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JAPAN'S ART HERITAGE

Art in Japan has a long and glorious history that compares with that of any civilization. This book is not a history of Japanese art. After a short survey of many interesting features, old things are looked at with a collector's eye and an awareness that most ancient masterpieces are in temples and museums and are therefore unavailable for purchase. Yet those areas also deserve to be known and studied, like those to which collectors gravitate either from choice or fate. The aim is to provide some historical background, then examples and analysis in areas where collecting is feasible. Information and advice is offered to the would-be collector or the simply curious.

Japan as a Storehouse

Japan is a kind of attic of ancient art. Ever since the building of the Shōsōin Imperial Storehouse in AD 756, leaders have deliberately preserved as much as possible of the past. One might say that a kura (a fireproof storehouse built near the houses of the wealthy) is an apt image for the whole country. Wars may have devastated Kyoto, and the "flowers of Edo" (a term used to describe terrible, dangerous city fires) burnt much that was beautiful in Tokyo, but much too has been kept or rebuilt. The scope of the Imperial Collections attests to the desire to retain good things from the past. Even after taking power from the court, the shōgun (military dictators) proved they were men of culture, building on past achievements and patronizing great artists. Temples and shrines also played a vital role in preserving treasures against time, theft, and fire.

An astonishing number of Heian era (794-1185) and older objects remain in the safekeeping of shrines and temples, and important families. Much is owed to the generations of priests and others who kept the flame alive. They could have made their own lives easier by selling off the past but managed against the odds to save a great artistic and cultural heritage for the future.

Hōryūji, a great seventh-century temple near Nara, is particularly famous for hoarding the past. A thirteenth-century catalogue reveals its secret vaults hold 1.32 tons of gold, 10,000 copper roofing tiles, and 30,000 mirrors. Although the location is known, the priests will not open the vaults. Tradition says Regent Shōtoku Taishi (574-622) ordered them not to be opened for a thousand years after his death, and only later if finances were dire. Hōryūji has faced penury but still the priests refused to open them to historians. According to Ishikawa Takeshi in Traditions: A Thousand Years of Japanese Beauty, it sold thousands of the pagodas given by Empress Shōtoku in 770; each contains a mystic prayer verse or dharani. These mystic prayer verses are the oldest extant printed matter in the world. Hōryūji still has 40,300 of the 100,000 bequeathed!

Another statue of Kan'non (Goddess of Mercy) had been kept sealed since the seventh century in the nearby Hall of Dreams (Yumedono), rumored to be on the site where Shōtoku Taishi lived, which may have caused the secrecy, and he may be the model. In the late nineteenth century, the famous American aesthetician Ernest Fenollosa, sculptor Kanō Tessai, and art theorist Okakura Tenshin demanded to be shown it. They were refused but persisted though the priests said the heavens would open. Tenshin got in and was greeted by 1,200 years of stale air but the three found a superb Asuka-era (seventh-century) Kan'non in perfect condition, as related by Fenollosa in his Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art.

Fig. 1 Jōmon (rope-patterned) earthen jar, mid-Jōmon era, ca. 3000 sc, ht 9 in (23 cm), excavated at Chō-jagahara, Ni'igata Prefecture. Jar has characteristic raised, flame-like relief lines and animal designs. Photo courtesy Kyoto National Museum.

Fig. 2 Fourteen dōtaku (ceremonial bells) and seven halberd heads from Sakuragaoka-chō, Kobe, mid-Yayoi era (AD 100?), designated National Treasures, max. ht of dōtaku 25 in (63 cm), halberds 11 in (28 cm) long. Photo courtesy Kobe City Museum.

Spareness, Asymmetry, and Stylization

From Heian times, when sexual morality was less important than aesthetic taste, Japanese art has tended to avoid depicting the ugly or vulgar and to concentrate instead on nature rather than man, the symbolic rather than the realistic. The major thrust is yūgen or refined, near mystical elegance, showing an almost feminine sensibility. It has delighted in flowing lines and irregular shapes, eschewing the square or symmetrical, and has accepted that art is impermanent-hence the attraction of three-day cherry petals and mono no aware (the pathos of transience). Typical materials seem fragile to a Western eye: wooden temples, bark roofs, mud walls, straw mat floors, translucent paper windows, paper scrolls and prints.

Telling concepts include an aim for simplicity (words like wabi and sabi, meaning austere simplicity with a hint of loneliness), or shibui (restrained, avoiding the showy), as well as an uncluttered or empty space (ma) which allows the onlooker to add his own something. Interestingly, ma is applied in all the arts, even music where silence may convey more than sound, and in comic theater where timing is everything.

