or is an illustrated horizontal narration system of painted handscrolls that dates back to Nara-period (710–794 CE) Japan. Initially copying their much older Chinese counterparts in style, during the succeeding Heian (794–1185) and Kamakura periods (1185–1333), Japanese developed their own distinct style. The term therefore refers only to Japanese painted narrative scrolls.
As in the Chinese and Korean scrolls, combine calligraphy and illustrations and are painted, drawn or stamped on long rolls of paper or silk sometimes measuring several metres. The reader unwinds each scroll little by little, revealing the story as seen fit. are therefore a narrative genre similar to the book, developing romantic or epic stories, or illustrating religious texts and legends. Fully anchored in the style, these Japanese works are above all an everyday art, centered on the human being and the sensations conveyed by the artist.
Although the very first 8th-century were copies of Chinese works, of Japanese taste appeared from the 10th century in the Heian imperial court, especially among aristocratic ladies with refined and reclusive lives, who devoted themselves to the arts, poetry, painting, calligraphy and literature. During this period, the techniques of composition became highly accomplished, and the subjects were even more varied than before, dealing with history, religion, romances, and other famous tales. The patrons who sponsored the creation of these were above all the aristocrats and Buddhist temples. During the late Heian period, the Four Great Illustrated Handscrolls of Japan (Nihon Yondai Emaki) were produced. These include Ban Dainagon Ekotoba, Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga, Genji Monogatari Emaki, and Shigisan Engi Emaki. They are regarded as representative examples of the tradition and have all been designated as National Treasures of Japan. From the 14th century, the genre became more marginal, giving way to new movements born mainly from Zen Buddhism.
paintings mostly belong to the style, characterized by its subjects from Japanese life and landscapes, the staging of the human, and an emphasis on rich colours and a decorative appearance. The format of the , long scrolls of limited height, requires the solving of all kinds of composition problems: it is first necessary to make the transitions between the different scenes that accompany the story, to choose a point of view that reflects the narration, and to create a rhythm that best expresses the feelings and emotions of the moment. In general, there are thus two main categories of : those which alternate the calligraphy and the image, each new painting illustrating the preceding text, and those which present continuous paintings, not interrupted by the text, where various technical measures allow the fluid transitions between the scenes.
Today, offer a unique historical glimpse into the life and customs of Japanese people, of all social classes and all ages, during the early part of medieval times. Few of the scrolls have survived intact, and around 20 are protected as National Treasures of Japan.
Concept
The term or , often abbreviated as , is made up of the kanji , and . The term refers to long scrolls of painted paper or silk, which range in length from under a metre to several metres long; some are reported as measuring up to in length. The scrolls tell a story or a succession of anecdotes (such as literary chronicles or Buddhist parables), combining pictorial and narrative elements, the combination of which characterises the dominant art movements in Japan between the 12th and 14th centuries.
An is read, according to the traditional method, sitting on a mat with the scroll placed on a low table or on the floor. The reader then unwinds with one hand while rewinding it with the other hand, from right to left (according to the writing direction of Japanese). In this way, only part of the story can be seen – about , though more can be unrolled – and the artist creates a succession of images to construct the story.
Once the has been read, the reader must rewind the scroll again in its original reading direction. The is kept closed by a cord and stored alone or with other rolls in a box intended for this purpose, and which is sometimes decorated with elaborate patterns. An can consist of several successive scrolls as required of the story – the was made up of 48 scrolls, although the standard number typically falls between one and three.
An is made up of two elements: the sections of calligraphic text known as , and the sections of paintings referred to as ; their size, arrangement and number vary greatly, depending on the period and the artist. In inspired by literature, the text occupies no less than two-thirds of the space, while other more popular works, such as the , favour the image, sometimes to the point of making the text disappear. The scrolls have a limited height (on average between and ), compared with their length (on average to ), meaning that are therefore limited to being read alone, historically by the aristocracy and members of the high clergy.
History Origins
Handscrolls originated in ancient Chinese documents originally being made of bamboo and wooden slips before evolving into paper and silk handscrolls during the Han dynasty. Handscrolls were introduced to Japan centuries later through the spread of Buddhism. The earliest extant Japanese handscroll was created in the 8th century and focuses on the life of the Buddha. This work dates from the 8th century to the Nara period: the , which traces the life of the Gautama Buddha, founder of the Buddhist religion, until his Illumination. Still naive in style (Six Dynasties and early Tang dynasty) with the paintings arranged in friezes above the text, it is very likely a copy of an older Chinese model, several versions of which have been identified, though no such originals survive in China today. Although subsequent classical feature a very different style from that of this work, it foreshadows the golden age of the movement that came four centuries later, from the 12th century CE onwards.
