japanese art – tag –

Japan's imperial flower, its emblem of autumn, its symbol of endurance — the chrysanthemum carries more cultural weight than any other Japanese flower. What it means in vintage japanese print and home decor.

The Rinpa school created the visual vocabulary that Hokusai and Hiroshige inherited — bold shapes on gold ground, confident negative space, the aesthetic of essential form. The foundation of Japanese wall art.

The Great Wave's iconic blue was a European synthetic pigment that arrived in Japan around 1820. A material history of ukiyo-e color — what changed, what faded, and what it means for looking at prints.

Shinto's understanding of nature as sacred — the kami in mountains, rivers, and ancient trees — shaped Japanese visual culture at its deepest level. Understanding Shinto changes how you see Hokusai.

Kitagawa Utamaro was the greatest painter of bijin — beautiful women — in Japanese art history. His revolutionary close-up portraits transformed the genre and influenced Western art.

Bonsai is one of Japan's most distinctive art forms — a living sculpture developed over centuries. Its aesthetic principles connect directly to the same visual culture as ukiyo-e.

Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec — all were transformed by Japanese woodblock prints. This is the story of how ukiyo-e sparked a revolution in Western art.

In his 80s, Hokusai traveled to Obuse to paint a dragon across a temple ceiling. Throughout his career, dragons were a recurring obsession. Here's his most powerful dragon work.

From the ink wash paintings of Song-dynasty China to the spare gardens of Kyoto's temples — how Zen philosophy shaped the most distinctive aesthetic in world art.

The 500-kilometer road between Edo and Kyoto was the spine of Edo Japan. Hiroshige turned it into the most influential travel art series in history. Here's its story.