A History of Japanese Art Read online

  A HISTORY OF

  JAPANESE ART

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  Noritake Tsuda was a Lecturer on Fine Arts at New York University. He was also on the staff of the Imperial Museum of Art in Tokyo and in this capacity traveled to New York and spent two years in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Far Eastern Art aiding in the preparation of a catalog of Japanese arms and armor. He is also the author of ABC of Japanese Art.

  Patricia Graham

  Patricia Graham, a former professor of Japanese art and culture, and museum curator, is an independent scholar and Asian art consultant based in Lawrence, Kansas. Among her many publications are two books: Tea of the Sages: The Art of Sencha (University of Hawaii Press, 1998) and Faith and Power in Japanese Buddhist Art: 1600-2005 (University of Hawaii Press, 2007).

  A HISTORY OF

  JAPANESE ART

  From Prehistory to the Taisho Period

  With a new foreword by Patricia Graham

  NORITAKE TSUDA

  A Comprehensive Guide to the Temples, Museums, and Art Treasures of Japan.

  TUTTLE PUBLISHING

  Tokyo • Rutland, Vermont • Singapore

  Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd., with editorial offices at 364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, Vermont 05759 U.S.A.

  Copyright © 2009 Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Tsuda, Noritake.

  [Handbook of Japanese art]

  A history of Japanese art: from prehistory to the Taisho period / by Noritake Tsuda.p.cm.

  Previously published as: Handbook of Japanese art. 1976.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 978-4-8053-1031-1 (pbk.: alk. paper)

  1. Art, Japanese. I. Title.

  N7350.T73 2009

  709.52-dc22

  2008055786

  ISBN 978-4-8053-1031-1

  ISBN 978-1-4629-1678-8 (ebook)

  Distributed by

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  CONTENTS

  Map showing the distribution of Japanese art

  Foreword

  Notes to Readers of the New 2009 Edition

  Author's Preface

  List of Illustrations

  PART ONE — A Brief History Of Japanese Art

  Chapter 1

  Introduction

  Chapter 2

  Archaic Japanese Art: Prior to the Introduction of Buddhism in 552 A.D

  1 Prehistoric Pottery

  2 Prehistoric Bronze Implements

  3 General Survey of the Protohistoric Art

  4 Protohistoric Pottery

  5 Protohistoric Arms and Armor

  6 Protohistoric Horse Furniture

  7 Protohistoric Bronze Mirrors

  8 Protohistoric Personal Ornaments

  Chapter 3

  Early Buddhist Art: Te Suiko Period 552-645 A.D.

  1 General Survey

  2 Painting

  3 Sculpture

  4 Industrial Arts

  5 Architecture

  Chapter 4

  Buddhist Art under the Influence of T‘ang Art: The Nara Period 646-793 A.D

  1 General Survey

  2 Painting

  3 Bronze Sculpture

  4 Wood Sculpture

  5 Dry-Lacquer Sculpture

  6 Clay Sculpture

  7 Textile Art

  8 Metal Work

  9 Musical Instruments

  10 Architecture

  Chapter 5

  The Art of Esoteric Buddhism: The Heian Period 794-893 A.D.

  1 General Survey

  2 Painting

  3 Sculpture

  4 Industrial Arts

  5 Architecture

  Chapter 6

  The Art of the Court Life: The Fujiwara Period 894-1185 A.D.

  1 General Survey .

  2 Painting

  3 Sculpture

  4 Industrial Arts .

  5 Architecture

  Chapter 7

  Realistic Art under New Religious Inspiration: The Kamakura Period 1186-1333 A.D.

  1 General Survey .

  2 Painting .

  3 Sculpture

  4 Metal Work

  5 Pottery

  6 Lacquer Ware

  7 Architecture

  Chapter 8

  Idealistic Art under Zen Inspiration: The Muromachi Period 1334-1573 A.D.

  1 General Survey

  2 Painting

  3 Sculpture

  4 Metal Work

  5 Lacquer Ware

  6 Pottery

  7 Buddhist Architecture

  8 Residential Architecture

  9 The Art of Gardening

  Chapter 9

  A Renaissance of Art: The Momoyama Period 1574-1614 A.D.

