Neo-Nihonga: “New Japanese Style”

October 8, 2007

While Takashi Murakami’s “super-flat” style seems to have won the world over via its vibrant pop-culture tie-ins (Kanye West, Louis Vuitton, etc.), another school of Japanese art is steadily gaining ground and quickly transforming how the country understands its visual identity.

“Neo-Nihonga” literally means “New Japanese-style”, taking its name from the “Nihonga” style which was popularized in the 17th and 18th centuries as a return-to form when the Japanese aesthetic was becoming increasingly infatuated with Western methods.

On the forefront of this latest “Nihonga” wave are artists like Ai Yamaguchi, Akira Yamaguchi, Hisashi Tenmyouya, Fuyuko Matsui and Kumi Machida.

Related Post: Takashi Murakami: The Japanese Warhol

- Douglas Haddow

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Comments


  • Jse Jnsn, On
  • October 9th, 2007 at 12:51 am Said:

i saw graffiti on a buddha statue and jordan 1’s..i’m sold

  • The Aesthetic Poetic, On
  • October 9th, 2007 at 10:00 pm Said:

Me too. I am really feeling this style.

[...] The Aesthetic Poetic has a cool post on the Japenese style of neo-nihonga… so cool that I lifted it. Ha. That’s cool though. Names like Kumi Machida, Hisashi Tenmyouya, and Fuyuko Matsui. [...]

The cat with all the hiphop flavour is Hisashi Tenmyouya, he did some one off samurai kicks a while back that were pretty trilly.

  • Hiroko?, On
  • October 13th, 2007 at 4:11 am Said:

Doug,
Speaking of Japanese art, there’s a documentary on Yoshitomo Nara’s “A to Z” project( http://www.nara-movie.jp) it’ll be shown with “http://sketch.cinemacafe.net/”
DId you hear about the pillow fight in the middle of shibuya?? can’t believe I missed it!

  • sara, On
  • December 3rd, 2007 at 1:53 pm Said:

Nihonga is actually not something from the 17th and 18th centuries, it was created in the 19th century in opposition to western painting (yoga). Okakura Tenshin and Fenellosa were behind Nihonga.

  • Douglas Haddow, On
  • December 14th, 2007 at 12:28 am Said:

Well. I think it’s actually quite a bit more complex than your explanation.

Okakura Tenshin was an academic art critic whose thesis merely politicized a long established style that had enjoyed centuries of success up until the Meiji restoration.

Its not like he “created” anything, he merely pointed out that western techniques were becoming overly popular and then worked to keep native techniques at the forefront of Japan’s art culture.

  • eg, On
  • May 31st, 2008 at 8:15 am Said:

really interesting!

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