The Southern School ( Chinese : 南宗画 ; pinyin : nán zōng huà ) of Chinese painting , often called " literati painting" ( 文人画 ; wén rén huà ), is a term used to denote art and artists which stand in opposition to the formal Northern School ( 北宗画 ; běi zōng huà ) of painting. The distinction is not geographic, but relates to the style and contents of the works, and to some extent to the position of the artist. Typically, where professional, formal painters were classified as Northern School, scholar-bureaucrats who had either retired from the professional world or who were never a part of it constituted the Southern School.
50-556: According to William Watson , while the Northern School contains "the painters who favour clear, emphatic structure in their compositions, with the use of explicit perspective devices", the Southern School "cultivate a more intimate style of landscape bathed in cloud and mist, in which pleasing calligraphic forms tend to take the place of conventions established for the representation of rocks, trees, etc. The painter of
100-411: A baren is used to press the paper against the woodblock to apply the ink to the paper. The traditional baren is made in three parts: it consists of an inner core made from bamboo leaves twisted into a rope of varying thicknesses, the nodules thus created being what ultimately applies the pressure to the print. This coil is contained in a disk called an "ategawa" made from layers of very thin paper which
150-484: A clear Western influence in the realism and plastic treatment of his images. With the entry into the 20th century, the artists who practiced engraving evolved to a style more in line with modern Japanese taste. One of its first exponents was Hiroshi Yoshida , author of landscapes influenced by nineteenth-century English watercolor. In 1918 the Nippon Sōsaku Hanga Kyōkai (Japan Printmaking Artists' Association)
200-411: A contemporary literati (the painter, or a friend), are also quite common. However, while this sort of landscape, with certain features and elements, is the standard stereotypical Southern School painting, the genre actually varied quite widely, as the literati painters themselves, in rejecting the formal strictures of the Northern School, sought the freedom to experiment with subjects and styles. Although
250-472: A domestic copper movable type printing press began to be published, but copper type did not become mainstream after Ieyasu died in 1616. The great pioneers in applying the movable type printing press to the creation of artistic books, and in preceding mass production for general consumption, were Honami Kōetsu and Suminokura Soan. At their studio in Saga, Kyoto, the pair created a number of woodblock versions of
300-477: A free, carefree style, with a careless appearance but of great vitality. The technique for printing texts and images was generally similar. The obvious differences were the volume produced when working with texts (many pages for a single work), and the complexity of multiple colors in some images. Images in books were almost always in monochrome (black ink only), and for a time art prints were likewise monochrome or done in only two or three colors. The text or image
350-559: A market. However, an important set of fans of the late Heian period (12th century), containing painted images and Buddhist sutras, reveal from loss of paint that the underdrawing for the paintings was printed from blocks. In the Kamakura period from the 12th century to the 13th century, many books were printed and published by woodblock printing at Buddhist temples in Kyoto and Kamakura . A Western-style movable type printing-press
400-442: A method for printing texts as well as for producing art, both within traditional modes such as ukiyo-e and in a variety of more radical or Western forms that might be construed as modern art . In the early 20th century, shin-hanga that fused the tradition of ukiyo-e with the techniques of Western paintings became popular, and the works of Hasui Kawase and Hiroshi Yoshida gained international popularity. Institutes such as
450-579: A passion for Asian languages . In 1940 he married Kay Armfield, a fellow Cambridge student. After the war Watson joined the British Museum , where he became assistant keeper of British and medieval antiquities. He moved later to the Department of Oriental Antiquities . In 1954 he spent a year in Japan, where he encountered classic Japanese painting and sculpture, met leading scholars, and acquired