Spareness is valued in the look of a page and the brevity of a poem (hence haiku's mere three lines and waka's five), an understated teahouse, unsculpted stone lantern, or a flowerless pebble garden. Artists aim to achieve such technical mastery that they can create a work with muga (no gap between the imaginative moment and the accomplishment), whereas a lesser artist feels some veil, some hesitation between his wish and the fulfillment.

Stylization (yōshiki-ka) and stratification into hierarchies have always been important. If you look at people in older art or later woodblock prints (ukiyo-e), they tend to have the traditional "hook nose and line mouth;' so reveal no individuality or realism. In a way "a woman is a woman," without thinking about what makes her unique. At the same time, artists have been categorized since around 1600 in ascending order of honor into hōkyō, hōgen, and hoin, so signatures on scrolls may start, for example, with hagen. Titles like tenka-ichi ("best under heaven" but really "best in Japan") and jō-ichi ("best locksmith") have also been given.

Interesting technical facets include the way space is broken up in paintings by clouds to delineate areas (we see this in screens, where distant Mt Fuji could be "near" Kyoto) or form a general background, and in furniture by chigaidana, interrupted shelving, where a shelf ends halfway with a descent to a higher/lower level, with an S-bend or angular corner. A desire for subdued simplicity has co-existed with sumptuous gold screens and lacquerware, the Golden Phoenix Pavilion at Uji, and the gaudy, overdecorated temples of Nikkō (though this is not the core of Japan's aesthetic tradition as the temples were erected for political reasons).

An excellent statement of Japan's aesthetic is Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness), written about 1330 by Yoshida Kenkō. He praises the under- or overripe, the no longer perfect, the frayed but good quality scroll over the new. He also believed that it was beginnings and ends that are interesting. Modern Japanese have forgotten the latter but continue to enjoy the bud more than the flower. In all, the keen aesthetic sense in Japan's ferocious yet graceful ancient sculptures, medieval swords, sixteenth-century screens, castles, Edo era netsuke and inrō (netsuke are obi or belt counter-balancers and inrō little drawered boxes dangling from the obi) and kimono is a major component of mankind's artistic heritage.

Fig. 3 Male haniwa, Kofun era (6th c.), ht 29 1/2 in (75 cm), excavated at Wakiya, Gunma Prefecture. The figure has a sedge hat, mizura hair style, short sword, and hoe. Other haniwa were warriors, female shamans, and farmers with tools or weapons. Photo courtesy Kyoto National Museum.

Unknown and Speculative Early History

The first examples found in Japan of works embodying man's desire for beauty are the recently found ca. 15,000-year-old pottery shards from the Jōmon period (13000-300 BC)-as old as anywhere on earth. At that time, Japan was probably still linked to Korea and Russia. When the Ice Age ended, the Japan Sea rose, leaving Japan an archipelago. Naturally, many Jōmon pieces are incomplete, but fascinate us with their weird crowns or arabesque tracery and rope-induced markings. The law says that newly excavated items belong to the state and Jōmon pieces are not readily available to collectors, but pieces do reach the market and recent shows (for example, at the British Museum in 2001) have revealed how wonderful these pots are with their incredible crowns (Fig. 1).

The Jōmon gave way to the Yayoi era (300 BC-AD 300) when pots became restrained, but more typical are the dōtaku or ceremonial bronze bells (Fig. 2). The Kofun era (AD 300-710) is named after its massive grave mounds or tumuli. Earlier human sacrifices were replaced by earthenware servants, soldiers, and animals to accompany the rich on their journey into the next life: these fascinating figures are called haniwa (Fig. 3). They appear goofy to some and charming to others in current reproductions. The many extant bronze mirrors had magical powers (they could see spirits) as well as practical use in checking one's coiffure or make-up.

Imperial burial mounds are huge and their secrets carefully hidden by the Imperial Household Agency. The Wajinden section on Japan of the third-century Chinese history Wei Zhi tells us about the shaman queen Himiko of Yamatai being buried in a tumulus, along with 100 male and female servants. The 80 acre (32.3 hectare) burial mound of Nintoku (r. 395-427) is very impressive from the air. Important secrets will be revealed when permission is finally given for archaeologists to enter this vast grave south of Osaka.

From the sixth century, a cultural tide flowed in from Korea and China, bringing knowledge of Buddhism and advanced arts of the two countries, like metalworking, textile weaving; and government. Later, a quarter of the courtiers were said to be Koreans.

