| The Japanese visual arts is the most antique and refined of all Japan. It is divided by genres and styles, which vary depending on the artists.
The most common and significant themes are the Buddhist religious paintings, landscape tint paintings, calligraphy of ideographs, and finally, the animal and plants paintings. These paintings also portrayed scenes from the everyday life of the Japanese and narrations that were full of figures and details. The Kanji, sinograms of Japanese literature, was very common too and it is found in most Japanese artworks. These are used frequently for expressing concepts. The religious paintings in Japan emerged during the VI and VII centuries, known as the Nara period. These paintings were used to decorate antique temples of the aristocracy. However, from this period, there were more sculptures and murals found than paintings and many of its artists were anonymous as they were related to religion. Moreover, during the Heian period (794-1185) the mandalas appeared. The mandala paintings were characterized by looking like big flowers with extravagant designs, such as plants and animals. These were used to be painted in murals or in gold paper, where they would later stand out in religious temples.
In the middle of this period, the introduction of visual arts in sliding doors known as fusuma and the folding screens known as byöbu occurred. At the end of this era, historic artworks were starting to be seen and recognized. After these two periods, the E-maki was found where women and men pictures and paintings stood out. These were created by different painting styles such as the quick brush and uncoordinated strokes. Besides, we find a more recent style which was known as the Onna-e. This art consisted of painting life in court and the courtesan romance. However, there was another similar style known as Otoko-e which was principally based on semi-legendary events and fights. Later on, the Kamakura period continued with the vast majority of these styles, yet in this period the sculpture was more characteristic than the paintings. Although these were the most typical and known styles, the period Muromachi was also characterized due to the migration of the paintings made with ink in the Zen monasteries to the world of arts generally. As a result of this period, there were other many zones of Japanese art that began to develop, most of them known nowadays. If you’d like to know more about how the houses would look like check our web page https://hjapon.com/dream-home-project |