500-738: A post as professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). This involved responsibility for the collection of Chinese ceramics at the Percival David Foundation . He was a leading member of the team that organised the Genius of China exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1973, and presented a BBC documentary with Magnus Magnusson , filmed on location in China. He also made a major contribution to Japanese art studies in
550-661: A sugar-making plant. He returned to Britain in 1925 to study at schools in Glasgow and Derby, living with relatives. Already a scholar of Welsh , in 1936 he went to Gonville and Caius College , Cambridge , to read French, German and Russian. In 1939 Watson volunteered for the army , where his linguistic skills were put to use in the Intelligence Corps , with postings to Egypt and India . Here he intercepted German radio traffic for dispatch to Bletchley Park , and later interrogated Japanese prisoners of war, developing
SECTION 10
#1732757438772600-426: A very particular representation of a given subject), there was no legal conception of the ownership of ideas. Plays were adopted by competing theaters, and either reproduced wholesale, or individual plot elements or characters might be adapted; this activity was considered legitimate and routine at the time. After the decline of ukiyo-e and introduction of modern printing technologies, woodblock printing continued as
650-474: A working knowledge of the language and writing. He also visited China, establishing contacts that later enabled him to play a leading role in cultural relations in the early 1970s. In late 1960 through early 1970s Watson led several archaeological expeditions to Thailand to explore pre- and proto-historic sites and their cultural relationships with early sites in Southwest China. In 1966 Watson took up
700-533: Is especially renowned. For aesthetic reasons, the typeface of the Saga-bon , like that of traditional handwritten books, adopted the renmen-tai ( ja ), in which several characters are written in succession with smooth brush strokes. As a result, a single typeface was sometimes created by combining two to four semi-cursive and cursive kanji or hiragana characters. In one book, 2,100 characters were created, but 16% of them were used only once. Despite
750-413: Is first drawn onto thin washi (Japanese paper), called gampi , then glued face-down onto a plank of close-grained wood, usually a block of smooth cherry. Oil could be used to make the lines of the image more visible. An incision is made along both sides of each line or area. Wood is then chiseled away, based on the drawing outlines. The block is inked using a brush and then a flat hand-held tool called
800-451: Is glued together and wrapped in a dampened bamboo leaf, the ends of which are then tied to create a handle. Modern printmakers have adapted this tool, and today barens made of aluminum with ball bearings to apply the pressure are used, as well as less expensive plastic versions. The first prints were simply one-color ( sumizuri-e ), with additional colors applied by hand ( kappazuri-e ). The development of two registration marks carved into
850-413: The shanshui ( Chinese : 山水 ; pinyin : shān shuǐ ; lit. 'mountain-water') genre, and feature scholars in retirement, or travellers, admiring and enjoying the scenery, or immersed in culture. Figures are often depicted carrying or playing guqin (zithers), and residing in quite isolated mountain hermitages. Calligraphic inscriptions, either of classical poems or ones composed by
900-571: The Edo period was due to the high literacy rate of Japanese people in those days. The literacy rate of the Japanese in the Edo period was almost 100% for the samurai class and 50% to 60% for the chōnin and nōmin (farmer) class due to the spread of private schools terakoya . There were more than 600 rental bookstores in Edo , and people lent woodblock-printed illustrated books of various genres. While
950-540: The Emi Rebellion of 764. These are the earliest examples of woodblock printing known, or documented, from Japan . By the eleventh century, Buddhist temples in Japan produced printed books of sutras , mandalas , and other Buddhist texts and images. For centuries, printing was mainly restricted to the Buddhist sphere, as it was too expensive for mass production, and did not have a receptive, literate public as
1000-406: The "Adachi Institute of Woodblock Prints" and "Takezasado" continue to produce ukiyo-e prints with the same materials and methods as used in the past. With the entry into modernity, in Japan there was a renewal of woodblock printmaking, the hanga . After the death of Hiroshige in 1858, the ukiyo-e practically disappeared. Its last manifestations correspond to Goyō Hashiguchi , who already shows
