6/23/2023 0 Comments Japanese kami![]() ![]() They inhabit the world around you, though they are found in greater abundance in locations of extraordinary beauty. One aspect of the kami tradition is that kami are available wherever you are. In the Summer Landscape, this encroachment is visible where the buildings seem to fade into the mist at the base of low mountains. The water originating from the very mountains connects the boat-faring figures more intimately with the sacred landforms. The low rolling hills lowers the threshold between the spirit realm and the secular, bringing the barrier between the worlds closer to the plains within which humans reside. Japanese painters took this to heart, but still expressed their mountains, water and flora in Japanese terms, in particular depicting their mountains to conform to their ideas of what Japan looks like. Chinese tradition in painting taught Japan to think of landscapes as collages of mountains, water and flora. The frequent emphasis on particular aspects of landscape provides an easily recognizable theme which is then applied in artful expression to add layers of spiritual meaning to visual arts.Īmong the vast wealth of cultural exchange that occurred between China and Japan, China introduced the art of brush painting. This stigmatism about mountains could have stemmed from their natural barrier properties. Within the Shintô creation myth, the kami Izanagi flees his wrathful dead wife, moving a great rock between his domain and hers. In the Buddhist tradition, purple mist furled through the mountains and music could be heard as part of the sign that a new person had been carried by Amida Buddha to the Pure Land. The inhospitable topopgraphy has inspired tales of mountains’ roles as realms of the dead or as great barriers between the known world and the mysterious domain of demons and monsters. People in Japan have been fascinated with mountains since early times. Understanding the characteristics of kami in Japanese culture is an important key to recognizing how kami are expressed in the landscape art of the country. Similarly, modern blockbuster films from Japan, such as Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, are internationally celebrated for spectacular artistic beauty and have many kami themes. Fuji being overwhelmed by the massive ocean wave, what could be read as a clash of kami. In addition, the famous Great Wave off Kanagawa depicts Mt. For example, in the Summer Landscape attributed to Sesshû Tôyô, in the University of Michigan Art Museum, a central pine and separate lofty mountain set themselves apart as kami-like expressive landmarks. The ancient idea of kami, natural spirits that inhabit the land, is expressed in landscape art through prominent physical features that distinguish themselves within the imagery. Upon reception in the island nation, landscape art was undeniably transformed to fit Japanese mindsets, and consequently to reflect a Japanese perspective on nature. Nature in the form of mountains, water and trees has lent itself to the art of landscape painting as developed by the Chinese and transmitted to Japan.
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