Heian period: genesis of the art Arts and literature, birth of a national aesthetic
The Heian period appears today as a peak of Japanese civilization via the culture of the emperor's court, although intrigue and disinterest in things of the state resulted in the Genpei War. This perception arises from the aesthetics and the codified and refined art of living that developed at the Heian court, as well as a certain restraint and melancholy born from the feeling of the impermanence of things (a state of mind referred to as in Japanese). Furthermore, the rupture of relations with China until the 9th century, due to disorders related to the collapse of the glorious Tang dynasty, promoted what Miyeko Murase has described as the "emergence of national taste" as a truly Japanese culture departed for the first time from Chinese influence since the early Kofun period. This development was first observed in the literature of the Heian women: unlike the men, who studied Chinese writing from a young age, the women adopted a new syllabary, , which was simpler and more consistent with the phonetics of Japanese. Heian period novels () and diaries () recorded intimate details about life, love affairs and intrigues at court as they developed; the best known of these is the radical Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, lady-in-waiting of the 10th century Imperial Court.
The beginnings of the Japanese-inspired Heian period painting technique, retrospectively named , can be found initially in some aspects of Buddhist painting of the new esoteric Tendai and Shingon sects, then more strongly in Pure Land Buddhism (); after a phase when Chinese techniques were copied, the art of the Japanese archipelago became progressively more delicate, lyrical, decorative with less powerful but more colorful compositions. Nevertheless, it was especially in secular art that the nascent was felt most strongly; its origins went back to the sliding partitions and screens of the Heian Imperial Palace, covered with paintings on paper or silk, the themes of which were chosen from court poetry, annual rites, seasons or the famous lives and landscapes of the archipelago ().
This secular art then spread among the nobles, especially the ladies interested in the illustration of novels, and seems to have become prevalent early in the 10th century. As with religious painting, the themes of Japanese life, appreciated by the nobles, did not fit well with painting of Chinese sensibility, so much so that court artists developed to a certain extent a new national technique which appeared to be fashionable in the 11th century, for example in the seasonal landscapes of the panel paintings in the or Amida Hall at the Byōdō-in temple, a masterpiece of primitive of the early 11th century.
Experts believe that illustrations of novels and painted narrative scrolls, or , developed in the vein of this secular art, linked to literature and poetry. The painting technique lent itself fully to the artistic tastes of the court in the 11th century, inclined to an emotional, melancholic and refined representation of relations within the palace, and formed a pictorial vector very suited to the narrative. Even though they are mentioned in the antique texts, no of the early Heian period (9th and 10th centuries) remains extant today; the oldest illustrating a novel mentioned in period sources is that of the , offered to the Empress between 872 and 907.
However, the stylistic mastery of later works (from the 12th century) leads most experts to believe that the "classical" art of grew during this period from the 10th century, first appearing in illustrations in novels or diaries produced by the ladies of the court. In addition, the initial themes remained close to poetry (seasons, Buddhism, nature and other themes). Therefore, the slow maturation of the movement of was closely linked to the emergence of Japanese culture and literature, as well as to the interest of ladies soon joined by professional painters from palace workshops () or temples, who created a more "professional" and successful technique. The art historians consider that the composition and painting techniques they see in the masterpieces of the late Heian period (second half of the 12th century) were already very mature.
Fujiwara era: classical masterpieces If almost all belong to the genre of , several sub-genres stand out within this style, including in the Heian period ("women's painting") and ("men's painting"). Several classic scrolls of each genre perfectly represent these pictorial movements.
First, the (designed between around 1120 and 1140), illustrating the famous eponymous novel, narrates the political and amorous intrigues of Prince Hikaru Genji; the rich and opaque colors affixed over the entire surface of the paper ( method), the intimacy and melancholy of the composition and finally the illustration of the emotional peaks of the novel taking place only inside the Imperial Palace are characteristics of the subgenre of , reserved for court narratives usually written by aristocratic ladies. In that scroll, each painting illustrates a key episode of the novel and is followed by a calligraphic extract on paper richly decorated with gold and silver powder.
The already presents the composition techniques specific to the art of : an oblique point of view, the movement of the eyes guided by long diagonals from the top right to the bottom left, and even the removal of the roofs to represent the interior of buildings (). A second notable example of the paintings in the Heian period is the , which appears to be very similar to the , but presents softer and more decorative paintings giving pride of place to the representation of nature subtly emphasising the feelings of the characters.