Narrative Picture Scrolls

Fülszöveg

EMAK.I, the narrative picture scrolls produced in Japan in great numbers from the tenth to the sixteenth centuries, are both an art form of great charm and fascination and a mirror of Japanese life and customs in those times. Picture scrolls came to Japan from China but there were transformed, by the emphasis on decorative style and narrative subject matter, into a new and distinctively Japanese art.
Although the dehcate, dreamlike scroll of the T-ale of Genji is perhaps the best known to Westerners, emaki encompass a wide range of subject matter and styles. They illustrate—usually with accompanying text—Buddhist sutras, Uterary works, historical accounts, moral tales, biographies, military histories, poems, fables, and legends. They range in style from the richest of coloring and decoration to simple lines in ink monochrome, and they were painted both by professional artists and by gifted amateurs.
The strong story-telling element in emaki makes natural the predominance of... Tovább

Fülszöveg

EMAK.I, the narrative picture scrolls produced in Japan in great numbers from the tenth to the sixteenth centuries, are both an art form of great charm and fascination and a mirror of Japanese life and customs in those times. Picture scrolls came to Japan from China but there were transformed, by the emphasis on decorative style and narrative subject matter, into a new and distinctively Japanese art.
Although the dehcate, dreamlike scroll of the T-ale of Genji is perhaps the best known to Westerners, emaki encompass a wide range of subject matter and styles. They illustrate—usually with accompanying text—Buddhist sutras, Uterary works, historical accounts, moral tales, biographies, military histories, poems, fables, and legends. They range in style from the richest of coloring and decoration to simple lines in ink monochrome, and they were painted both by professional artists and by gifted amateurs.
The strong story-telling element in emaki makes natural the predominance of human figures and gives them their incomparable value as sources of information on seven centuries of life in ancient and medieval Japan. Emperor and peasant, noble and monk, animals and goblins live in these scrolls as the artists who painted them did, reflecting that deep and unique relationship between man and nature that is so central a part of Japanese culture. Because of this focus and because almost every work has a basis in a tale of actual events or in literature, picture scrolls have played a peculiarly important role in the cultural and artistic history of Japan.
In this lucid, lively introduction to the Japanese narrative picture scroll, the author has chosen the outstanding works from among those remaining to illustrate both their development as an art form and the world they depict with such exquisite brilliance.
This book is available in both hard and soft covers.
the arts of japan presents in English translation selected issues of the distinguished series Nihon no Bijutsu (Japanese art), published monthly since 1966 by Shibundo of Tokyo. Each volume in this series examines a single Japanese art or craft in close detail and with an abundance of illustrations. Each has been vvrritten by a leading Japanese expert in the field and has been prepared under the supervision of the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese Government and the three great national museums of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nara. The translator of each volume is a Western specialist in the subject of that volume, and overall supervision for the English editions is in the hands of John Rosenfield of Harvard University and Louise Cort of the Fogg Art Museum. Volumes already published include Design Motifs, Kyoto Ceramics, and Tea Ceremony Utensils; in preparation are Meiji Western Painting and Haniim.
hideo okudaira, born in 1905, is an authority on the subject of Japanese picture scrolls. He is a graduate of Tokyo University, has taught at Wako University, Tokyo, and was formerly head of the Research Materials Department at the Tokyo National Museum. He is currently teaching at Kyoritsu Women's University, Tokyo. Among his many articles and books on illustrated handscrolls, Emaki: Japanese Picture Scrolls, and Emaki have been published in English translation.
Cover illustrations: (front) Detail from Ohusuma Saburo Ekotoba (Story of the Samurai Obusuma Saburo). Important Cultural Property. Kamakura period; Asano Collection, Tokyo, (back) Detail from Toyo no Akari Ezoshi (Scroll of Toyo no Akari). Kamakura period; Maeda Foundation, Tokyo. Printed in Japan. (Cover Design by Dana Levy) Vissza