  1 General Survey

  2 Painting

  3 Metal Work

  4 Lacquer Ware

  5 Ceramic Art

  6 Architecture

  Chapter 10

  Plebeian Art: The Yedo Period 1615-1866 A.D.

  1 General Survey

  2 Painting

  The Kanō School

  Decorative Painting

  Ukiyo-e Print and Painting

  The Nangwa School

  The Maruyama and the Shijō Schools

  Miscellaneous Masters

  3 Pottery

  Ninsei

  Kaki-e-mon Ware

  Iro-nabeshima Ware

  Satsuma Ware

  Ko-kutani Ware

  4 Gold Lacquer Ware

  5 Textile Industry

  6 Architecture

  7 The Art of Gardening

  Chapter 11

  The Art of the New Age: The Meiji-Taishō Era 1867-1926 A.D.

  Chapter 12

  Contemporary Art

  PART 2 — Guide To Temples And Museums

  Chapter 1

  Tokyo

  1 Tokyo Imperial Household Museum, Ueno Park

  Painting

  Sculpture

  Ceramic Art

  Lacquer Ware

  Metal Work

  2 The Tōshō-gū Shrine, Ueno Park

  3 The Five-stor
ied Stupa, Ueno Park

  4 The Sensō-ji Monastery, Asakusa Park

  5 Zōjō-ji Monastery, Shiba Park

  6 The Yūshū-kwan Museum, Kudan

  Chapter 2

  Kamakura

  1 Engaku-ji Monastery, Kamakura

  2 Daibutsu, Kamakura

  3 The Kokuhō-kwan Museum, Kamakura

  Chapter 3

  Nikko, Sendai, and Hiraizumi

  1 The Tōshō-gū Shrine at Nikko

  2 The Zuigan-ji, Matsushima

  3 Kwanran-tei, Matsushima

  4 Chūson-ji Monastery, Hiraizumi

  Chapter 4

  Nagoya Castle

  Chapter 5

  Kyoto and Vicinity

  1 The Kyoto Onshi Museum of Art

  Painting

  Sculpture

  Industrial Arts

  2 Myōhō-in Monastery and Three Historical Buildings, Kyoto

  3 Chishaku-in Monastery and its Palatial Buildings, Kyoto

  4 Sanjusangen-dō Temple and its One Tousand Golden Statues, Kyoto

  5 Kiyomizu-dera, the Famous Monastery of Kwannon, Kyoto.

  6 Chion-in, the Head Monastery of the Jōdo Sect, Kyoto

  7 Nanzen-ji, the Famous Monastery of Zen Buddhism, Kyoto

  8 Gin-kaku-ji, or Silver Pavilion, Kyoto

  9 The Shugaku-in Imperial Villa, Kyoto

  10 Daitoku-ji, the Great Monastery of the Rinzai Sect, Kyoto.

  11 Shinju-an Chapel, Kyoto

  12 Kohō-an Chapel, its Garden and Tearoom

  13 Kin-kaku-ji or the Golden Pavilion, the Former Villa of the Shogun

  14 Kitano-jinja, the Shrine Dedicated to the Statesman, Sugawara Michizane

  15 Nijo Castle, the Former Palace of the Shogun in Kyoto

  16 Nishi-Hongwan-ji, the Great Monastery of the Shinshū Sect

  17 Tōfuku-ji, the Great Monastery of Zen Buddhism, Kyoto.

  18 Hō-ō-dō, the Finest Temple of the Fujiwara Nobility

  19 Daigo-ji Monastery, its Garden and Architecture, Kyoto

  20 Daikaku-ji, the Great Monastery of the Shingon Sect, Kyoto

  21 Katsura Imperial Villa, Kyoto

  22 Chikubu-shima Shrine at the Island in Lake Biwa

  Chapter 6

  Nara and Vicinity

  1 Nara Imperial Household Museum

  Sculpture

  Painting

  Metal Work

  2 Tōdai-ji, the head Monastery of the Kegon Sect, Nara

  3 Hokke-dō Temple, Nara

  4 Kaidan-in or the Initiation Hall of Tōdai-ji, Nara

  5 Shōsō-in Treasury, Nara

  6 Shinyakushi-ji Monastery, Nara

  7 Tōshōdai-ji, the head Monastery of the Risshū Sect of Buddhism

  8 Yakushi-ji, the Head Monastery of the Hossō Sect of Buddhism

  9 Hōryū-ji, the Oldest Buddhist Monastery in Japan

  10 Taima-dera Monastery, Yamato

  Appendixes

  1 List of Museums, Temple Treasuries and Private Collections

  2 References for Foreword

  3 Bibliography of Noritake Tsuda

  4 A Short Bibliography

  Index

  THE DISTRIBUTION OF JAPANESE ART

  FOREWORD