The First Buddhist Masterpieces

There was considerable opposition to Buddhism from nationalists but this did not halt the completion of the first large temples by the end of the sixth century (Shiten'nōji in 593; Asukadera in 596; Wakakusadera ca. 607, near Osaka). Architects and artists started from Korean and Chinese originals. We know that Shiba Tori, grandson of a Chinese temple craftsman, sculpted many of their main images. The great early Buddhist temples were set up in or near Nara. Hōryūji was built ca. 650-711; Yakushiji ca. 700; Kōfukuji ca. 720; Tōdaiji was finished in 752 and its Shōsōin Imperial Storehouse four years later, and Tōshōdaiji in the mid- late eighth century. Together they form the best of ancient architecture and house much of the greatest sculpture and other art treasures.

After the court moved to Kyoto in 794, new forms of Buddhism were propagated by Saichō on Mount Hiei to the northeast and Kūkai (also known as Kōbō Daishi) at nearby Tōji and Mt Kōya, many miles away to the south. Both went to China to study in 804. On their return, Saichō tried to synthesize the various traditions and strains in the Tendai sect, while Kūkai taught that Shingon, an esoteric sect with many exotic rituals, was the only true path. Tōji has the best-known pagoda in Japan (though those of Murōji and Daigoji are great too) and the temple is still called Kōbō-san by locals after Kūkai. People flock there on the 21st of every month.

Mandalas (geometric and figurative representations of religious ideas), Buddha images, Bodhisattvas, and ideas of Buddhism were brought from China and copied to teach its tenets, and they are some of the most fascinating images of the period (Fig. 4). Buddhism has been the fount of much of Japan's plastic and literary art ever since. Collectors will see this in the many pictures of, for example, the Wind God, or the guardians depicted in front of temples.

The Heian Era

The peaceful Heian era is famous today as the time when Japanese taste reached a zenith (Genji Monogatari, ca. 995, is still the most admired novel in Japanese literature and probably the world's first), and courtiers built a life dedicated to poetry, music, fine clothing, and ceremony. Their pleasure in life and aestheticism were reflect-edina turning away from the horrifying earlier images of Shukongōjin (the Niō statues at the entrance to temples, for example, at Tōdaiji) or Fudō Myōō (the angry-looking Dainichi Nyorai) and the ascetic demands of the Shingon sect, towards the Pure Land of Amida Buddha in which repeated chanting of the prayer Namu Amida Butsu (Hail to the Buddha Amida) was enough to let a believer into the Western Paradise.

To take away man's fear of death, a doctrine grew up of a ceremony at which Amida comes in person to welcome a dying person into Paradise. This raigō scene became common in art, so many scrolls and other works depict it, including the Phoenix Hall (1053) of the Byōdōin at Uji, south of Kyoto, considered by many to be the most beautiful building in Japan; you see it on the 10 yen coin. Another change is the gradual swing to Yamato-e. These images depict the softer landscapes and delicate changing seasons of Japan, not the wilder countryside of China, and stress the quintessential Japanese motifs of maples, pines, wisteria, and winding streams in attractive tints-mainly lay themes. The Yamato-e tradition continued for centuries and many of the pictures in the chapter on screens fit into this category.

Fig. 4 Mandala of Dakini-ten, Muromachi era (ca. 1500), hanging scroll, color on silk, 32 x 16 in (81 x 41 cm). Taman Collection. Photo courtesy Osaka Municipal Museum of Art.

A typical Japanese pictorial technique-fukinuki yatai or roofless rooms-first appeared in 1069, and these are often seen on e-makimono or hand-rolled scrolls. From above, at an oblique angle, the viewer sees people, often courtiers, interacting in palace rooms. The stories focus on feelings and were labeled women's pictures, while the war histories were considered men's, with fast action-like modern comics.

After centuries of peace, the Heian period ended with nationwide war (1180-85) between the Taira and Minamoto clans. The defeated Taira vengefully torched the great temple of Tōdaiji, appalling the nation. The Great Buddha survived.

The Kamakura and Muromachi Eras

With peace, reconstruction followed during the Kamakura (1185-1333) and Muromachi (1333-1573) eras. Tōdaiji was rebuilt and much else. The Kei family of sculptors in Nara (Kokei, Unkei, Kaikei, and Jōkei are the most famous) made many of the finest (and often fearsome) replacements, mainly chiseled in wood, marking a great period in Japan's sculpture.

The nation, however, fell into despondency. The horrors of civil war and endless suffering brought about a feeling of dislocation and fear of the afterlife, so many pictures portray the worlds of suffering there in rokudō-e (six realms of unenlightenment, humans, animals, ever-fighting demons, hungry demons, and those in hell) so salvation seemed no longer easy. New Pure Land Buddhist sects grew up to comfort people, and there was renewed interest in raigō and mandalas, such as the Taima Mandala which could help people visualize the teachings by employing diagrams.

