Painting is the preferred artistic expression in Japan

2. Japanese art was influenced first by China and Korea, later by Europe and lastly by America after 1868. • Characteristics include simplicity of form, attentiveness to beauty of nature, and subtlety. • Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture in wood and bronze, ink painting on silk and paper • The earliest complex art in Japan was produced in the 7th and 8th centuries A.D. in connection with Buddhism

3. Painting is the preferred artistic expression in Japan • Until modern times, the Japanese wrote with a brush rather than a pen, and their familiarity with brush techniques has made them particularly sensitive to the values and aesthetics of painting • Sumi-e- Japanese black ink painting on white paper in the Chinese style

4. With the rise of popular culture in the a style of woodblock prints called ukiyo-ebecame a major art • Ukiyo-e- Japanese pictures of the “floating world”. These were first made of paint. These are unique to the Edo period.

5. Most Japanese sculpture is associated with religion • Haniwa- clay sculptures that were place on burial mounds. • Haniwa were Pedestaled clay bowls, plates, and unglazed cylinders with human or animal forms

6. Japanese ceramics are among the finest in the world and include the earliest known artifacts of their culture. • Japanese architecture uses natural materials and blends with the natural environment surrounding it. • Today, Japan rivals most other modern nations in its contributions to modern art, fashion and architecture, with creations of a truly modern, global, and multi-cultural bent.