Nise-e (似絵), or "likeness pictures," were a style of

portraiture A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...

popular in the

court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in acco ...

circles of Japan's

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

. Prior to the 12th century Japanese art was purely religious in character, but nise-e introduced the realistic depiction of lay figures such as

courtiers A courtier () is a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other royalty. The earliest historical examples of courtiers were part of the retinues of rulers. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the official ...

and

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

. The popularity of nise-e even helped to end the

taboo A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

against artistic depictions of the emperor, with one of earliest nise-e to depict a living

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

being a portrait of

Emperor Hanazono was the 95th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1308 through 1318. Genealogy Before his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name (his ''imina'') was Tomihito''-s ...

b
Gōshin
The aim of a nise-e portrait was to capture a man's character with a few simple lines; and the work served as a veneration of his accomplishments. Fujiwara Takanobu is generally considered to have originated the nise-e style and technique. He innovated the use of jutting, angular outlines and dense swaths of color which came to characterize nise-e portraiture as a whole. Takanobu's influence is seen in the works of his son Fujiwara Nobuzane, and descendants Tametsugu, Korenobu, Tamenobu, and Gōshin, who continued to develop the nise-e school alongside others such as Shinkai and Tametaga. Nise-e portraiture also greatly influenced the 18th century portrait style ''nigao-e'' (likeness head), pioneered by

Katsukawa Shunshō Shunshō Katsukawa ( ja, 勝川春章; 1726 – 19 January 1793) was a Japanese painter and printmaker in the '' ukiyo-e'' style, and the leading artist of the Katsukawa school. Shunshō studied under Miyagawa Shunsui, son and student of M ...

in response to a desire for

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

portraits with realistic and expressive facial features.

References

Japanese painting {{art-movement-stub