Japanese Art: Jomon to Edo Period

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XXXXX XXXX 12/1/11 Survey of Japanese Art 01:082:322 Japanese art has a long and progressive history, dating from as far back as 11,000 BC to the present. Over the course of Japan’s artistic history, art styles, mediums, and media have changed to reflect the values of the culture, both socially and religiously, and the innovations of the day. A reoccurring theme that we see throughout Japan’s artistic history is the incorporation of international influence. It has a strong influence in shaping early Japanese society, religion, and artistic innovations. Interestingly, however, we see the development of outer influence as the Japanese are able to progress from incorporating and modifying foreign cultural influence in their art, to developing a uniquely identifiable Japanese style. The earliest documented Japanese style, The Jomon era, dates back to approximately 11,000 to 300 BCE. These were not the Japanese people as we know them today, but early settlers of the time. Jomon, meaning ‘cord impressed’, is given to this period to reflect the highly textured and cord impressed vessels of the time. Art works were predominantly of different forms of pottery reflecting the hunting and gathering nomadic way of life. There were no settlements and no urbanization, and groups lived very simply. The Jomon period is divided into three parts: Early Jomon (5000-2500BCE), Middle Jomon (2500-1500BCE), and Late Jomon (1500-300BCE). We see progressions in pottery throughout these stages as early Jomon is really characterized by hand kneaded clay and pottery with pointed bottoms, and the basic cord impressions that are uniformly distributed all over the surface of the vessel, but not symmetrical. Middle Jomon takes these designs a step further in producing sculptures with flat bottoms and ornate flared rims. The vessels appear more elaborate and highly intricate with their

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