  The occasion of this reprinting of Tsuda Noritake's 1935 Handbook of Japanese Art, with the new title, A History of Japanese Art, From Prehistory to the Taisho Period, offers an interesting opportunity to consider the relationship between Japanese politics and culture at a pivotal moment in history. After a period of intense industrialization in the first two decades following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, influential private individuals and government officials, sometimes working cooperatively, began to create arts institutions, arts organizations, and laws to rekindle appreciation for the nation's cultural heritage. They designed these not only to foster appreciation for Japan's past, but also to further its modernizing processes and to fashion its contemporary identity in the international arena. Contemporaneously, government directives of 1890 proclaimed that native gods protected the nation (Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors) and instructed all students in values of filial piety, with particular emphasis on ensuring their loyalty to the Emperor (Imperial Rescript on Education). By the beginning of the twentieth century, these and other efforts had resulted in widespread and varied nationalist movements, aspects of which the government used to justify its imperialist ambitions (Gluck 1985, Fujitani 1996). In this environment, art took center stage. Promoting the nation's art abroad became a means for Japan to earn respect from Western nations and garner goodwill to deflect international criticism from its unpopular foreign policies. Tsuda's Handbook of Japanese Art, which was the first road survey of Japanese art published in Japan, was produced by a commercial Japanese publisher that worked in close cooperation with government cultural promotion agencies. Thus is must be considered as part of this effort.

  Tsuda’s Life and Professional Career

  Despite investigation for this essay, much of Tsuda Noritake's life remains a mystery. Bibliographic records list his birth date as 1883, but do not provide a death date. Information on Tsuda comes from citations to his numerous publications, unpublished manuscripts, and records of lectures, both in Japanese and English, between 1908 and 1961 (see Appendix 3 on page 455) in bibliographic databases and library catalogues, and materials in the archives of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where he worked briefly in the 1920s. Names of scholars that appear in the records of Tsuda's publications, and the text and preface to his Handbook of Japanese Art, also help identify his mentors and the scholarly circles to which he belonged.

  The level of detail in Tsuda's first extant writing, a lengthy, unpublished, English language manuscript on Japanese lacquer dated 1908, suggests that he possessed inside knowledge of the field. Supporting this supposition are notes in a Christies, London, art auction catalogue of November 17,1999 (lot #112), about a lacquer writing box attributed to the self-taught lacquer artist Tsuda Sokan (1868-1934). The catalogue proposes some familial connection between Sokan and Tsuda Noritake, because Tsuda Noritakes lacquer manuscript acknowledges Itō Teibun (who worked at the same time as Sokan in a similar manner), as the source of much of his information. Tsuda's first known published article of 1909, about a lacquer saddle, supports the conclusion that special knowledge of lacquer facilitated his entry into the art world.

