
is a style of artistic
painting
Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
in Japan, typically of Japanese subjects, themes, or landscapes, but using Western (European) artistic conventions, techniques, and materials. The term was coined in the
Meiji period
The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...
(1868–1912) to distinguish Western-influenced artwork from indigenous, or more traditional
Japanese painting
is one of the oldest and most highly refined of the Japanese visual arts, encompassing a wide variety of genres and styles. As with the history of Japanese arts in general, the long history of Japanese painting exhibits synthesis and competiti ...
s, or .
History
Early works
European painting was introduced to Japan during the late
Muromachi period
The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...
along with
Christian missionaries
A Christian mission is an organized effort to carry on evangelism, in the name of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries. Sometimes individuals are sent and ...
from
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
in 1543.
Early religious works by Japanese artists in imitation of works brought by the missionaries can be considered some of the earliest forms of ''Yōga''. However, the
policy of national seclusion introduced by the
Tokugawa bakufu
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868.
The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...
in the
Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
effectively ended the influence of western art on Japanese painting, with the exception of the use of
perspective, which was discovered by Japanese artists in sketches found in European medical and scientific texts imported from the
Dutch
Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
** Dutch people as an ethnic group ()
** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship ()
** Dutch language ()
* In specific terms, i ...
via
Nagasaki
, officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...
. Some Japanese artists incorporated the technique, such as
Utagawa Toyoharu
Utagawa Toyoharu (歌川 豊春, – 1814) was a Japanese artist in the ukiyo-e genre, known as the founder of the Utagawa school and for his ''uki-e'' pictures that incorporated Western-style Perspective (graphical), geometrical perspecti ...
in ''Perspective Pictures of Places in Japan'' (c. 1772–1781).
During the first half of the nineteenth century, some painting works showed influences of Western Art such as prints of
Katsushika Hokusai
, known mononymously as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. His woodblock print series '' Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'' includes the iconic print ''The Great Wave off Kanagawa''. Ho ...
. (''c''.1760–1849).
Rising during the Meiji Period
In 1855, the Tokugawa ''bakufu'' established the ''
Bansho Shirabesho'' (Institute for the Study of Barbarian Documents)'','' a translation and research institute for western studies, including a section to investigate western art.
This section was headed by
Kawakami Tōgai
Kawakami Tōgai, originally Hiroshi (Japanese:川上 冬崖; 22 July 1828, Nagano Prefecture - 3 May 1881, Atami) was a Japanese painter; one of the first to work in the yōga (Western) style.
Life and work
His birth name was Yamagishi Mannoj ...
,
whose assistant
Takahashi Yuichi
was a Japanese painter, noted for his pioneering work in developing the ''yōga'' (Western-style) art movement in late 19th-century Japanese painting.There were many Japanese painters who tried Western painting and Western style painting in th ...
was a student of English artist
Charles Wirgman
Charles Wirgman (31 August 1832 - 8 February 1891) was an English artist, caricaturist and editorial cartoonist, the creator of the '' Japan Punch'' and illustrator in China and Meiji period-Japan for the '' Illustrated London News''.
Wirgman w ...
. In 1868, Togai started a private art school and published ''A Guide to Western Style Painting'' (1871).
Takahashi is regarded by many as the first true Yōga painter.
Yuichi believed that Western style could help to build a Japanese national identity.
In 1876, the ''Kobu Bijutsu Gakkō'' (
Technical Art School) was established by the Meiji government as Japan's first dedicated ''Yōga'' art school.
Foreign advisors, such as the Italian artists
Antonio Fontanesi
Antonio Fontanesi (23 February 1818 – 17 April 1882) was an Italian painter who lived in Meiji period Japan between 1876 and 1878. He introduced European oil painting techniques to Japan, and exerted a significant role in the development of mo ...
,
Vicenzo Ragusa and
Giovanni Cappelletti Giovanni may refer to:
* Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname
* Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data
* ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...
were hired by the government to teach Japanese artists,
such as
Asai Chū
was a Japanese painter, noted for his pioneering work in developing the ''yōga'' (Western-style) art movement in late 19th century and early twentieth-century Japanese painting.
Biography
Asai was born to an ex-samurai class household in Sak ...
in the latest western techniques.
French artist
Raphael Collin also taught the Western-style to Japanese artists such as Kuroda Seiki,
Fuji Masazo
Fuji may refer to:
Places China
* Fuji, Xiangcheng City (付集镇), town in Xiangcheng City, Henan
Japan
* Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan
* Fuji River
* Fuji, Saga, town in Saga Prefecture
* Fuji, Shizuoka, city in Shizuoka Prefectu ...
, and
Asai Chū
was a Japanese painter, noted for his pioneering work in developing the ''yōga'' (Western-style) art movement in late 19th century and early twentieth-century Japanese painting.
Biography
Asai was born to an ex-samurai class household in Sak ...
. Despite that Impressionism was emerging, Collin was more interested in Neoclassical Academic painting and Naturalism of the
Barbizon school.
Japanese reaction against Yōga
In the 1880s, the general reaction against Westernization and the growth in popularity and strength of the ''
Nihonga
''Nihonga'' () is a Japanese style of painting that typically uses mineral pigments, and occasionally ink, together with other organic pigments on silk or paper. The term was coined during the Meiji period (1868–1912) to differentiate it from ...
'' movement caused the temporary decline of ''Yōga''. The ''Kobu Bijutsu Gakkō'' was forced to close in 1883, and when the ''Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkō'' (the forerunner of the
Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music
or is a school of art and music in Japan. Located in Ueno Park, it also has facilities in Toride, Ibaraki, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Kitasenju and Adachi, Tokyo. The university has trained artists in the fields of painting, sculpture, crafts, inter ...