The Impact of Zen

In the late twelfth century, Zen entered Japan. Its emphasis on personal effort, meditation, self-discipline, and intellectual stringency, appealed to the military class. Zen masters relied on zazen (seated meditation), kōan (intellectual puzzles to tease the mind into achieving mental breakthroughs on the path to enlightenment or satori), and personal contact, rather than scripture. Zen also led to new artistic approaches: kare-sansui (rock/pebble gardens) were designed to let a meditator look into them and see aspects of life. Zen paintings tended to portray people on the edge of society, like the clowns Kanzan and Jittoku, and include humor; often they have an unfinished look, as though they had been dashed off in a trice. Kaō Ninga and Mokuan Reien (flourished, hereafter "fl.") fourteenth century) were early masters, while Kichizan Minchō (1352-1431) was more formal in works like the "Nehanzu" (Buddha's deathbed scene) that he painted for Tōfukuji in Kyoto. Sesshū Tōyō (1420-1506) was the greatest Zen painter-priest, excelling at landscapes (Fig. 5) with brushwork influenced by his long sojourn in China.

In later ages, the artistic side of Zen dried up but Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1768) produced some of the most memorable images ever, though he was not trained as a painter. His picture of Daruma (the founder of Zen Buddhism in Japan) (Fig. 6) is the epitome of all that is wonderful in imaginative portraiture. Short statements of Zen tenets are common in scrolls and usually very affordable.

The Golden Age of Screens

Tosa Mitsunobu (b. 1434), a famous court painter, is thought to have made the first large rakuchū rakugai screens, depicting Kyoto and its environs. During the next century, such genres and other large pictures in the blue and gold, landscape, and figural styles became extremely popular among daimyō (provincial governors and landowners) who wanted large pictures painted on doors (fusuma) and screens (byōbu) to demonstrate their power.

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a golden age for painting. Kanō Eitoku (1543-90), schooled by his grandfather Motonobu, excelled at bold designs, both colored and black and white. Inheriting good connections with daimyō, he received many commissions as they rebuilt after a century of war. His trees particularly are dramatic. Formerly, artists placed trees at corners, echoing the geometry of rooms, but his straddle the center. In a very modern way, only the base of a tree trunk is shown: we imagine the tip of the towering trunk but see only the first few feet, for example, of the cypress. Kanō Mitsunobu and Sanraku continued the tradition, but softened it, so their work is less dramatic and more decorative. Others trained in the school were Hasegawa Tōhaku and Kaihō Yushō, who excelled at wispy nature scenes.

Sōtatsu, the owner of the Tawaraya fan shop in Kyoto, was perhaps the greatest artist of the early seventeenth century. Works like the Matsushima screen "Gods of Wind and Fire," and the "Deer" hand scroll have Eitoku's scope, greater creativity of line, but not his apocopation. His style was taken forward by a descendant, Ogata Kōrin (1658-1716), who did wonderful flowing pictures of streams and clusters of irises. His mantle was taken up by Ki'itsu. These are termed Rimpa artists, literally Kōrin school followers.

The Kanō school continued for centuries, by adapting. Kanō Tanyū (1602-74) paved the way. He moved to Edo, the modern Tokyo, to be near the military rulers, followed by three other painter members of his family, who set up studios and became hereditary official painters. Tanyū, grandson of Eitoku, was conservative in his work, but also varied his output. He painted Confucian themes and revived Yamato-e battle scenes. Kanō Osanobu (1796-1846) was the last well-known family member.

A number of Muromachi arts grew into some of Japan's most idiosyncratic and defining forms of expression-which matters to collectors, as their values permeate taste in the country.

Non-Portable Arts

Tea Drinking

Zen priests and warriors were the main practitioners of Tea drinking in the first centuries. Gradually the custom spread and knowledge of Tea became a requisite for cultured men. To show his respect for it, in 1587 Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-98, r. 1582-98) invited all and sundry to Kitano Shrine, Kyoto, to attend the greatest Tea party ever given; it lasted ten days. Another time he had a completely gold tea room and tea utensils made, took it to the Emperor and served him tea in it, then took it back to his own palace-at a time when tea houses were austere and simple (Fig. 7).

Fig. 5 Sesshū Tōyō (1420-1506), "Landscape of Four Seasons" (detail), hand scroll, ink and light color on paper, late 15th c., 8 in x 38ft (20 cm x 11.6 m). Brush strokes and composition recall Song China. Photo courtesy Kyoto National Museum.

