DOI Heft:
No. 200 (November, 200)
DOI Artikel:Taki, Seiichi: The application of nature subjects to designing in japanese art
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20968#0150
Nature Sttbjects in Japanese Design
usages observed by such an exceptional institu-
tion : but in one respect the Chano-yu may be
regarded as an offspring of the taste of the Japanese
for things natural. Moreover that imaginative
mode of naming objects already described, must
have resulted from their attempt at expressing
that taste.
It will thus be seen that in literature, or even in
such a simple matter as the naming of things, the
Japanese gave play to the exercise of their imagi-
nation, to bring out a suggestive effect. Nor
should we wonder that the same tendency should
extend into their fine arts. In treating objects of
nature, however insignificant, the Japanese artist
strives to suggest some sentiment beyond what is
conveyed by the form represented, just as the poet
strives to store up a mine of thought in the thirty-
one syllables of an ordinary verse, or in the still
shorter Haiku of seventeen syllables. To attain
such an end, art, instead of rendering a single
natural object, should produce a connected series
of such objects, in other words, scenery. If nature
be represented as scenery, it can be made to
suggest a wealth of emotion and implied ideas.
The Japanese affect landscape subjects; but they
are not only partial to the treatment of landscapes
as such, for even in the painting of animals and
plants they exhibit the same spirit. In short the
Japanese artist exerts himself to produce more
than beauty of form and colour. This is truly
128
the most vital characteristic of Japanese art. We
may go even so far as to say that, broadly
speaking, all Japanese paintings of natural objects
are landscape paintings. And in this lies that
suggestiveness — that indication of sentiment —
which constitutes the chief excellence of the art
of Japan.
To illustrate my point, let me first of all take
two examples from Hoitsu Sakai, a noted painter
of the Korin school, one representing summer
plants and the other autumn plants. The for-
mer (p. 125 ), executed in brilliant tints on silver
ground, is distinctly decorative, but the composi-
tion on the whole is none the less pervaded by a
tone of poetic interest. In fact this painting
reveals more than beauties of form and colour; it
expresses vividly the effect of a shower which has
just passed off, drenching the plants and feeding
the stream near by. To put it in another way,
one can feel beyond and above what is actually
represented, the delight of a flowery field in sum-
mer, and the cool refreshing breeze which follows
a shower. The other painting (p. 1 26), likewise
rendered brilliantly on silver ground, is similarly
designed. Only here an autumn scene is suggested:
across the field is sweeping a gust of wind, under
which the tender plants are bending and swaying.
Could anything express an autumn scene more
suggestively and with greater effect ? In the first
picture the idea of summer is suggested by a
usages observed by such an exceptional institu-
tion : but in one respect the Chano-yu may be
regarded as an offspring of the taste of the Japanese
for things natural. Moreover that imaginative
mode of naming objects already described, must
have resulted from their attempt at expressing
that taste.
It will thus be seen that in literature, or even in
such a simple matter as the naming of things, the
Japanese gave play to the exercise of their imagi-
nation, to bring out a suggestive effect. Nor
should we wonder that the same tendency should
extend into their fine arts. In treating objects of
nature, however insignificant, the Japanese artist
strives to suggest some sentiment beyond what is
conveyed by the form represented, just as the poet
strives to store up a mine of thought in the thirty-
one syllables of an ordinary verse, or in the still
shorter Haiku of seventeen syllables. To attain
such an end, art, instead of rendering a single
natural object, should produce a connected series
of such objects, in other words, scenery. If nature
be represented as scenery, it can be made to
suggest a wealth of emotion and implied ideas.
The Japanese affect landscape subjects; but they
are not only partial to the treatment of landscapes
as such, for even in the painting of animals and
plants they exhibit the same spirit. In short the
Japanese artist exerts himself to produce more
than beauty of form and colour. This is truly
128
the most vital characteristic of Japanese art. We
may go even so far as to say that, broadly
speaking, all Japanese paintings of natural objects
are landscape paintings. And in this lies that
suggestiveness — that indication of sentiment —
which constitutes the chief excellence of the art
of Japan.
To illustrate my point, let me first of all take
two examples from Hoitsu Sakai, a noted painter
of the Korin school, one representing summer
plants and the other autumn plants. The for-
mer (p. 125 ), executed in brilliant tints on silver
ground, is distinctly decorative, but the composi-
tion on the whole is none the less pervaded by a
tone of poetic interest. In fact this painting
reveals more than beauties of form and colour; it
expresses vividly the effect of a shower which has
just passed off, drenching the plants and feeding
the stream near by. To put it in another way,
one can feel beyond and above what is actually
represented, the delight of a flowery field in sum-
mer, and the cool refreshing breeze which follows
a shower. The other painting (p. 1 26), likewise
rendered brilliantly on silver ground, is similarly
designed. Only here an autumn scene is suggested:
across the field is sweeping a gust of wind, under
which the tender plants are bending and swaying.
Could anything express an autumn scene more
suggestively and with greater effect ? In the first
picture the idea of summer is suggested by a