Dish with lotus leaf and geometric pattern, late 1640s. Hizen ware, Kokutani style. Porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue and polychrome overglaze enamels. Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo.

 

Edo

Art in Japan 1615-1868

WASHINGTON, D.C. - "Edo: Art in Japan 1615-1868," the first comprehensive survey in the United States of Japanese art of the Edo period (1615-1868), is on view through February 15 at the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Nearly 300 masterpieces - including painted scrolls and screens, costumes, armor, sculpture, ceramics, lacquer, and woodblock prints from 75 Japanese collections, both public and private - reveal the vibrant culture of Edo.

Forty-seven of these works have been designated National Treasures, Important Cultural Properties, or Important Art Objects by the government of Japan because of their rarity, historical significance and artistic quality. Many of the works in the exhibition have never before left Japan. The National Gallery of Art is the sole venue for the exhibition.

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art in collaboration with the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, and The Japan Foundation.

Artistically, the Edo period is one of the richest in the history of Japanese art, and is fascinating to us today because it bridges the traditional and modern ages of that great country," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National gallery of Art.

The Edo Period

The Edo period was one of unprecedented peace and prosperity in Japan. The city of Edo (modern Tokyo) evolved from its beginnings as a castle town in the early 1600s into the largest city in the world in the Eighteenth Century, with one million inhabitants. In fact, the influence of the new capital was so profound that its name came to denote the culture of all Japan during this time. for the first time in centuries the country was unified under the hereditary Tikugawa shogun (feudal overlords), who with various daimyo (regional military lords) continued to patronize the traditional arts, while the rising merchant class developed a new urban culture and artistic traditions that crossed social boundaries.

The Exhibition

The guest curator for the exhibition is Robert T. Singer, curator of Japanese art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Due to the light-sensitive nature of works on paper or silk, lacquerware, and textiles, these objects were rotated during the course of the exhibition.

The Edo Style

The tone for the high style and buoyant spirit of the age is set at the beginning of the exhibition in "Edo Style," which defines the aesthetic of the period. Included are screens such as Sakai Hoitsu's "Spring and Autumn Maples," a brilliantly colorful work never before publicly exhibited, even in Japan, and a pair of screens by Ito Jakuchu depicting stone lanterns in a pointillist technique, a century before Seurat. Other gold-leaf screens feature wind and thunder gods, while abstract cranes fly over the surface of gold lacquer boxes.

Samurai

The "Samurai" rooms of the exhibition highlight the peaceful arts created for the samurai class (the hereditary warrior class in feudal Japan) and masterpieces of their ceremonial armor. Included are spectacular helmets made of lacquer, decorated with giant rabbit ears or an upside-down rice bowl, and suits of armor with their bold geometric designs projecting power and authority. This section also includes the startlingly modern designs of Nabeshima porcelain made exclusively for the use of the daimyo and two ink paintings by the legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi, famed for his book Five Rings, which is admired today by many in the western corporate world.

Work

"Work" includes images of various urban and rural occupations during the Edo period. Meticulously painted on gold-leaf screens, and prints display scenes of rice farming and tea growing. Four equally elaborate fireman's coats are emblazoned with images of dragons, waves, tigers and gods.

Religion

The "Religion" section of the exhibition illustrates how Buddhist and Shinto beliefs were reflected in the arts. Included are riveting images of fierce Zen masters and their explosive calligraphy, and giant screens by Hokusai, Shohaku, and other artists who painted Buddhist subjects of great power and volatility. These screens, showing gods and sages subduing monsters and demons, differ greatly from the tranquil Buddhist paintings of pre-Edo times. Sinners boiling in foul liquids and lanced with spears are shown in images of Buddhist hell that were popular in Edo times, while a pair of seven-foot totem like statues by Enku illustrate the work of an eccentric itinerant sculptor of Buddhist images. A choice selection of festival screens depicts the boisterous and lavish festivities accompanying solemn rites in or near Shinto shrines.

Humor is also included in this section with Sengai's widely illustrated but rarely seen "Frog in Zen Meditation, " with its blissful smile.

Travel and Landscape

"Travel and Landscape" focuses on the first appearance of group tourism in Japan - religious pilgrimages to distant temples and shrines. The Edo period also saw the proliferation of paintings of specific sites of celebrated beauty, such as the blossoming cherry trees of Mt Yoshino, as well as the new experimentation of several artists with Western perspective. The brilliant printmakers of the late Edo period, Hokusai and Hiroshige, respectively, produced the "Thirty-Six Views of Mt Fuji" and the "Fifty-Three Stages of the Tokaido," which were popular then and are now famous the world over.

Entertainment

"Entertainment" themes appear often in Edo period art as social barriers were relaxed in the theater and pleasure quarters and members of all classes freely intermingled. The newly wealthy merchant class commissioned paintings and prints of actors and geisha dressed in current fashions, while the artist Sharaku invented a new style of close-up actor prints. Also included in this section are no and kabuki costumes with bold designs embroidered in gold-wrapped threads.

Accompanying the exhibition is a fully illustrated catalogue written by a team of leading scholars led by exhibition curator Robert T. Singer. Contributors include John T. Carpeter, assistant professor of fine art, Vanderbilt University; Hollis Goodall, associate curator of Japanese Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Victor Harris, keeper of Japanese antiquities, the British Museum, London; Matthew McKelway, instructor, art and architecture, University of Pittsburgh; Herman Ooms, professor of history, University of California at Los Angeles; Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, art history, University of East Anglia; Henry D. Smith II, professor, Japanese history, Columbia University; Sharon S. Takeda, associate curator of costumes and textiles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Melinda Takeuchi, associate professor of art history, Stanford University.

The catalogue may be purchased at the National Gallery of Art Shops, which are open Monday-Saturday, 10 am-5 pm, and Sunday, 11 am-6 pm. To order from the National Gallery Shops by phone using a credit card, call 301/322-5900 or 800/697-9350, Monday-Friday, 8 am-4 pm.

The National Gallery of Art, on the National Mall at 4th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, is open Monday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday, from 11 am to 6 pm. Admission is free. For general information, call 202/737-4215.