Painting Schools and Styles
- Suibokuga is the term for painting in black ink. It was adopted from China and strongly influenced by Zen Buddhism. During the 15th century ink painting gained a more Japanese style of its own. A wide range of black ink tonalities are used, however colors art not completely uncommon in this style.
- Kano Masanobu (1453-1490) and his son Kano Motonobu (1476-1559) established the Kano painting school. It began as a protest against the Chinese ink painting technique in black. The Kano school used bright colors and introduced daring compositions with large flat areas that later should dominate the ukiyo-e designs. The Kano school split into several branches over the time, but remained dominant during the Edo period. Many ukiyo-e artists were trained as Kano painters.
- Tosa-ha was a painting school specialized on small miniature formats in book illustrations. The founder was Tosa Yukihiro in the 14th century. The Tosa school became something like the official art school of the imperial court in Kyoto. The imperial court was a secluded world of its own, politically powerless, but well equipped with funds by the governing shoguns to dedicate themselves to fine arts.
- The nanga painting style was strong at the beginning of the 19th century during the bunka and bunsai era. The advocates of this style painted idealized landscapes and natural subjects like birds and flowers for a cultural elite. The style was rather Chinese.
- The shijo school was a split in the 18th century from the official Kano school. The shijo style is characterized by subjects taken from people's everyday life. A kind of realism with sometimes satirical elements.
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