Nihonga

also: 日本画 · Japanese-style painting

style movement 1880s-present Japan

Nihonga - literally Japanese-style painting - is painting in traditional Japanese materials and idioms, named in the Meiji period (1868-1912) to distinguish it from Yōga, Western-style painting. The term dates from the 1880s, when critics Okakura Tenshin and Ernest Fenollosa championed a revival of native painting against the rush toward European oil technique. Kanō-school painter Hashimoto Gahō gave the revival its practical base at the Tokyo Fine Arts School, training Yokoyama Taikan, Hishida Shunsō and Kawai Gyokudō. Nihonga is not simply older painting continued: Meiji artists blended Kanō, Rinpa and Maruyama-Shijō traditions and selectively absorbed Western perspective and shading - Hishida's morotai (vague style) replaced outline with gradation. Painted on silk or paper with mineral pigments bound in animal glue, Nihonga remains a living contemporary practice in and beyond Japan.

Hayami Gyoshu: Dance of Flames (炎舞 Enbu)
Hayami Gyoshu: Dance of Flames (炎舞 Enbu)Public domain (credit: Hayami Gyoshu (1894-1935)) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Mineral pigments (iwa-enogu) bound in animal glue on silk or washi paper - a water-based matte surface
  • Monochrome ink gradations or layered polychrome, occasionally accented with gold or silver leaf
  • Outlines used selectively - birds and plants often drawn without contour
  • Soft gradation (morotai) absorbing Western perspective and shading into a traditional idiom
  • Classic subjects: landscapes, birds-and-flowers, beautiful women (bijinga), and Noh theater themes
  • Formats from hanging scrolls and folding screens to framed paintings on paper mounted on panels

Key figures

  • Hashimoto Gahō (1835-1908) — Kanō-school painter who built the revival's practical base and trained its masters
  • Okakura Kakuzō (Tenshin) (1862-1913) — Critic and educator who championed native painting against wholesale Westernization
  • Yokoyama Taikan (1868-1958) — Leading Meiji master; pioneered the soft-edged morotai style
  • Hishida Shunsō (1874-1911) — Developed morotai color gradation and defined the modern Nihonga look
  • Uemura Shōen (1875-1949) — Master of bijin-ga; first woman awarded Japan's Order of Culture

Example works

Sources

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