  This manuscript, which appears to have been composed initially in English, also infers that at an early age Tsuda had attained good command of English. Many students studied English then due to government and private initiatives to facilitate communication and better understanding about Japan with foreigners, although few became highly proficient. Tsuda's capability with English undoubtedly helped secure his future as an emissary of Japanese culture abroad. In this climate, the prestigious monthly art journal Kokka (Flowers of the nation), established in 1889 and originally issued in Japanese, was produced wholly in English between 1905 and 1918, so as to inform foreigners about Japanese art. Other journals of this era were also produced in bi-lingual or entirely English editions. One of these, The Japan Magazine, that began publication in 1910 under the direction of European editors, was bi-lingual until June 1911, when it thereafter appeared in English only. Between 1911 and 1918, Tsuda wrote numerous short articles for this magazine on religion and art. The by-line for his first article in November 1911 listed no institutional affiliation, but from his contribution in May 1912, when he was thereafter identified as an "expert of the Tokyo Imperial Museum" (now the Tokyo National Museum), we can infer he began working for the museum then. One article, "The Gods and War," introduced ancient weapons and armor, and occasionally digressed into passionate observations on the warfare in his own time. He particularly noted the supremacy of Japan's divine protectors in comparison to those of other nations. These comments reveal his acquiescence to widespread enthusiasm for cultural and ethnic nationalism, the focus of much recent work (Doak 1996).

  Early promoters
of the spiritual potency of Japan's artistic heritage included Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908), a Harvard graduate who traveled to Japan in 1878 to teach philosophy at the Tokyo Imperial University and thereafter became an influential and ardent promoter of its arts before returning to Boston to become the first curator of Oriental art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; and his colleague Okakura Kakuzō (also known as Tenshin; 1862-1913), with whom Fenollosa worked closely in Japan to establish arts institutions, and who succeeded him as curator in Boston. Okakura authored several influential English language books that elucidated his views on nationalism as related to the arts (Okakura 1903, 1904, 1906). Some of Tsuda's comments in his "Gods and War" article echo those Okakura expounded about idealistic values of the East and Japan's sacred ancestry (Notehelfer 1990: 349-351). The emphasis on Shinto in Tsuda's "Gods and War" article, and in another, published in Japanese in 1919, suggests Katō Genchi (1873-1965), one of the first scholars appointed as lecturer in a Shinto studies program founded in 1921 at Tokyo Imperial University, as someone else who influenced his views. Tsuda's 1919 essay reported Katō's viewpoints. Katō had followed the lead of his mentor, Inoue Tetsujirō (1855-1944), in linking Shinto beliefs with nationalism. Tsuda remained in contact with Katō for many years, evidenced by the fact that in 1937, he contributed an essay (on a Buddhist subject) to a volume Katō edited. Like Katō, who also wrote about Shinto in English, Tsuda frequently authored publications on Japanese religious traditions in English.

  Tsuda also indicated, in an English-language letter of Oct. 27,1923, in Metropolitan Museum of Art Arms and Armor Department Archives, that he was then preparing a study of Japanese mythology from a religious and sociological point of view, and planned to submit it to the Tokyo Imperial University for a "degree of doctor." Apparently this study was accepted because later Japanese publications by Tsuda indicate his title as Gakujutsu hakase (doctor of arts degree), but this was an intermediary Japanese degree, above a Masters and below a full doctorate degree (Bungaku hakase). The higher degree was rare at that time, and those who attained it generally went on to teaching careers, unlike Tsuda, who never did. The letter also expressed his hopes that his study would be published in English, but this does not seem to have come to fruition. Tsuda's interests in explaining Japan to foreigners may have drawn him to Katō and also to other Tokyo Imperial University professors with similar interests, including Baron Dan Itō (1892-?), a famous collector who briefly taught art history there, and the distinguished scholar of religion, Anesaki Masaharu (1873-1949), both of whom he prominently thanked in the preface to his Handbook of Japanese Art. Tsuda's approach to his study of art owes much to Anesaki, whose own interests paralleled that of the illustrious intellectual Nitobe Inazō (1862-1933), who, during a long career as academic, diplomat, and politician, taught colonial studies at Tokyo Imperial University. Nitobe authored a famous English language book, Bushidō: The Soul of a Nation, in 1900, which explained the philosophy of Japan's "way of the warrior" to foreigners. This book also helped the Japanese imperial government rationalize the nationalistic basis for its expansionist policies. Nitobe was active in the League of Nations since its inception in 1920, and in 1926 served as founding director of that organization's International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, which also included Anesaki. Tsuda's ideas about ethnic nationalism seem indebted to those of Nitobe.