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Traditional painting and ukiyo-e engraving
Japanese painting is in may different from European: it does not recognize three-dimensional perspective or treatment of light and shade; it mainly focuses on the line and elaborate small details. Painting techniques were to a large extent adopted from the art of calligraphy - syodo. Despite its purely decorative appearance, Japanese painting is based on a strong philosophical foundation and has centuries-long tradition. Japanese painting which appeared in the Heian era (794 - 1185) as part of the cultural tradition of the Emperor's court, was called yamato-e. Most masterpieces in the yamato-e style are made by court artists and are illustrations tot he works of classical medieval Japanese literature.
The works of Japanese painting can take various forms: kakemono scrolls in luxurious brocade framing are put on walls; meters-long emaki scrolls are designed for gradual lengthy viewing; painting on byobu screens is designed as a decoration of interiors; some paintings are made in the form of folding books or as separate album sheets. Paintings on fans, stones and shells are also very popular. There are monochromic (painted with black ink only) landscapes sumi-e; polychromic landscapes nanga in the south-Chinese style provided with lengthy hieroglyphic texts; Buddhist painting butsuga; genre painting fudzoku-ga; portraits of the heros of Japanese history and famous poets; illustrations to the works of medieval Japanese literature; depictions of beauties; erotic scrolls; images of plants, flowers, birds and animals. However, it is primarily the ukiyo-e engraving ("pictures of the changing world") that made Japanese artists popular in Europe and that greatly influenced the impressionists. Engravings were results of collective work: the artist made a sketch, the engraver carved the picture on wooden plates, printers covered these matrixes with pigment and made imprints. The ukiyo-e engraving appeared in Japan in the end of the 16th century; by the end of the 18th - first half of the 19th century it reached its peak. It was then that such famous masters as Utamaro, Hokusai, Hirosige, etc. worked. The ukiyo-e style still exists nowadays.
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