Takeno Jōō (1502-55) and Sen Rikyū (1522-91) were famous sixteenth-century Tea masters. They idealized the quiet and ordinary (wabi) over the extravagant. The tea room came to have only four and a half mats with a low or "crawl door" so that even nobles had to bend their heads to enter- in humility (swords were left outside), but also in serenity, having sauntered through a garden of tranquility scattered with apparently naturally fallen petals or leaves, putting the cares of state behind them.

Wabicha Tea masters, who stressed the simple and restrained, moved away from imported utensils such as temmoku, hare's tooth, and other famous Chinese bowls, seeking locally made bamboo ladles and pots, praising them for their natural simplicity. This led to the growth of new ceramic forms: black, white, and gray Seta wares were plain; Oribe had rich greens and more varied patterns; Karatsu was high-fired stoneware with attractive, quiet painting; Raku was low-fired, simple-to-make-by-hand ware. Its appeal lay in the surprises possible when it was taken still hot out of the kiln, and its suitability for amateurs, as it was not made on the wheel. Examples of all these are in the market, though later examples are more easily available and, naturally, cheaper.

Practicing Tea has encouraged people to look at things with an aesthete's eye. Little outwardly happens in a tea house so the few but often historically valuable things round you in a tiny room take on added significance: your eyes get trained. This focus and attention to detail is exemplified by Sen Rikyū's minimalist approach to the magnificent flowering bushes on the way to Hideyoshi's tea house at Jurakudai Palace. He cut them all off, but the most magnificent bloom he placed in the alcove so that guests would concentrate on that, which in turn stood for all flowers-seen through a magnifying glass.

The same may be said of the elaborate ritual (temae) for serving tea. An extraordinary amount of time is first spent cleaning the garden, room, and utensils, and the guests continue this by ritual washings. The host shows his skill by performing in front of his guests. As he prepares tea, there is a set etiquette of movements and conversation, closely mirroring the patterns of daily life where a set phrase still sets off a question or greeting today. In a significant anomaly, given the rigid patterns, each tea ceremony is looked at as being unique-the only time that these few people meet, drink tea, and talk about this and that-which will never happen again in the same way.

With this scrupulous attention to detail and cleanliness, and insistence on the prescribed order, Tea seems to epitomize many of the deepest patterns in Japanese life. Murata Shuko, a pioneer of the Tea ceremony, sums it up: "It is not an amusement or technique, but enjoyment of enlightened satisfaction."

Tierney quotes Okakura Kakuzō: "Cha-no-yu (Tea ceremony) is a whole point of view about man and nature," and goes on to say, "It is a case of harmony with nature rather than against it." Better perhaps is Tea master Sen Soshitsu's comment that it is a mental discipline to "satisfy a spiritual thirst... moistening a dry life."

Fig. 6 Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1768), "Da ruma," hanging scroll, ink on paper, 51 x 21 1/2 in (130 x 55 cm). Photo courtesy Osaka City Museum of Modern Art.

Fig. 7 "Portrait of Toyotomi Hide-yoshi," hanging scroll, inscribed by Ikyō, dated 1600, color on silk, 43 x 18 in (109 x 46 cm). Painted two years after Hideyoshi's death, it may be a remembered likeness. Photo courtesy Osaka Municipal Museum of Art.

Ikebana: Taming Nature by Season

Since earlier centuries, as part of worship, people had put flowers into vases pointing upward (tatebana) to deities in heaven. In a pattern typical of Japan, the form became stylized. Flowers were not simply thrust into a bowl. At the same time, flowers had become a part of Japanese poetry: the poetic trinity of the moon, snow, and flowers (especially cherries) was established and parties were held to admire them and write poems about them. A game (hana-awase or flower matching) was played by teams, going off into the fields and vying to collect the best bunch.

The game went out of fashion but revived differently under the rulers Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and Yoshimasa. Ming vases were coming in and people compared them while holding flowers at flower parties (kakai). Soon, given people's natural urge to compete, they tried to make their vase look better by arranging the flowers artistically. Fame came to court assistant Ryū-ami and Ikenobō Senkei, priest and founder of the still-extant Ikenobō flower arrangement school. He made his first well-known ikebana in 1462.

As people's taste for the way of flowers (kadō) developed, they wanted to keep the fiction that you just happened to have found the plants that way (not only obviously pretty flowers but bamboo and herbs too) in the countryside, so they were arranged to echo natural settings. Rules were adopted. The central stem was its shin (spirit) and asymmetrically around it were placed others that supported it. For formal occasions, the main stem was straight, so it would be dignified, but on informal occasions a crooked plant was chosen instead. There always had to be a strong sense of the current season, so flowers were chosen to stress it.

