February 7

We started the discussion by taking a look at some of the tools used to paint and write in Japan, again thanks to Clara O'Shea. We saw:

ink (sumi) a deep black ink made from the soot of burnt wood;
inkstone (suzuri) can be made of various non-porous stones;
brush (fude) typically bamboo and animal fur.

We talked about the Japanese writing system. The Japanese writing system uses four kinds of script:

1. kanji (Chinese characters, originally developed in China to write Chinese)

2. hiragana (representations of the syllables of Japanese, developed from cursive forms of kanji; used in both the pre-modern and modern periods to write Japanese words)

3. katakana (representations of the syllables of Japanese, developed from parts of kanji; used originally to write the pronunciation of Chinese characters in sacred texts, now used to write foreign words and to add emphasis)

4. romaji (Roman letters)

We then started looking at some examples of the art of prehistoric Japan.

Key words to remember:

Jômon
Yayoi
Kofun
haniwa

In the discussion, some people pointed out how similar the artifacts that we were looking at were to those of civilizations at a comparable stage of development, despite the fact that any contact or cultural exchange between them was unlikely.

As we continue to look at Japanese art through history, see if you notice any motifs or other aspects of form or taste that seem to recur. For instance, the wave pattern on the bronze bell; the cuteness of the haniwa; the shape of architecture (albeit this is something we only know through reconstructions as actual examples have disappeared).

What can these artifacts tell us about the contact people living in Japan at this time might have had with their neighbors on the continent?

What can these artifacts tell us about the religious beliefs of their owners?

HANDOUT:

Japanese Writing Systems