Art and Culture in Japan

1. Art and Culture in Japan Chapter 8, Section 2

2. Japanese Nobles Create Great Art • Nobles – royal people who spend time with the emperor. • Court – a group of nobles who spend time with, and give advice to, the emperor.

3. Nobles didn’t spend much time among common people. They loved beauty and elegance. Because of this, they created art in the form of fashion, literature, painting or drawing, architecture, and performing arts like dancing or plays.

4. Fashion • Nobles wore silk robes and gold jewelry. • They loved elaborate (detailed) clothes – women wore long gowns made with 12 layers of silk, cut to show off all of the layers. • They carried fans decorated with pictures of birds, flowers, and trees.

5. Literature • Japanese nobles were very careful about how they spoke and what they wrote. • Women wrote diaries about life at court and chose words carefully to make their writing beautiful. • Men usually wrote in Chinese, but women wrote in Japanese. Many great pieces of Japanese literature were written by women. • Both men and women wrote poetry. They even held parties where they took turns writing poetry (haiku).

6. Visual Art • Paintings were usually done in bright, bold colors. • They liked to illustrate stories, scenes from nature or scenes from life at court. • Calligraphy was used to copy down poetry so that the poem looked as beautiful as it sounded.

7. Architecture: The Japanese admired Chinese buildings, especially their temples. They liked simple, natural designs for buildings and added beauty in gardens and ponds.

8. Performing Arts • People enjoyed watching musicians, jugglers, and acrobats, as well as plays. • Noh – drama that combines music, speaking and dance. Often tells stories about heroes from Japan’s past.

9. Buddhism Changes • Buddhism was an art – very elaborate rituals. • Common Japanese developed Pure Land Buddhism – no rituals, just chanting. • 1100: Zen Buddhism comes from China. Focused on self-discipline and meditation.