Rikka styles were mainstream for centuries. They were full of symbolism, with seven points and positive (yin) and negative (yang) sides. The high point represented Mt Sumeru, the Buddhist world center. Rikka became even more complicated in the late eighteenth century with nine points. In the later sixteenth century, and probably as a result of Sen Rikū's example, the simpler nageire (literally "chucking them in" style) gained popularity among Tea people, as it echoed the wabicha ethos, using one or just a few rather less fancy flowers. A century later came the shoka or seika style, in reaction to the rikka's complexity. It aimed at being dignified like the rikka but also simple, trying to express a flower's nature. A common pattern was triangular and later the terminology for this became ten (sky), chi (earth), and jin (man). Usually arrangements started 4 inches (10 cm) above the container, whichever style was used. The categorization and multiplicity of styles is very Japanese.

New ideas have flooded in since Meiji (1868-1912), and of course the whole corpus of Western and other exotic flowers. Today, there are a couple of thousand ikebana schools. Ohara Unshin felt that Ikenobō styles were too spindly and top heavy, so lowered his center of aesthetic gravity, and in 1897 at Osaka brought in the moribana ("piled up") style and low, shallow containers (suiban) to great acclaim. The Ikenobō school remains traditional but experiments with modern styles. The post-war Sōgetsu school advocates free arrangements and wide-ranging materials, but, old and new, schools borrow from each other, so that Ohara's assemblages often include non-traditional materials and Sōgetsu's sculptural works (one was called "Locomotive"!) no longer shock.

Meanwhile, Ikebana International (founded in 1956 by Ellen Gordon Allen) spreads the word around the world that flower aesthetics are exciting, enjoyable, and beautiful. Collectors will find that many scrolls reflect the influence of flower arrangements.

Bonsai: Trees Kept Miniature

The same deep interest underlies bonsai, in which one produces a personal, stylized natural beauty in a pot-but the plant continues to live (Fig. 8). A potted plant stays as one buys it, but a bonsai is gradually changed to meet some ideal of its owner (and often his descendants). It is guided to develop in certain ways while remaining within the confines of a planter. Landscapes laid out on a tray using also stones and earth are not felt to be true bonsai but bonkei.

Originating in China, the first evidence of bonsai in Japan is in a picture scroll of 1195. One element setting Japan's bonsai apart from China's is their strict classification by type. The oldest extant bonsai was planted by Tokugawa Iemitsu nearly 400 years ago. The variety of trees grown has expanded from traditional pines, junipers, plums, and maples to include low bushes like azaleas.

Though the word "dwarf" springs to mind, most bonsai trees are standard species. Occasionally, bonsai lovers search in wild, windswept places for naturally occurring miniatures. Trees are primarily kept small by deliberate pruning, using shallow containers, pinching off new growth, and repotting every year or two. Heights range from some 2 inches (5 cm) to 3 feet (1 m). The container is often oval for deciduous trees and rectangular for evergreens, but it also depends on the style. Glazed pots work well with flowering trees, while unglazed pots give a look of age. Styles like upright, slanting, cascading, twisting trunk, weeping cascade, twin trunk, clumped or forest, and clinging are self-explanatory. In all cases, asymmetry is de rigueur (never planted in the middle, and leaning from the outside to the inside if it leans), as is a good balance between the pot and the tree's size and height.

A natural look, achieved with no evidence of human tampering, matters too. Usually one side is the front or viewing side. Traditionally, a tree is wider at the base and then slimmer, but bunjin (literati scholars) liked to joke and do it the other way round. People talk of a tri-relationship between life (or deity), the bonsai grower, and the tree, while the form of the tree often turns out to be triangular, to please the eye. The grower's nature matters too; he must have all the virtues of patience.

Bonsai shows are common all over Japan and buying is possible. Many of the best growers will appear unwilling to sell at first, though acquaintance may change that. There has been a recent explosion in the number of gardening centers. In general, Japanese bonsai fans are no longer young and find it soothing to putter around in the garden. Before you get carried away, you might want to check the applicable pla nt quarantine rules if you will be moving country. With increasing interest in gardening (and urbanization's smaller spaces), bonsai may well become more popular.

Gardens

Unlike France's regimented, geometrical gardens, or Britain with both regimented and natural ones, Japan's gardens have always aimed at creating "a natural landscape with aesthetic value," as Ishikawa Takeshi puts it in his Traditions: A Thousand Years of Japanese Beauty. He adds that the first recorded garden was made at the Asuka mansion of Soga Umako in AD 620, with several islands (rocks) in a pond. The word for gardens then was shima (island), so a marine setting must have been basic. The aristocrats living inland at Nara probably pined for the sea they only saw on official trips and so chose this name to distinguish it from farming.

