A Nihonga painting by my grandmother still hangs in the Japanese-style room of my home. Yet when asked what "Nihonga" actually is, I realized I could not explain it well. Here is a short look at its history.
The name "Nihonga" is surprisingly new
The word Nihonga (Japanese painting) is said to have spread in the Meiji era, to distinguish it from oil painting (yoga, Western-style painting) that had come in from the West. Before that, it was simply "painting."
In other words, Nihonga is a name given later, to refer to a long tradition as a whole.
Yamato-e: painting Japan's seasons and stories
In the Heian period, in contrast to kara-e, painting derived from China, a stream emerged that depicted Japanese scenery and stories. This is yamato-e.
As in the Tale of Genji picture scrolls, it depicted the changing seasons and people's lives with soft colors and lines. A sensibility that cherishes nature and stories took shape in this period.
Rinpa: the invention of decoration
At the beginning of the Edo period, a stream later called Rinpa began with Hon'ami Koetsu and Tawaraya Sotatsu. The name comes from the "Rin" of Ogata Korin, who came a little later.
Rinpa is not a school passed down from master to disciple. It is a loose lineage connected by shishuku: people who admired the painting of an earlier age learned from it on their own, without being taught directly.
It uses gold and silver leaf for backgrounds, bold compositions, and a technique called tarashikomi: dripping ink or paint of different depths onto a surface before it dries, letting the colors bleed into each other to form shapes.
Modern Nihonga: Okakura Tenshin and the "hazy style"
In the Meiji era, Okakura Tenshin led the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and the Japan Art Institute in an effort to renew Nihonga.
At the center were Yokoyama Taikan and Hishida Shunso. Starting from the question "Can air be painted?", the two tried a way of depicting subjects through the bleeding of colors, without relying on outlines. It later came to be called morotai, the "hazy style."
This way of painting was not well received in Japan at the time. But at an exhibition held in New York in 1904 it was unexpectedly well received, and it is said the works sold for higher prices than in Japan.
History connects to how I paint today
Yamato-e, which paints nature and stories; Rinpa, with its decoration and bleeding colors; modern Nihonga, which does not rely on outlines. They may look like separate stories, but a sense of "letting form be felt through color and air rather than enclosing it in clear lines" runs through every era.
When I paint, too, I value creating a presence through layers of color rather than depicting things sharply. Knowing the history lets me see a little of what my own hands are connected to.
Mermaid nao's commissioned art is not Nihonga itself, but I paint standing on this stream.
Sources
Nomura Bijutsu (The history of Nihonga)
Wikipedia (Yokoyama Taikan / Rinpa)
Pola Museum of Art (Shin Japanese Painting: Revolutionary Nihonga)
Wa-gaku web (Tawaraya Sotatsu, Ogata Korin, Sakai Hoitsu, Suzuki Kiitsu: what is Rinpa?)
Related articles
