Japanese Art and It’s Influence on The Western World

A priority on the agenda of Tokugawa Ieyasu, when he was granted the title of shogun in 1603, was to limit foreign travel to Japan and keep common Japanese people from leaving the country. This was the beginning of the Tokugawa period, also known as the Edo period, a time of peace, political stability, economic prosperity, and the rise of culture. The first associations that cross my mind when I think of Japan— haiku, the tea ceremony, kabuki, wood-block prints, Japanese porcelain, bonsai trees, gardening —were spurred development during the Edo period, as this was the time when the traditions of the past were revived and refined.

Three Kabuki Actors Playing Hanetsuki; ca. 1823; Utagawa Kuniyasu. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Katsushuka Hokusai (1760–1849) and Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) were one of the prominent artists of the period. They relovutionized Ukiyo-e (a Japanese genre of painting and woodblock printing) with focusing on nature and daily life in Japan. Hokusai, in his early works, depicted exciting Kabuki actors of the urban pleasure distict, and later conveyed the beauty of landscapes in his masterpieces. One of his works is the most universally known Japanese piece of art — the Great Wave of Kanagawa.

Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei); ca. 1830–32. Source: Wikipedia

Hiroshige’s great talent memorialized life and landscape vistas in Japan, captured the tangible nature of snow, rain, mist and moonlight. He left a deep impression on people in Japan and overseas with his series of Ukiyo-e prints, particularly The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō and One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.

Evening Snow at Kanbara, from the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō”; ca. 1833–34. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

With the arrival of Commander Matthew C. Perry of the United States Navy in 1853, the Sakoku (“closed country”) period ended, and Perry’s arrival marked the beginning of the modern era of trade between Japan and western world. And, of course, the era of cultural exchange. People were fascinated and inspired by Japan, as Japan produced objects of a unique beauty. By the time of the opening of the great International Exhibition in Paris in 1867, Japanese prints made a strong influece on artists in the west and were known everywhere. Japanese art taught artists how to eliminate the non-essential details and use colours. Not surprisingly, Japanese art works were particularly popular among the Impressionists. They adopted the Japanese style of exaggeration, strong diagonals, and elimination of the unnecessary.

Below, I’ve chosen the prominent examples of Japonism in the west:

Edgar Degas

One may easily draw parallels of Japanese Ukiyo-e and the paintings of Edgar Degas, which potray the realism of daily life.

Edgar Degas’ “The Tub” (1886) and one of the Japanese woodblock prints. Source: Park West Gallery

Marie Cassatt

Marie Cassatt went further. Her work’s exemplify her indebtedness to Japanese art.

Mother’s Kiss; ca. 1891. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Source: The Coiffure; ca. 1890–91. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Van Gogh

Van Gogh owned a collection of over 200 Japanese prints, and some prints could be seen in the background of his paintings (Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear). Van Gogh also redeployed a reed-pen-and-ink technique of Hokusai, particularly amid his paintings of olive trees.

Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear; 1889. Source: The Courtauld Institute of Art. Olive Trees; 1889. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

“Before the arrival among us of Japanese picture books, there was no-one in France who dared to seat himself on the banks of a river and put side by side on his canvas a roof frankly red, a green poplar, a yellow road and blue water.” Théodore Duret, 1886.