The Maturation of Japanese Painting in the Early Modern Period : The Influence of Muromachi-period Thought in the Construction of the Aesthetic Sensibility of Japan

When we consider Japanese painting traditions, we can see their epitome in the Tosa and Kano schools. This way of thinking about painting and painting methods was transmitted over a long period and matured gradually. This occurred in the following manner. The social structure of samurai and court society was the supportive basis for painters. Painters developed distinctive means of expression that would reveal at a glance their stylistic allegiance to particular schools of painting in order to produce the fusion of purpose, taste and aesthetics so desired by their patrons. This became an "archetype" that was the criterion for painting method. This "archetype" of the completed form of painting method was adopted by later painters and matured into the traditional "model." And this "model" is assumed to exist in the brush technique, nuances of brushwork, and the formation of the character of the painting. This "model" exists as form visible to the eye and, furthermore, as an invisible "model" consisting of the ideas that prescribe the expressive form that determines the character and refinement of the painting. Namely, there exists a "model" that regulates each of the minimum required features and a "model" whose role is to determine the pattern of the composition and the overall expressive image. This double-layered structure of the "model" sets up an ordered approach to the expression of the desired ideals, which is an important constituent of the inner structure of the systematized "Do, " or Way. Painting (gado) , calligraphy (shodo) , tea ceremony (sado), flower arrangement (kado) all connote the relation between the "model" and "Do, " the Way. Although it was in the Muromachi period that the "model" was connected to the "Do, " or Way, why was it in this time period that this relationship emerged? The background of this development was the Confucian way of thinking employed by the Ashikaga Shoguns in establishing the country that resulted in the protection of Confucianism. Confucianism can be called the learning that orders the organization of social norms. To structure a workable human society, various rules must be organized, knowledge accumulated, and methods of inheritance and education must be established. The use of Confucianism for the fundamental ideals to order society was crucial to the Ashikaga Shogun's aspiration to establish the Muromachi shogunate. That Confucian thought formed the nucleus of the political ideals of that age is connected to the structure of traditional art and culture. In this paper, I have discussed the problem of the "model" in the painting of early modern Japan, and related how the Confucianism that flourished in the Muromachi period was deeply connected to the construction of the aesthetic sense that visibly links the traditional arts of Japan