JAPANESE AESTHETICS: Plants in Japanese Visual Arts

JAPANESE AESTHETICS: Plants in Japanese Visual Arts

(Geijutsu to Shokubutsu)

The illustrative arts of Japan, indeed, many other art forms, have reflected the artist’s sensitivity to nature and lean toward compact, simple, spare, graceful and elegant images. Traditional Japanese representations of landscapes do not, for example, exhibit the wide range of colors and detail that one might find in Western oil paintings. Even in sculpture, works are generally delicate and small in scale.

Plants, flowers, and birds (or their patterns) are commonly reproduced in lifelike colors on fabrics, lacquer ware and ceramics. This love for the forms of nature and an passion to express them in an “ideal” fashion have been key motivations in the development of traditional Japanese arts, for example: ikebana, (flower arrangement), Chanoyu (tea ceremony), tray landscapes (bonkei), bonsai, and landscape gardening. Through these art forms the Japanese have tried to integrate the beauty of nature into their daily lives as well as their personal religions and spiritual values.