The parts of a garden were symbols for a whole: weathered rocks formed islands and a tree a wood on the shore. In later centuries rock and carefully raked gravel gardens (kare-sansui) bounded by walls inspired Zen adepts to meditate and seek satori (enlightenment). Pure Land (Jōdo) gardens, such as the Phoenix Hall at Uji, tried to show paradise through a treasure pond with bridges that could lead the believer into heaven. Later, the concept became less religious and more of a cultural pursuit, such as Kokedera at Kyoto with its various mosses carpeting trees, or Kinkakuji and Ginkakuji with their ponds and strolling walks giving views of reflected-in-the-water pavilions. Lawns, flower beds, topiaries with monumentally cut shrubs and trees, and continuous carpets of flowers are too artificial for Japanese, nor do they go for wide open spaces. Even daimyō were comfortable with a restricted space, fully used, and perhaps borrowing views of hills beyond (shakkei) to lend depth. These values permeate screens and scrolls.

Nō Theater

Nō or Noh (the "h" is silent, just lengthening the vowel) is a form of theater that grew independently in the late fourteenth century from various dance-drama forms such as sarugaku, kagura, kyōgen, dengaku, and gigaku, due largely to Kan'ami and his son Zeami. The shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu saw Kan'ami and Zeami act at the Imagumano Shrine in Kyoto in 1374 and was excited enough by them to become the first-ever leader to patronize an acting troupe, the Kanze, which remains the best-known school of Nō theater.

Based on previous temple acting techniques, Kan'ami built up a corpus of theater from old plays which he made significant and more plausible to contemporaries by adding new plays based on current events. He is said to have excelled at realistic portrayal of character, achieving rapport with audiences and melding song, dance, and mime by building up a subtle, mysterious beauty (yūgen) and introducing a strong rhythmic accompaniment. His father died in 1384 when Zeami was 21 years old. Taking over leadership of the troupe, he wrote dozens of plays that reflect the age when Zen was part of the air, so restraint, brevity, and suggestion rather than statement were valued. From 1400 to 1436, he wrote down the theory of Nō, which still stands.

Fig. 8 Bonsai, Japanese black pine, ca. 200 years old, ht 361 /2 in (93 cm). Photo courtesy Sotheby's.

Fig. 9 "Interior of Kabuki Theater Playing Chushingura," hanging scroll, att ributed to Tori'i Kiyotada, ca. 1749, color on paper, 23 x 35 in (58 x 89 cm). Photo courtesy Kobe City Museum.

After his death, Nō was less officially patronized but the dispersal of shelter-seeking actors to the provinces during the Ōnin War of 1467-77 spread Nō knowledge round the country. The Tokugawa shōguns made this form of theater their own and, typically for the nation, laid down conservative rules, slowed its action down, allowed only actors' children to be trained in it, and tried to prevent ordinary people from learning the scripts or songs.

Nō is important for collectors, but the masks and costumes are valued and hard to come by, and selling is resisted.

Kabuki Theater

All kinds of drama were in the air when an Izumo Shrine maiden called Okuni came to Kyoto early in the seventeenth century and with a number of other women put on a series of plays with sensuous dances on the bed of the Kamigamo River. A lovely screen in Kyoto Museum of such a scene shows that the dance-dramas were very popular. Soon, however, the government felt that they were more a front for prostitution, and prohibited women from acting. Young men took over but got up to similar tricks. In 1652, the government changed the rules so that plays had to be based on the formal acting style of the traditional farce and only men could act, with their forelocks cut to show they were of age. Some men started specializing in acting women's parts (on'nagata) and brought an extraordinary form of acting to prominence. In a way, it is the essence of theatrical make-believe-willing suspense of disbelief. While knowing they are men, even women find something attractive about the way they train their bodies, voices, and gestures to present an image that still has something feminine about it.

A number of on'nagata appear in woodblock prints (ukiyo-e), though the majority of prints are of male roles. It is hard to imagine the whole body of ukiyo-e without the kabuki background so this form of theater is basic to Japan's art heritage, even if the average reader might now get bored by the stylized plays themselves, despite the great colorful spectacles (and theatrical tricks), music, gorgeous clothes, and acting. Needless to say, sumōwrestlers (also common in ukiyo-e) were all men (Fig. 9).

