Namban art
Namban art ( Japanese 南蛮 美術 , Namban bijutsu ) refers to an art movement in Japan that existed during the era of the Namban trade between 1550 and 1640 under the influence of the Portuguese missionaries . It includes Christian and Western secular themes, as well as images and objects depicting the Portuguese in Japan.
history
After the first Portuguese ship reached the Japanese island of Tanegashima in 1543 , the Jesuit Francisco de Xavier followed in 1549 , who went ashore in Kagoshima and began his missionary work. In 1569 Oda Nobunaga received the missionary Luís Fróis , who was in Japan from 1563 to 1592. The Jesuits were particularly successful in their missionary work on Kyūshū , where they set up seminars at various locations with the support of the daimyo there. Not only was the Bible taught there, but Western knowledge was also imparted, including the Western art of the time. A remarkable portrait of Oda Nobunaga has come down to us by Giovanni Niccolò (1560–1626), who taught painting there.
In addition to missionary activity, Portugal's trade with Japan also flourished. As a rule, a Nao- type ship visited the country every year, although it did not continue on its way home for a few months. To a lesser extent, the Spanish also succeeded in doing business with Japan.
With the persecution of Christians from the end of the 16th century, which culminated in the closure of Japan in 1640 , Western-inspired art disappeared from the public. However, a number of works secretly survived until the re-approval of Christianity in 1873. Most of them are now in public museums.
Christian art
Christian Art Made in Japan Include:
- Ritual objects made of metal such as bells, beakers for the Lord's Supper, objects made of wood such as portable altars, bookends, etc. a. The design with brass and mother-of-pearl inlays is typical of the latter.
- Painting with Christian content. A few pictures of Mary and saints, some in altars, have survived. Some of them are in poor condition.
Examples
Peter
Maria
Christian temple
Japanese votive altar
Priest with children
Secular art
Secular art with western content can be found as paintings in the form of adjustable screens - mostly executed as a pair -
- Western landscape in two variants (the pair each 1.20 m × 3 m.)
- Screen pair “Landscape with Europeans having fun” ( 洋人 奏 楽 図 屏風 ) MOA art museum
- Adjustable screen pair “Landscape with Europeans having fun” ( 洋人 奏 楽 図 屏風 ) Eisei Bunko
- Knight images in two variants
- Pair of adjustable screens “Kings from the Far West on Horseback” ( 泰西 王 候 駒 馬 図 屏風 ) Suntory Art Museum
- Pair of adjustable screens “Kings from the Far West on Horseback” ( 泰西 王 候 駒 馬 図 屏風 ) Kobe City Museum
- Screen pairs with the world on one screen and Japan on the second screen. The western view of the world was captured in pairs of screens as a combination of a kind of Mercator map and a map of Japan on the second screen. The world maps were occasionally combined with depictions of the different peoples, represented by pairs of the respective country.
- Screen pairs depicting the Portuguese. This was mostly done on screens that were primed with gold in the Japanese style. The ship on the bank is depicted in gorgeous colors on one screen, and a street scene with Portuguese and Japanese observing on the other.
Examples
Lute player
Screen pair "Europeans having fun" (Eisei Bunko)
Screen pair with world map and Japan
Screen with a Portuguese ship in Japan (detail)
Inrō with foreigners
Museums with collections of Namban art
Remarks
- ^ Museum of the Hosokawa Family in Tokyo.
- ↑ The description of the world was based on the work of Matteo Ricci in China: from there the paraphrasing of city names in the western world with Chinese characters was adopted, even if the Sino-Japanese pronunciation differed significantly. Up until the Meiji period, “Berlin” was written with the characters 伯林 or 柏林 , which is read in Chinese as “Bolin”, but in Japan as “Hakurin”.
literature
- Okamoto, Y .: `` The Namban Art of Japan. '' Weatherhill / Heibonsha, 1972. ISBN 0-8348-1008-5 .
