The end of history? Or the beginning of the future?
The Evolution of Visual Arts in Tokyo
First Impressions of Visual Arts in Tokyo
For this Hyper Tokyo project, I will study Art as an aspect of Tokyo
culture. I believe that this will be important to study as an "aspect
of cultural change" because the way art in general changes through
the ages is relatively easy to see, as it changes dramatically with the
times. For example, during the impressionism phase in France, the style
of painting changed dramatically: People now painted things related to
commoners, whereas before, only the aristocracy had their portraits painted.
This, I believe, reflected the fall of the power of the aristocracy in
France. The reason why I believe that all of this relates to how art reflects
cultural change in Tokyo is that art changes to reflect various influences,
in this case, mainly western influences.
Among the many and varied traditional art forms of Japan, is Kabuki,
an old performing- art. Kabuki originated during the Edo period, as a response
to the townspeople's (esp. wives and daughters) demands for entertainment,
which helped them escape from their dull, oppressed, everyday lives. This
also reflected the transferring of power in Edo from the Shogun to the
merchants, and the transformation of Edo as an Urban Empire into a trade
empire in the late Tokugawa period. This, I believe, was an important part
of culture at that time, as it helped the townspeople cope with the strict
feudal traditions of the time that were not yet fully discarded. Kabuki
is now not as much an important part of contemporary culture, as a well
known form of historical Japanese entertainment.
Oddly similar to the older literature from the Edo Period, Manga, a
"contemporary" or modern Japanese art form, is popular with both
the young and the old. Probably, like it's predecessor, it was made as
a casual form of entertainment for the working class. Manga are obviously
not fading away into history, as the already vast numbers of people reading
them seems to be on the rise. These, as many may think, I believe, are
not derived from the western comics, but instead of the Early Meji "light
fiction" books, as Manga, unlike comics, often have real plots, as
I have heard.
Though other art forms are imported into Tokyo from the West, the most
obvious of these is western music. Western music, I believe, is very popular
in Japan and a large influence on many Japanese musicians of the time.
For example, I once heard a Japanese song in which half the lyrics are
in English. Also, certain modern Japanese songs seem to resemble some western
styles of music.
I believe that the most prevalent style of art forms in Tokyo is the
modern Japanese art/entertainment. Though western music is popular and
influential, I believe that more Japanese listen to modern Japanese music
rather than western music, as I believe that most people prefer to listen
to music in their native language rather than that in a foreign language.
Also, the same applies to literature. Furthermore, though many people still
go to Kabuki plays and wood block print exhibits, as well as listen to
traditional music, I believe that the modern art forms are more popular,
at least among younger people. Though I believe that Japanese art is moving
towards the western style, and away from the traditional style, I think
that Japanese art will still remain unique from that of the west and keep
some of it's traditional styles. This is probably happening because Japan's
newer generations look to the west for fashion because the western culture
encompasses two continents. Also, perhaps they want to single themselves
out from the previous generations, thinking them "old-fashioned".
Reflections
Before conducting my research, I believed that there was a great amount
of western influence on Japanese Art. However, after researching, I found
that, as I stated in my Analysis, "Western and Modern Japanese Art
are traveling two separate paths- it is only that the technology is similar
that makes the two paths seem to run nearly parallel.", in other words,
though the technology used may be identical to that in the West, the medium
in many cases, and artwork in almost all cases, is not. I also found more
evidence that Traditional Japanese Art is evolving into Modern Japanese
Art. For instance, Lacquer, a Traditional Japanese Art form, is being used
for, among other things, Golf Clubs.
To answer the questions, I researched the answers using CD encyclopedias,
encyclopedias, Art books, almanacs, interviews, and the Internet. However,
I only got usable information out of the CD encyclopedias, Art Books, Interviews,
and the Internet. The Broad and Definition questions were relatively easy
to answer with most sources, and Definition question answers were extremely
abundant on the internet. However, unfortunately, I was only able to get
incredibly small amounts of information for measurement questions, and
the little I did get was out of Art Books and interviews. The most frustrating
aspect of the project, in fact, I believe, was obtaining the information
to the measurement questions, as they were so difficult to obtain. If I
were to do this assignment again, I probably would concentrate on wringing
more information out of people in interviews by further developing my interview
questions. I would probably also interview more people. However, I would
probably have done the rest mostly the same- except I would omit the non-CD
encyclopedias and Almanacs, as I got no useful information whatsoever out
of them.
"The end of history? Or the beginning
of the future?" Main Page
Prepared by Travis Ronald Tamura, from Mr.
Hoover's 8th Grade social studies class on April 13, 1998.