) was established in 1887, only ''Nihonga'' subjects were taught.
However, in 1889, the ''Meiji Bijutsukai'' (Meiji Fine Arts Society) was established by ''Yōga'' artists, and in 1893, the return of
Kuroda Seiki
Viscount was a Japanese painter and teacher, noted for bringing Western art theory and practice to a wide Japanese audience.
He was among the leaders of the ''yōga'' (or Western-style) movement in late 19th and early 20th-century Japanese pai ...
from his studies in Europe gave fresh impetus to the ''Yōga'' genre, with the establishment of the
Hakuba-kai (White Horse Society). From 1896, a Yōga department was added to the curriculum of the ''Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkō'', and from that point onwards, ''Yōga'' has been an accepted component of Japanese painting. Later yōga art societies in Japan included
Shunyo-kai art society
Shunyo-kai art society (), is a Japanese art society founded in 1922 by the Western-style (''yōga'') artists from the painting department of Nihon Bijutsuin (English: ''Japan Visual Arts Academy''). As of 2021, they have some 200 members. They an ...
(related to
Nihon Bijutsuin), Teikoku Bijutsuin (the Imperial Fine Arts Academy), and the Nika Association.
Since that time, ''Yōga'' and ''Nihonga'' have been the two main divisions of modern Japanese painting. This division is reflected in education, the mounting of exhibitions, and the identification of artists. However, in many cases ''Nihonga'' artists also adopted realistic Western painting techniques, such as perspective and shading. Because of this tendency to synthesize, although ''Nihonga'' forms a distinct category within the Japanese annual ''
Nitten'' exhibitions, in recent years, it has become increasingly difficult to draw a distinct separation in either techniques or materials between ''Nihonga'' and ''Yōga''.
Declining of Yōga
During the
Pacific War
The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...
, Yōga’s oil painters used the Western style for highlighting the Japanese War effort. In the post-war, Yōga was perceived as a conservative style linked to the Japanese establishment of the prewar.
Characteristics
Yōga has been defined by using the medium and format of the
European tradition, such as
oils on canvas,
watercolors,
pastels
A pastel () is an art medium that consists of powdered pigment and a binder (material), binder. It can exist in a variety of forms, including a stick, a square, a pebble, and a pan of color, among other forms. The pigments used in pastels are ...
, and
pencil on paper. However, Yōga artists were criticized abroad for lack of authenticity and originality. As an answer to these critics, between the 1920s and 1930s, Yōga painters adopted materials associated with Nihonga and premodern painting traditions for Western topics. ''Reclining Nude with Toile de Jouy'' by
Foujita Tsuguharu (1886–1968) was an example of this trend. Tsuguharu combined oils with materials proper to Nihonga for the nude.
''Yōga'' in its broadest sense encompasses
oil painting
Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...
,
watercolor
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...
s,
pastels
A pastel () is an art medium that consists of powdered pigment and a binder (material), binder. It can exist in a variety of forms, including a stick, a square, a pebble, and a pan of color, among other forms. The pigments used in pastels are ...
,
ink sketches,
lithography
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...
,
etching
Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other type ...
and other techniques developed in western culture. However, in a more limited sense, ''Yōga'' is sometimes used specifically to refer to oil painting.
See also
*
List of Yōga painters
This is an alphabetical list of painters who are known for painting in the ''Yōga'' style. Some artists also painted in the Japanese ''Nihonga'' style, and that the division between the two groups could be blurred at points.
Artists are listed b ...
*
Akita ranga - "Dutch pictures", the
Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
predecessor to ''yōga''
*
Uki-e
refers to a genre of ukiyo-e pictures that employs western conventions of linear perspective. Although they never constituted more than a minor genre, pictures in perspective were drawn and printed by Japanese artists from their introduction in ...
- "floating pictures", woodblock prints utilizing western linear perspective.
*
Shin-hanga
was an art movement in early 20th-century Japan, during the Taishō and Shōwa periods, that revitalized the traditional '' ukiyo-e'' art rooted in the Edo and Meiji periods (17th–19th century). It maintained the traditional ''ukiyo-e' ...
- "New prints", an art movement contemporary with Yōga within the
Japanese woodblock print tradition.
*
Japonisme
''Japonisme'' is a French term that refers to the popularity and influence of Japanese art and design among a number of Western European artists in the nineteenth century following the Bakumatsu, forced reopening of foreign trade with Japan in 1 ...
*
List of art techniques There is no exact definition of what constitutes art. Artists have explored many styles and have used many different techniques to create art.
Art techniques
A
* Airbrush#Technique, Airbrushing technique
* Aerial_perspective#In_art, Aerial pe ...
References
Bibliography
*
Keene, Donald. ''Dawn to the West''.
Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's la ...
; (1998).
* Mason, Penelope. ''History of Japanese Art ''.
Prentice Hall
Prentice Hall was a major American publishing#Textbook_publishing, educational publisher. It published print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market. It was an independent company throughout the bulk of the twentieth cen ...
(2005).
* Sadao, Tsuneko. ''Discovering the Arts of Japan: A Historical Overview''.
Kodansha International
is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning'', '' Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Young Magazine'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'', ...
(2003).
* Schaarschmidt Richte. ''Japanese Modern Art Painting From 1910 ''. Edition Stemmle.
*
Weisenfeld, Gennifer. ''MAVO: Japanese Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1905-1931''.
University of California Press
The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...
(2001).
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yoga
Artistic techniques
Japanese painting
Rangaku
Schools of Japanese art
History of art in Japan