Japan Art: Influence of Edo and Meiji Periods
Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
The above art is by Suzuki Shônen. He was born during the late Edo Period in the 1840s and died during the Taisho Period (1912-1926) in 1918. Hence, he developed artistically during the revolutionary Meiji Period (1868-1912).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art says, “Together with his father, Suzuki Hyakunen, Shonen was one of the leading painters active in Kyoto during the Meiji period. After the country became more open to the West in the second half of the nineteenth century, they made efforts to preserve the subjects and style of traditional Japanese painting.”
Aoyama Masaharu (Seiji Aoyama) produced the stunning art piece above. He was born in the prefecture of Saitama in 1893 and died in 1969. Therefore, he witnessed a nation reborn and on the path of becoming an economic power.
Masaharu also studied traditional Japanese ink painting. Indeed, he learned this delightful angle at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. However, despite dying in the post-war period, the early influence of the Meiji Period impacted him greatly.
The final art piece above is by Watanabe Shikō (1683-1755). He was gifted from a young age and influenced by the cultural traits of Kyoto during the Edo Period.
The Kyoto National Museum says, “Shikō went on to serve as an artist for the aristocratic Konoe family, one of the five regent clans in the ancient capital. Under its erudite head—the calligrapher, painter, poet, and statesman Konoe Iehiro (1667–1736)—Shikō expanded his purview to encompass the traditional Japanese yamato-e style of painting. Iehiro’s interest in natural history—even painting his own compendiums of botanical illustrations—influenced Shikō, as seen in his emphasis on sketching from life. Shikō’s attitudes towards art, in turn, greatly impacted some of the most famous Kyoto painters of the second half of the eighteenth century, including Maruyama Ōkyo (1733–1795).”
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