatural beings suggest what might have been. Paintings on tomb walls date from the Han period in both China and Korea, giving insight into daily life of the times, and sometimes incorporating images of nature.

Buddhist art dating from the 4th-century CE covers the walls in the Mogao caves at Dunhuang in Gansu province, China. The earliest true landscape paintings date from the Six Dynasties period between the fall of the Han dynasty and the Tang. In the Tang, portraits of human activity were popular.

Tang landscape paintings, typically executed in blues and greens, often featured mountain scenes with minimal human presence. Landscape painting reached new peaks in the 11th century in the Northern Song dynasty. It was during this period that it became common to write poems directly onto paintings, thus combining the arts of calligraphy, poetry, and painting. The towering landscapes of the Northern Song, eventually gave way to more distant landscapes in the Southern Song, in which large blank white spaces (negative space, often representing mist or clouds) were prominent, contrasting with starkly painted mountains and trees executed in black ink and lighter grey washes. Over time a diversity of landscape styles evolved, and continue to evolve today. Landscape paintings in Chinese styles were transmitted to Korea and Japan where local characteristics developed. During the Joseon dynasty, many Korean scholar officials (the yangban) spent their leisure hours in painting landscapes, some with unique rockery that reflected the geographical nature of the peninsula. In Japan, some styles of landscape painting acquired fantastic color patterns, while others were strongly influenced by Zen.

Besides the more contemplative styles, other Japanese landscapes are vibrant in color and activity. This is illustrated by a huge painting executed on folding screens produced in the early Edo period around 1611. Attributed to Tosa Mitsuyoshi, the work depicts the Battle of Sekigahara. The screen depicts the warring armies of Tokugawa Ieyasu and his rival, Commissioner Mitsunari. More than 2,000 figures (out of an estimated 160,000 actual participants) are illustrated on the screen, which includes colorful banners, bright green hills, and shimmering mists made with gold leaf.

Aside from landscapes, smaller scale subjects such as birds, flowers, insects, fish, rocks, and bamboo became popular themes by the 11th century. Korean literati artists were especially taken with images of tigers (associated with the Mountain God), some so vibrant that they seem ready to leap off of the paper.

The brush strokes used in calligraphy are very similar to those used in the art of painting, both skills requiring years of practice to master. Young calligraphy students would sometimes be given an egg to hold in their brush hand. By wrapping their fingers around the egg they could properly align their fingers on the brush, which is held in an upright position, very differently from European technique. Students learn each stroke one by one, moving from basic to more complex. Each stroke must conform in general shape to a model, which is usually placed nearby and carefully examined before beginning the stroke. There are also special copybooks that students can use with outlined strokes and lines with arrows that indicate the proper direction of the brush.

Calligraphy and painting are judged by the quality of the individual brush strokes, positioning of elements, and the overall effect of the parts as a whole. The qi life force should be present in every stroke of a painting or calligraphic composition. Likewise, the relation between negative (empty) and positive (filled) space is important, and the “blank” spaces that make up many paintings in East Asia are as crucial in creating an effect as those covered in ink. These features are also important elements in the related art of garden architecture in which the scene shifts as one changes position in the carefully constructed “natural” landscape.

In traditional times landscape paintings were often prized by urban dwellers because of the depictions of wild nature (usually tempered by the addition of a small pavilion or boat, subtly indicating the presence of insignificant humans). Whether horizontal or vertical scrolls, fans, or screens, the paintings were escape portals to another world, in a way like the modern use of television sets (at least the National Geographic channel!) and computer screens. Paintings, especially the larger ones, were designed so that the viewer’s eye enters at a point low on the painting, then follows a winding path through rocks, water, trees, and clouds up through the landscape into the heavens. One very long scroll painting of a river lined with mountains was put on display in the 1980s in a museum in Guangxi, China. The painting stretched through several rooms and allowed viewers to leisurely wander through a traditional “virtual” landscape. 

Special tools are needed in the process of East Asian painting. Traditional painters, scholar-officials, and literate women in well-placed families prized themselves on these “precious objects,” which are: paper (or silk), brush, ink, ink stone, water, water container, brush rack or holder, paper weights, name seal, and vermilion ink.

Paper was in many grades and made of different plants, including shredded mulberry bark or bamboo. Ink was made of pine soot mixed with special organic glue and formed into hard sticks, sometimes enhanced by gold paint, molded surface designs, and incense. The ink was ground on an ink stone that was a semi-hard polished stone with a sloping water hole carved. Water from a special ceramic water container was poured into the deep end of the hole, leaving the sloping upper surface of the hole dry.

The ink stick was ground in a circular motion on the stone, occasionally looping into the water so that the ink formed by dissolving a small amount of solid ink into the water. When the resulting ink was jet black and the right consistency, the painter would carefully dip the brush into the ink stone, smooth the tip, and then execute the strokes on the paper, which was held in place by smooth paperweights of jade or other stone. Lighter washes could be obtained by dipping the brush in water.

The brush was carefully made of several inner and outer layers of hair (wolf, rabbit, etc.) that create an ink reservoir inside and come to a point. Brushes had to be carefully hung on a brush rack (made of bamboo or red wood) so that the points would not be damaged. Brushes were placed horizontally on smaller holders when the painter or calligrapher was pausing to examine his or her work.

When the painting was complete, the painter, or another calligrapher would add a short poem, and possibly a signature and date. Finally, the artist would take a specially carved name seal, made of jade, horn, agate, ivory, or other hard substance (plastic is common today!), and dip the end carved with his or her name into cotton soaked with red ink. (This sort of ink, called vermilion, was imported from China to trade with Native American groups in the 18th and 19th century for use as make-up).

The name stamp was then artfully applied to the painting, often beneath the poem. Later owners might also add their name seals. Some paintings in the imperial collections in Beijing and Taibei, Taiwan, have dozens of seals, the largest ones representing the emperor’s ownership. After the seal was applied, the painting was often mounted with organic glues on a background of elegant paper, often in the form of a scroll or fan.

CERAMICS

East Asian ceramics range from the coarse earthenware and stoneware of the common people to the exquisite celadons and porcelains of the ruling classes. The earliest examples of pottery in the world date to Japan as early as 10,000 BCE. However, these early styles seemed to have arisen and died out in Japan without influencing other regions. Later, pottery technology from the northern and coastal China mainland replaced the earlier Japanese styles. Chinese pottery and ceramics include the entire terra-cotta army guarding Emperor Qin Shihuang’s tomb, to egg-shell thin porcelains. Many Chinese kiln sites developed around areas with good clay, including the famous Jingdezhen site in Zhejiang province. Korean ceramics were among the very finest produced in East Asia. The following sections briefly outline the development of ceramics in each cultural area and illustrate most common styles.

China

Pottery in China dates back about 8,000 years, to the Neolithic period. These Neolithic styles, evolved before glaze was invented, include the yellowish-orange Yangshao pottery from the Yellow River region and the black Longshan pottery from coastal areas. By the Shang dynasty ceramics were in use for daily and ritual purposes. Bronze casting technology is closely linked with early methods of pottery production that used molds. By the Qin dynasty (221-206 BCE) ceramic art had evolved to the point where massive armies of thousands of soldiers and horses could be constructed and buried with the emperor.

During the Silk Road era many types of pottery developed. Most famous are the large horses, camels, and humans decorated with a three-color glaze (white, yellow, and green). By the ninth-century, celadon (qingci  in Chinese) was developed in China and soon spread to Korea. Bluish-green celadon was the favorite of emperors in the Song dynasty and famous styles included Ru ware and Jun ware.