1050-414: The "Southern School" as such, that is, the coining of the term, is said to have been made by the scholar-artist Dong Qichang (1555–1636), who borrowed the concept from Chan ( Zen ) Buddhism, which also has Northern and Southern Schools. Generally, Southern School painters worked in ink wash painting with black ink, and focused on expressive brushstrokes and a somewhat more impressionistic approach than
SECTION 20
#17327574387721100-685: The 20th century. Beginning in the 18th century, the attitudes of the Chinese literati (the scholar-bureaucrat in retirement who devotes himself entirely to a love of culture) began to be taken up by Japanese artists. As the Japanese literati (文人, C: wen ren , J: bun jin ) were forbidden to leave Japan, and had little access to original Chinese works (or to meeting the literati themselves), the lifestyle, attitude, and art changed considerably in Japan. Outside of native Japanese inspirations, these bunjin gained Chinese influence only through woodblock-printed art books which attempted to reproduce and communicate
1150-526: The Japanese classics, both text and images, essentially converting emaki (handscrolls) to printed books, and reproducing them for wider consumption. These books, now known as Kōetsu Books, Suminokura Books, or Saga Books ( 嵯峨本 , Saga-bon ) , are considered the first and finest printed reproductions of many of these classic tales; the Saga Book of the Tales of Ise ( Ise monogatari ), printed in 1608,
1200-536: The Northern "painted only the outward appearance of things, the worldly and decorative". Never a formal school of art in the sense of artists training under a single master in a single studio, the Southern School is more of an umbrella term spanning a great breadth across both geography and chronology. The literati lifestyle and attitude, and the associated style of painting, can be said to go back quite far to early periods of Chinese history. However, classification of
1250-761: The Northern School's formal attention to detail and use of color and highly refined traditional modes and methods. The stereotypical literati painter lived in retirement in the mountains or other rural areas, not entirely isolated, but immersed in natural beauty and far from mundane concerns. They were also lovers of culture, hypothetically enjoying and taking part in all Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar as touted by Confucianism , that is, painting, calligraphy , music , and games of skill and strategy. They would often combine these elements into their work, and would gather with one another to share their interests. Literati paintings are most commonly of landscapes often of
1300-644: The Saga Books were printed on expensive paper, and used various embellishments, being printed specifically for a small circle of literary connoisseurs, other printers in Edo quickly adapted the conventional woodblock printing to producing cheaper books in large numbers, for more general consumption. The content of these books varied widely, including travel guides, gardening books, cookbooks, kibyōshi (satirical novels), sharebon (books on urban culture), kokkeibon (comical books), ninjōbon (romance novel), yomihon , kusazōshi , art books, play scripts for
1350-569: The School of Literati. In early China the term refers to the class of people that went through traditional Chinese education. There were sets of Chinese civil service examinations, including Chinese literature and philosophy. Passing the exam was a requirement for many government positions. These individuals were the mandarins, and referred to those who held government positions. William Watson (sinologist) William Watson CBE ( ( 1917-12-09 ) 9 December 1917 – ( 2007-03-15 ) 15 March 2007)
1400-470: The Southern Chan school. Like other traditions in Chinese art, the early Southern style soon acquired a classic status and was much copied and imitated, with later painters sometimes producing sets of paintings each in the style of a different classic artist. Though greatly affected by the confrontation with Western painting from the 18th-century on, the style continued to be practiced until at least
1450-518: The Southern School ideals and methods. The Southern School (南宗画, C: nan zhong hua , J: nan shū ga ) came to be known as nanga in Japan. Japanese literati painters had a huge variety of social backgrounds (feudal lords and their retainers, samurai, merchants, and even fishermen), although they emulated the Chinese literati lifestyle. The scholars, scholarly civil servants, or literati of Imperial China, were all schooled in Confucianism known as
