SamuraiArts2

media type="custom" key="5445373" Samurai Arts

Samurai began their focus in art when the first Japanese emperor, Minamoto Yoritomo, decided that cultural talents were needed to rule Japan effectively. Minamoto Yoritomo started to promote a lifestyle for samurai that combined fighting and being warriors with artistic activities. Samurai started to express their cultural talents, which showed their high-ranking status. Samurai arts included painting, practicing calligraphy, designing gardens, writing haikus, and having tea ceremonies. The later Tokagawa rulers focused their samurai's attention more closely on scholarly arts such as calligraphy and poetry. Samurai arts helped balance the Japanese culture; without the arts there would have been an overemphasis of trading and fighting.

Samurai created paintings for fun and beauty, and were very talented in this cultural aspect. Their paintings used a lot of gold, and most paintings were ink paintings. The paintings were very dynamic and bold with lots of color, and they showed power and monumentality. The paintings decorated rooms and often covered entire walls. Japanese paintings were commonly on folding screens and hanging scrolls, but they were also on mini fans. The pictures on the fans were obviously smaller than the wall painting, but they were no less intricate. Paintings were first painted on sheets of paper and silk and then mounted on the screens or fans. Ink paintings, called sumi-e, were influenced by the Chinese, and the ink painter has to follow very strict rules. Each ink painter must know how to paint grass before they can paint the more complicated cherry blossom tree. Samurai were very involved in the arts, and painting was very important to them.

Haiku, developed in the 17th century, is one of the most important forms of traditional Japanese poetry. A haiku has three lines: the first line has 5 syllables, the second line has 7 syllables, and the third line also has 5 syllables. The numbers 3, 5, and 7 are very important because they are the Japanese lucky numbers. Haikus can be about anything, but are traditionally about nature or everyday things. Many samurai wrote haikus in Japanese gardens to cleanse their minds and give them thoughts of beauty and nature. A haiku must have a kigo, or seasonal word, that indicates the season that the haiku is set in. For example, cherry blossoms symbolize spring, and snow symbolizes winter. Haikus should clearly conjure up a scene inside of your head, such as sitting by the river looking at the falling autumn leaves. Haikus have both strict and open rules, but the most important thing is that the words come from your heart.

Zen Gardens (also called sand and stone ryojin) are gardens of sand with rocks placed on top of them. The Zen masters placed rocks in a way that formed patterns. For example, they created trees by placing rocks in a way that formed the outlines of branches. Some say that the sand represents the water and that the rocks are the islands of Japan. If rocks are removed, added, or moved, it destroys the composition and meaning of the garden. The rocks are arranged in clumps of two, three, and five, and the sand is always carefully raked. The Zen samurai used to sit in gardens to meditate and clear their minds.

Citations:

BBC News. "Zen Garden Secrets Revealed." BBC News, Sep. 26, 2002. Web. February 16, 2010.

Department of Asian Art. "Samurai." The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Web. February 17, 2010. Gunton, Michael, and George Marsh. "Part 2 - Seasons and the kigo, the season-word." //In The Moonlight A Worm...//. 2010. CIS/Waning Moon Press, Web. 18 Feb 2010. <[]>.

Kalman, Bobbie. Japan the Culture. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company, 1989.

"Sand and Stone-Ryojin." Asian Studios. Web. February 17, 2010.

Toyomasu, Kei Grieg. "Haiku for People." //Haiku for People//. 10 January 2001. Web. 18 Feb 2010. <[]>.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art,. "Shoguns and Art." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. 2010. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Web. 19 Feb 2010.