Japantown, in San Francisco, is an ethnic enclave to the Japanese who migrated to the US and it is a space created by themselves for themselves to practice their old traditions and remind them of home. The Kinokuniya building in Japantown is home to many generations of Japanese and they would often celebrate traditional festivals and more than often there are many subculture groups within the Japanese here in San Francisco. One subculture that is evident is the Ikebana group located in Japancenter where they display flower arrangements called Ikebana. Being an outsider, the need to observe and research is very important to understand this art form flourishing in San Francisco. The empirical evidences I have gathered allowed me to dwell deeper into the history of Ikebana and the Ikebana group as well as the importance of this group to its fellow members.
Before visiting my field site, Ikebana Ikenobo group on post street, I did a little research on the art of Ikebana and the history of the Ikenobo school itself by searching for articles and emailing the Ikebana International headquarters regarding this culture. Ikebana simply means living flower, ikeru and hana.
Ikebana is a Japanese tradition of flower arranging that was brought to Japan in the 6th century and was a part of Buddhist custom introduced to the Japanese. The origin of flower arranging in Japan is from the early use of flowers as an offering to the spirits and the dead. Buddhist priests and members of the temple practiced most of the early Ikebana flower arrangement. Through the years, the Japanese adopted the custom and built schools specifically for flower arranging courses and one that dates back 500 years ago was Ikenobo. Ikenobo is known to be the oldest sc...
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In 1857 Ando Hiroshige created a woodblock print titled Riverside Bamboo Market, Kyobashi representing a scene in Japan. The print is of a blue river, a bridge, and what looks like a mountain of bamboo. People are shown walking on the bridge as if they are entering the bamboo market. The colors in the artwork give off a calm feeling and the lines draw you into the details of the work. Calling the print Riverside Bamboo Market, Kyobashi, Ando Hiroshige presents the river as a market where people come to gain items to sustain focusing on the abundance of bamboo.
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-Nara’s Buddhist temples were another result of cultural diffusion, Buddhist began in India in 500s B.C.E. about 1,000 years later, it came to Japan from China by way of Korea.
In the early 16th century the Netherlands experienced what was called “tulip mania” this was the beginning of the nations love for flora and foliage (Taylor 13). The result of this impressive flower invasion was a society that took a historical turn from which the results still remain today. Flower merchants, botanists and floral still life artists, were occupations that were an accurate reflection of the Netherlands demands (Brown). An interesting example of a life that was effected by, and devoted to the archiving of the flower craze was Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750) the 17th century Dutch flower painter. Rachel Ruyschs’ career straddled the 17th and 18th century, and her stunningly accurate floral pieces reflect the maturing, yet evolving art of floral still life painting (“Rachel Ruysch: Bibliography”). Ruyschs’ Still Life with Flowers on a Marble Tabletop (1716) is an excellent example of a painting that appropriately represents the genre of art that was created solely through specific societal events.
Pages 30-31 “The two young men had little in…the art contrived by Honolulu and Yokohama masters.”
As a conclusion, Mingei and nationalism can be perceived as fundamentally interwoven through Japanese handicrafts. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, many factors came to play a part in bringing the Japanese spirit to the forefront of craftsmen minds, whether as reason to bring attention to themselves and their own work or as a way of providing necessary utensils to the average Japanese home. The efforts of the Mingei movement and the Japanese Traditional Crafts Exhibition cannot be ignored. Yanagi can be said to have foreseen this radical decline in traditional styles and if not for his and his fellow founders collecting and preserving crafts in the Japanese Folk Art Museum, many of the regional methods and styles could be lost today. After the destruction of the war and
Ukiyo-e, which literally means “picture of floating world” is an art form that expressed the pursuit of pleasure and indulgence in its works. It gained popularity during the late Edo Period with merchants and townspeople. Hiroshige Ando was one of the most famous Ukiyo-e artists in Japan in the Edo period. He specialized in landscape painting and some of his famous works are “Fifty-Three Stages on the Tokaido” and “Hundred Famous Places of Edo”. He was born in Edo, a city now known as modern day Tokyo in 1797. His father, Andou Gen'emon was a fire watchman in the famous Edo fire brigade. He was orphaned when he was twelve. He took over his father’s job of being a fire watchman while continuing to study painting. He was both a fireman and a
This is an image that I think of when I consider Japanese culture. They love gardens like this and you see similar images often when considering their culture. It is difficult to tell for sure, but the people in the distance appear to be dressed up. It is as though they have put on their best clothes to step out and enjoy this relaxing setting. I believe that this print is successful at capturing a moment in the mid 1800’s very well. It causes me to sense and experience what the artist was trying to capture. This print seems to conform to the formal theory of art. The print has only images of each object. None of them are particularly detailed or real to life but they do a very good job of organizing and describing the basic elements of the scene. It uses similar colors, shapes, and lines to those one might find in this garden in
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During the Edo period, early 1600s, Japanese government set a place for entertainers, absolutely Geisha were included, it meant that they allowed to work only at the place where government has prepared for, called “Pleasure District” (Salvador, n.d, para. 7). First generation of Geisha were men, people belief that Female could not entertains in parties, these men kept the conversation going and gave performances. But after 1750, most of Geisha were female. Early female Geisha were dancers (Odoriko) or musicians who played Shamisen. They performed during dinner and entertained their customers at teahouse. The evolution of Geisha, from men to women, shows the changes of Japanese culture. Female became to have roles in society; they can educated and learned men’s job such as politic and business. Geisha got out of the male’s control which extremely important at that time, and created freely lifestyles.
The first article I read from Ceramics Art and Perception, discussed a Japanese exhibit. “Two Views: Japanese Kogei, Future Forward At Museum Of Arts and Design, New York” by Jan Castro, pages 56-61.
The sight is wonder for the eyes, as you cross each little section of flowers. As we continued through, you can see the hard work put into the garden. Each detail and sections are taken with ...
Japan is a large island off to the east of China it is a great country that has a rich culture. The Japanese religion is based off of two main beliefs, the belief in Shinto and Buddhism many Japanese people believe consider themselves both. The Japanese people were known to be around as early as 4,500 B.C. They have constructed their government style to a constitutional monarchy where they do in fact have an emperor, but he has limited power within the country. The main power of the country is held by the Prime Minister of Japan. Japan is made up of many islands that extend along the Pacific coast of Asia. The land area is made up of a lot of forest and mountainous area that cannot be used for agricultural, industrial or residential use. Japan also has one of the largest and growing economies in the world. They are growing every day and it is all because the people of Japan work very hard in order for their economy to flourish as it has.