JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PAINTING

In the beginning, Japanese Paintings were mostly inspired by Chinese paintings. Later on various other schools of thought emerged with their own styles and techniques.

Japanese paintings mostly embrace landscapes as their objects of painting. Unlike Western paintings, the sky, mountains, lakes and water are depicted to be proportionately

much larger than human beings in Japanese paintings. Landscape is referred to as 'Sansui' in Japan. San means 'mountain' and Sui means 'water' and therefore a majority of

Japanese landscape paintings depict mountains and flowing water. Occasionally, sun or moon is also included to represent the 'natural truths' underlying each scenery.

Characteristics of Japanese landscape paintings-

The desire to become one with nature.

Japanese landscape paintings don't depict isolated themes; rather they advocate a universal idea.

Japanese landscape paintings are imbued with philosophical and moral and symbolic connotations.

Japanese landscape paintings portray nature as part of the total cosmic realm.

History of Origami

The history of origami is under debate. Unlike other art forms, paper degrades quickly leaving no artifacts to suggest where origami originated and who first invented it. The information listed here provides a good overview of origami but is not an authorative analysis of the subject. For detailed information regarding the history of origami, consult the works of David Lister: The History of Origami in paperfolding.com and the Lister list from British Origami Society.

Textbooks will say that paper was first invented in China by Cai Lun (also written Ts'ai Lun) in 105 A.D. (Image from wikipedia.com). However, archeological evidence suggest that paper was invented even early than this. One can imagine that if there's paper, then the paper may have been folded as well. There is no evidence of this but, if it was true, then paper folding would have started here.

During the 6th century, paper was introduced into Japan. It is here that paper folding became an art form and evolved into what we know today as origami.

Initially, paper was expensive and therefore not available to the general public. Paper folding, was not a hobby: it was for formal functions. For example: "Origami Tsuki" was a folded piece of paper that accompanied a valuable gift and it served as a certificate of authenticity. "Noshi" was folded-paper that accompanied gifts and functioned as tokens of good fortune. "Tsutsumi" was formal gift wrappers. These ceremonial folds were simple and symbolized sincerity and purity. [Photo: noshi collection from the National Diet Library.

Paper folding also developed in Spain sometime between the 8th and 12th century. Historians believe that paper and paper-making was introduced into Europe from Asia via the Silk Route. It is not clear whether paper-folding was invented in Europe independently or if it was also introduced from Asia. Photo:

"pajarita".

Paper folding was documented for the first time in 1797 in the book called “Folding of 1000 Cranes“ (Senbazuru Orikata). Next, was a series of books called “Window on Midwinter“ (Kan No Mado). These books were about Japanese customs and there is two sections on paper folding. [The name of these books was probably Kayaragusa] By 1890's, the word origami was more or less officially used to refer to what we call as origami. Previous to this time, it was called "orikata", "orisue", "orimono", or "tatamigami".

In the 1950, Akira Yoshizana and Sam Randlett developed a standard set of origami symbols to describe how to fold paper into models. These symbols remained essentially the same and is used in origami diagrams today. [Note: David Lister suggests that it was Sam Randlett and Robert Harbin who formalized the use of the origami symbols.]

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What is Haiku?

Haiku is one of the most important form of traditional Japanese poetry. Haiku is, today, a 17-syllable

verse form consisting of three metrical units of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. Since early days, there has been

confusion between the three related terms Haiku, Hokku and Haikai. The term hokku literally means

"starting verse", and was the first starting link of a much longer chain of verses known as haika. Because

the hokku set the tone for the rest of the poetic chain, it enjoyed a privileged position in haikai poetry,

and it was not uncommon for a poet to compose a hokku by itself without following up with the rest of the

chain.

Largely through the efforts of Masaoka Shiki, this independence was formally established in the 1890s

through the creation of the term haiku. This new form of poetry was to be written, read and understood as an independent poem, complete in itself, rather than part of a longer chain.

Strictly speaking, then, the history of haiku begins only in the last years of the 19th century. The famous

verses of such Edo-period (1600-1868) masters as Basho, Yosa Buson, and Kobayashi Issa are

properly referred to as hokku and must be placed in the perspective of the history of haikai even though

they are now generally read as independent haiku. In HAIKU for PEOPLE, both terms will be treated

equally! The distinction between hokku and haiku can be handled by using the terms Classical Haiku and

Modern Haiku.

What to write about?

Haiku-poems can describe almost anything, but you seldom find themes which are too complicated for

normal PEOPLE's recognition and understanding. Some of the most thrilling Haiku-poems describe daily situations in a way that gives the reader a brand new experience of a well-known situation.

The seasonal theme.

Each Haiku must contain a kigo, a season word, which indicate in which season the Haiku is set. For

example, cherry blossoms indicate spring, snow indicate winter, and mosquitoes indicate summer, but the season word isn't always that obvious.

Please notice that Haiku-poems are written under different rules and in many languages. For translated

Haiku-poems, the translator must decide whether he should obey the rules strictly, or if he should present

the exact essence of the Haiku. For Haiku-poems originally written in english, the poet should be more careful. These are the difficulties, and the pleasure of Haiku.

How to Write Haiku

Haikus are poems of 3 lines of words with a total of 17 syllables

Examples: page 317 in your book

Basho Matsuo is known as the first great poet of Haiku.

An old silent pond...

A frog jumps into the pond,

splash! Silence again.

by Basho (1644-1694)

What is

Tanka?

Tanka is the name of an ancient form of Japanese poetry.

Tanka are 31-syllable poems that have been the most popular form of poetry in Japan for at least

1300 years. As a form of poetry, tanka is older than haiku, and tanka poems evoke a moment or

mark an occasion with concision and musicality.

During Japan's Heian period (794-1185 A.D.) it was considered essential for a woman or man of

culture to be able to both compose beautiful poetry and to choose the most aesthetically pleasing

and appropriate paper, ink, and symbolic attachment---such as a branch, a flower---to go with it.

Tanka were often composed as a kind of finale to every sort of occasion; no experience was quite

complete until a tanka had been written about it.

Tanka have changed and evolved over the centuries, but the form of five syllabic units containing

31 syllables has remained the same.Topics have expanded from the traditional expressions of

passion and heartache, and styles have changed to include modern language and even

colloquialisms.

In Japanese, tanka is often written in one straight line, but in English and other languages, we

usually divide the lines into the five syllabic units: 5-7-5-7-7.

Examples:

Beautiful mountains

Rivers with cold, cold water.

White cold snow on rocks

Trees over the place with frost

White sparkly snow everywhere.

Pretty colored trees

That are orange, red and yellow

In the Autumn air

An old barn by the water

With a white fence around it.