Nihonga (Japanese:日本画) is a Japanese style of painting that typically uses mineral pigments, and occasionally ink, together with other organic pigments on silk or paper. The term was coined during theMeiji period (1868–1912) to differentiate it from its counterpart, known asYōga (洋画) or Western-style painting. The term translates to "pictures in a Japanese style."[1]
In the narrow sense, it refers to paintings that were developed during the 77 years from the Meiji Restoration to the end of World War II based on traditional Japanese techniques and styles, such as calligraphy and hand-painted painting , rather than oil painting. In contrast, oil paintings were calledYōga.
In a broader sense, the term can be extended to include works made before the Meiji Restoration and after World War II. In such cases, the term is often used with some ambiguity as to whether it refers to works that have Japanese characteristics in terms of subject matter or style despite being of Chinese origin, or whether it refers generally to drawings made in Japan before the arrival of oil painting techniques.
The former, Meiji-eraNihonga, began whenOkakura Tenshin andErnest Fenollosa sought to revive traditional Japanese painting in response to the rise of a new Western painting style,Yōga.Hashimoto Gahō, a painter of theKano School, was the founder of the practical side of this revival movement. He did not simply paint Japanese-style paintings using traditional techniques, but revolutionized traditional Japanese painting by incorporating theperspective ofYōga and set the direction for the laterNihonga movement. As the first professor at the Tokyo Fine Arts School (nowTokyo University of the Arts), he trained many painters who would later be consideredNihonga masters, includingYokoyama Taikan,Shimomura Kanzan,Hishida Shunsō, andKawai Gyokudō.[2][3]
The term was already in use in the 1880s and a discussion of the context at the end of theEdo period is traced in Foxwell'smonograph onMaking Modern: Japanese-style Painting.[4] Prior to then, from the early modern period on, paintings were classified by school: the Kanō school, the Maruyama-Shijō school, and theTosa school of theyamato-e genre, for example.[5]
At about the time that the Tokyo Fine Arts School was founded, in 1887, art organizations began to form and to hold exhibitions. Through them, artists influenced each other, and the earlier schools merged and blended. With the additional influence of Western painting, today'snihonga emerged and developed.[6]
Nihonga has gone through many phases of development since the Meiji period. The impetus for reinvigorating traditional painting by developing a more modern Japanese style came largely from many artist/educators, which includedShiokawa Bunrin,Kōno Bairei,Tomioka Tessai andart criticsOkakura Tenshin andErnest Fenollosa, who attempted to combatMeiji Japan's infatuation with Western culture by emphasizing to the Japanese the importance and beauty of native Japanese traditional arts. These two art critics, and in particular Tenshin who was called the father of modern Japanese art, championed the preservation of traditional art with innovation and synthesis with Western-style painting.Nihonga was thus not simply a continuation of older painting traditions viewed in this light. Moreover, stylistic and technical elements from several traditional schools, such as theKanō-ha,Rinpa andMaruyama Ōkyo were blended together.
Some Western painting techniques were adopted, such asperspective and shading, in a bid to move away from the importance of the painted line from East Asian painting tradition. Because of this tendency to synthesize, it has become increasingly difficult to draw a distinct separation in either techniques or materials betweenNihonga andYōga.
The artistTenmyouya Hisashi (b. 1966) has developed a new art concept in 2001 called "Neo-Nihonga".
Nihonga has a following around the world; notableNihonga artists who are not based in Japan areHiroshi Senju, AmericanMakoto Fujimura, and CanadianMiyuki Tanobe.
Contemporary Nihonga was the mainstay of New York's Dillon Gallery between 1995 and 2015.[7] The "golden age of post war Nihonga" from 1985 to 1993 produced global artists whose training in Nihonga has served as a foundation.Takashi Murakami,Hiroshi Senju, Norihiko Saito, Chen Wenguang, Keizaburo Okamura andMakoto Fujimura all came out of the distinguished Doctorate level curriculum at Tokyo University of the Arts. Most recentlyPola Museum did a seminal survey in an exhibit which includedMakoto Fujimura,Lee Ufan,Matazo Kayama, as well as Natsunosuke Mise, called "Shin Japanese Painting: Revolutionary Nihonga", curated by Hiroyuki Uchiro.
Fujimura's book "Art Is: A Journey into the Light" (Yale University Press, 2025) reintroduces Nihonga in a new light, highlighting its history and materials, as well as his descriptions and meditations of Tawaraya Sotatsu's "Waves at Matsushima", a seventeenth century seminal work in collection at Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, has been noted as the first English writing about the masterpiece.
Nihonga are typically executed onwashi (Japanese paper) oreginu (silk), using brushes. The paintings can be either monochrome or polychrome. If monochrome, typicallysumi (Chinese ink) made fromsoot mixed with a glue from fishbone or animal hide is used. If polychrome, thepigments are derived from natural ingredients:minerals, shells,corals, and evensemi-precious stones likemalachite,azurite andcinnabar. The raw materials are powdered into 16 gradations from fine to sandy grain textures. Ahide glue solution, callednikawa, is used as a binder for these powdered pigments. In both cases, water is used; hencenihonga is actually awater-based medium.Gofun (powderedcalcium carbonate that is made from curedoyster,clam orscallop shells) is an important material used innihonga. Different kinds ofgofun are utilized as a ground, for under-painting, and as a fine white top color.
Initially,nihonga were produced for hanging scrolls (kakemono), hand scrolls (emakimono), sliding doors (fusuma) or folding screens (byōbu). However, most are now produced on paper stretched onto wood panels, suitable for framing. Nihonga paintings do not need to be put under glass. They are archival for thousands of years.[citation needed]
In monochromeNihonga, the technique depends on the modulation of ink tones from darker through lighter to obtain a variety of shadings from near white, through grey tones to black and occasionally into greenish tones to represent trees, water, mountains or foliage. In polychromeNihonga, great emphasis is placed on the presence or absence of outlines; typically outlines are not used for depictions of birds or plants. Occasionally,washes and layering of pigments are used to provide contrasting effects, and even more occasionally,gold orsilver leaf may also be incorporated into the painting.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
_L.jpg)
_R.jpg)
.jpg)
Media related toNihonga at Wikimedia Commons