1500-456: The Southern School was interested in distant effects, but his colleague of the Northern School paid more attention to the devices of composition which achieve the illusion of recession, and at the same time more attentive to close realism of detail. ... some artists hover between the two". A more philosophical distinction is that the Southern School painters "were thought to have sought the inner realities and expressed their own lofty natures" while
1550-725: The UK. In 1972 Watson became a Fellow of the British Academy . In 1975-76 he was Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge. In 1979 the Royal Academy turned to Watson to chair the curatorial committees for the Great Japan Exhibition , held in 1981–82. Under Watson's guidance this focused on the approachable, mainly secular, art of the Edo period, with both exhibition and catalogue produced by British specialists, rather than being simply imported from Japan. In
Southern School - Misplaced Pages Continue
1600-427: The appeal of moveable type, however, craftsmen soon decided that the semi-cursive and cursive script style of Japanese writings was better reproduced using woodblocks. By 1640 woodblocks were once again used for nearly all purposes. After the 1640s, movable type printing declined, and books were mass-produced by conventional woodblock printing during most of the Edo period . The mass production of woodblock prints in
1650-900: The blocks called "kento" was especially helpful with the introduction of multiple colors that had to be applied with precision over previous ink layers. The sheet of paper to be printed is placed in the kento, then lowered onto the woodblock. While, again, text was nearly always monochrome, as were images in books, the growth of the popularity of ukiyo-e brought with it demand for ever increasing numbers of colors and complexity of techniques. The stages of this development follow: Japanese printmaking, as with many other features of Japanese art, tended to organize itself into schools and movements. The most notable schools (see also schools of ukiyo-e artists ) and, later, movements of moku-hanga were: Other artists, such as Sharaku , Kabukidō Enkyō , Sugakudo, and Shibata Zesshin , are considered independent artists, free of school associations, and presumably, without
1700-545: The canons of classical Chinese painting mainly derived from the criteria set out by Dong Qichang, Mo Shilong (1537?–1587), and Chen Jiru (1558–1639). They identified two different schools: the “Northern School of Painting” and the “Southern School of Painting”, also called “Literati Painting”. They were inspired by two schools formed by the schism of Chan Buddhism during the Tang Dynasty: the Northern Chan school and
1750-509: The common people and were mass-produced. ukiyo-e is based on kabuki actors, sumo wrestlers, beautiful women, landscapes of sightseeing spots, historical tales, and so on, and Hokusai and Hiroshige are the most famous artists. In the 18th century, Suzuki Harunobu established the technique of multicolor woodblock printing called nishiki-e and greatly developed Japanese woodblock printing culture such as ukiyo-e . Ukiyo-e influenced European Japonisme and Impressionism . Yoshitoshi
1800-679: The early 1980s Watson attempted to have the teaching of Japanese art history started at the Courtauld Institute . Although unsuccessful, this paved the way for the creation of teaching posts elsewhere. From 1980 to 1990 Watson was a trustee of the British Museum and in 1982 was made a CBE . Watson retired in 1983 as head of the Percival David Foundation, and became emeritus professor . He published widely on China, Iran and Anatolia . His last work,
1850-516: The extent to which actual works by Tang or Song masters have survived is still a matter of controversy. Several of the famous names from the periods between the Tang and Song periods were very high officials, but in later periods landscape painting became a refuge and form of muted protest within their class for officials out of favour, or who opposed and avoided the court. During the Qing period (1644–1911),
1900-613: The final book of a three-volume set on China for the Pelican History of Art series, was published shortly before his death. Woodblock printing in Japan Woodblock printing in Japan ( 木版画 , mokuhanga ) is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre of single sheets, but it was also used for printing books in the same period. Invented in China during the Tang dynasty , woodblock printing
1950-417: The kabuki and jōruri (puppet) theatre, etc. The best-selling books of this period were Kōshoku Ichidai Otoko (Life of an Amorous Man) by Ihara Saikaku , Nansō Satomi Hakkenden by Takizawa Bakin , and Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige by Jippensha Ikku , and these books were reprinted many times. From the 17th century to the 19th century, ukiyo-e depicting secular subjects became very popular among