Artistic Experiments

The main thrust of Japanese painting prior to the mid-eighteenth century had not been realistic, but Hiraga Gen'nai went to Nagasaki to study Western art from the Dutch and imparted his knowledge to Shiba Kōkan (1738-1818) who made many pictures in the Western style (Fig. 10). When young, Maruyama Ōkyo (1733-95) was exposed to European perspective, but preferred to follow the traditional Kanō style of art while portraying the townspeople of Kyoto where he grew up, not the aristocrats whom he despised.

Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754-99), Itō Jakuchu (1716-1800), and Soga Shōhaku (1730-81) knew the Kanō and Maruyama traditions but tried to develop styles sometimes dubbed eccentric; some designs appeal to Westerners' desire for something different.

Another artistic current was the literati or bunjinga school, an awkward word for those Chinese government officials who had painted in a reduced way for centuries. In the seventeenth century, some Chinese fled their country after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, took sanctuary in Nagasaki, and brought techniques and instruction manuals with them. The Japanese were ready to de-emphasize training for war, after a century of peace, and were also encouraged by rising prosperity. The idea that it was desirable to study literature and express yourself in painting had wide appeal.

The names of famous literati painters over the next century include Sakaki Hyakusen, Ike Taiga, Yosa Buson (also known in the West as a great haiku poet), Yamamoto Baitsu, Tani Bunchō, Okada Beisanjin, Uragami Gyokudō, and Watanabe Kazan. Typically, Westerners find their landscapes and kachō (flower-and-bird) paintings attractive, if a little dull, though a few portraits have more bite. Shibata Zeshin and Kawanabe Kyōsai are widely admired.

When Western ideas poured into Meiji Japan (1868-1912), artists were in a quandary. Should they throw away or keep their tradition of the line being paramount? Should they try to meld East and West? Thanks to advice from Ernest Fenollosa, and to Okakura Tenshin's leadership, some old arts and skills were kept for the future while Western techniques were taught too.

It is likely that Japan produced a number of great artists as a result of this clash of civilizations. The Rise of Japanese Art lists the following: Yokoyama Taikan, Shimomura Kanzan, Hishida Shun-sō, Imamura Shikō, Hayami Gyoshū, Yasuda Yukihiko, Kobayashi Kokei, Maeda Seison, Okumura Togyū, Kuroda Seiki, Umehara Ryūzaburō, Tomioka Tessai, Higashiyama Kai'i, Takeuchi Seihō, and a Kyoto lady, Uemura Shōen, who made memorable works within the Japanese tradition.

In the Meiji era, Kuroda Kiyoteru and Fujishima Takeji were leading Western-style painters. Some artists have worked almost wholly within the West, such as Foujita Tsuguharu in France and Okada Kenzō in New York. Tens of thousands of artists compete for attention and it is hard to see the wood for the trees and this is only an overview. But taste is personal-if you ask a young woman, she will probably choose dreamy Takehisa Yumeji (1884-1934).

New Edo Arts

During the 250-year-long Edo peace, many new arts came to the fore. Swords were still made at this time but had passed their peak as they were no longer required for the purposes of fighting but more for ceremonial use. However, the fittings that went with them, such as the hand-guard (tsuba) and the little knife (kozuka), were raised to a new pinnacle of workmanship (see Swords and Armor). In the same way, but quite a bit later, new metal ornaments for tables, niches, and desks (okimono) became popular and artisans showed their skill at detailed work like reticulation (see Sculpture and Metalwork).

The growth of urban society made many people richer, which led to conspicuous consumption. Women wanted more and more sumptuous clothes, boudoir items, and hair ornaments, so kimono and lacquerware flourished to meet their needs. Men spent time at the theater and pleasure quarters, so wanted pictures of actors and beautiful women, which led to the growth of ukiyo-e (see Ukiyo-e and Prints). They also wanted to have a dandy's sense of style (iki), so vied with each other to have handsome things hanging from the belt (obi). These useful ornaments (sagemono), which I here call "danglers," held medicine or seals, tobacco, pipes, writing instruments, etc., and were suspended from the belt. They were made of gold, silver, lacquer, and ivory (see Sagemono).

Cloisonné was probably invented in ancient Greece but crossed into Asia. It was known in Japan 1,300 years ago, but was little used. Suddenly, in the 1830s it burst into bloom and, after complete rein-vigoration with new arts and materials, for the rest of the century was one of Japan's most sought-after exports (see Cloisonné).

Japan has been a vibrant, developed economy for many centuries and made the kind of rich people's toys that only the well-off can afford, so that it contributed much to mankind's collective search for beauty, inventing new concepts and even many arts.

Fig. 10 Shiba Kōkan,"European Land-scape with Figures," late 18th c., oil on silk, 45 x 22 in (114 x 56 cm). Photo courtesy Kobe City Museum.