Two folding screens from Edo Japan show a lavish golden garden and 36 poem cards by the famous calligrapher Hon'ami Kōetsu.
Sonia Coman
When is the imperfect, more perfect? Oribe ware was an early 17th-century revolution in tea ceremony ceramics
Oribe Tea Bowl
Art coming from contemporaneous Ming-dynasty China as well older Chinese art deeply influenced Japanese arts, especially the emerging local tradition of ink landscape painting.
Nanbokuchō and Muromachi periods, an introduction
The Heisei period saw the establishment of new art museums and the adoption of new means of expression among Japanese artists.
Heisei period, an introduction
The Showa period was one of dynamic changes—and one affected by world wars and challenges at home.
Shōwa period
The Taishō period continued the process of adoption and transformation of foreign models in Japan
Taishō period, an introduction
After over two centuries of shogunal rule, practical political power was restored to the emperor (Meiji)
Meiji period, an introduction
The Edo period saw an intensified circulation of visual vocabulary and aesthetic principles between mediums (paintings, ceramics, lacquerware, and textiles often shared the similar motifs) and crossing different registers of culture from design to popular culture to nostalgia for a romanticized pre-modern past.
Edo period, an introduction
The Azuchi-Momoyama period gets its name from the opulent residences of two warlords who attempted to unify Japan.
Azuchi-Momoyama period, an introduction
During the Kamakura period, the confluence or syncretism of Buddhism and the indigenous Shintō deepened.
Kamakura period, an introduction
A new religion—Buddhism—was introduced in Japan in the Asuka period, significantly changing Japanese culture and society.
Asuka period, an introduction
In Japan, the lavish Tang style was intertwined with Buddhist devotional art during the Nara period.
Nara period, an introduction
The Kofun period in Japan is named after the monumentally sized burial mounds of the ruling class.
Kofun period, an introduction
Around 300 B.C.E., people from the Asian continent who were cultivating crops began to migrate to the Japanese islands where they began to make objects like copper and bronze bells.
Yayoi period, an introduction
During the Heian period, a lavish culture of refinement and poetic subtlety developed, and it would have a lasting influence on Japanese arts.
Heian period, an introduction
Learn about floating worlds and the art of the literati from Japan's Edo period.
A brief history of the arts of ...
Learn about tea-ceremonies, opulent palaces, and splashed-ink paintings from Japan's Kamakura to Azuchi-Momoyama periods.
A brief history of the arts of ...
Learn about Japan's modern cityscapes, art in a time of peace, and the dawn of a new era.
A brief history of the arts of ...
Learn about Japan's famous haniwa, tales from behind palace walls, and enormous wooden buddhas.
Browse Smarthistory images for teaching & learning!