2000-403: The most famous and successful was Tsuta-ya . A publisher's ownership of the physical woodblocks used to print a given text or image constituted the closest equivalent to a concept of " copyright " that existed at this time. Publishers or individuals could buy woodblocks from one another, and thus take over the production of certain texts, but beyond the ownership of a given set of blocks (and thus
2050-401: The resulting associated benefits from publishers, who might be less inclined to produce prints by an unaffiliated artist. However, many of the surviving examples speak to the contrary. The earliest examples by these artists are among the most desirable, valuable, and rarest of all ukiyo-e. Additionally, many examples exhibit very fine printing, using expensive mica ( kirazuri ), premium inks and
Southern School - Misplaced Pages Continue
2100-461: The term itself originates much later, the artists later attached to it go back to at least the Tang dynasty , with a larger group from (rather confusingly) the Northern Song dynasty. In the latter period the tradition of literati landscape painting seems to have acquired most of the characteristics that it kept throughout its history, and a number of writings on theory have survived from it;
2150-552: Was a British art historian who was Professor of Chinese art and archaeology at the University of London . He was a leading member of the teams that organised the Genius of China exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1973 and the Great Japan Exhibition , held in 1981–82. He made a major contribution to Japanese art studies in the UK. Watson was born in Derby , England , but moved with his family to Brazil , where his father managed
2200-581: Was brought to Japan by the Tenshō embassy in 1590, and was first used for printing in Kazusa, Nagasaki in 1591. However, the use of the western printing press was discontinued after the ban on Christianity in 1614. The printing press seized from Korea by Toyotomi Hideyoshi 's forces in 1593 was also in use at the same time as the printing press from Europe. An edition of the Confucian Analects
2250-445: Was called the last great ukiyo-e master, and his cruel depictions and fantastic expressions influenced later Japanese literature and anime . The price of one ukiyo-e at that time was about 20 mon , and the price of a bowl of soba noodles was 16 mon, so the price of one ukiyo-e was several hundred yen to 1000 yen in today's currency. Many publishing houses arose and grew, publishing both books and single-sheet prints. One of
2300-412: Was founded, a group of artists who synthesized traditional Japanese painting with the new Western aesthetic. Notable among its members were Kōshirō Onchi , Un'ichi Hiratsuka and Shikō Munakata . The first, influenced by Vasili Kandinsky , was the first to produce abstract engravings, of a style however distinctly oriental for its chromaticism of soft tones and for its lyricism and imagination. Hiratsuka
2350-467: Was invented in China under the Tang dynasty , and eventually migrated to Japan in the late 700s, where it was first used to reproduce foreign literature. In 764 the Empress Kōken commissioned one million small wooden pagodas, each containing a small woodblock scroll printed with a Buddhist text ( Hyakumantō Darani ). These were distributed to temples around the country as thanks for the suppression of
2400-402: Was more traditional in technique and choice of subjects, with a preference for black and white monochrome, in themes ranging from Buddhism to landscapes and popular scenes, in which he combined traditional methods with modern effects. Munakata was noted for his original, personal and expressive work, with an unmistakable stamp. He also focused on Buddhist themes, generally also monochrome, but with
2450-470: Was printed in 1598, using a Korean moveable type printing press, at the order of Emperor Go-Yōzei . Tokugawa Ieyasu established a printing school at Enko-ji in Kyoto and started publishing books using a domestic wooden movable type printing press instead of metal from 1599. Ieyasu supervised the production of 100,000 types, which were used to print many political and historical books. In 1605, books using
2500-496: Was widely adopted in Japan during the Edo period (1603–1868). It is similar to woodcut in Western printmaking in some regards, but was widely used for text as well as images. The Japanese mokuhanga technique differs in that it uses water-based inks—as opposed to Western woodcut, which typically uses oil-based inks. The Japanese water-based inks provide a wide range of vivid colors, glazes , and transparency. Woodblock printing
#771228