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    Iconology of Fuji Painting: Japanese Psyche in Perspective of Animism, Shamanism and Mountain Worship
    Iconology of Fuji Painting: Japanese Psyche in Perspective of Animism, Shamanism and Mountain Worship
    Iconology of Fuji Painting: Japanese Psyche in Perspective of Animism, Shamanism and Mountain Worship
    Ebook113 pages1 hour

    Iconology of Fuji Painting: Japanese Psyche in Perspective of Animism, Shamanism and Mountain Worship

    By Yoshihiko Maeno

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    About this ebook

    The first scientific-iconological survey ever on the most traditional and most topicalized genre in Japanese arts, Fuji Painting, from its origin in antiquity in the 9th century, through the Middle Ages (Sansui-Painting in especial), to its apex in Edo Ukiyoe Painting (Hiroshige and Hokusai). It facilitates you to acquire a substantial and concise perspective not only on the Japanese art history but above all on the Japanese psyche in most impressive features. The author’s style is sufficient both for specialists and for the friends of Japanese culture in general.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateSep 20, 2013
    ISBN9781483506821
    Iconology of Fuji Painting: Japanese Psyche in Perspective of Animism, Shamanism and Mountain Worship

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      Book preview

      Iconology of Fuji Painting - Yoshihiko Maeno

      9781483506821

      § 1. Universality of iconological consciousness

      This paper tries to demonstrate an iconological analysis on one of the most traditional and popular topoi of Japanese art; on the tradition of Fuji Painting. What matters here mostly, is not a detailed special research on Japanese art history, but a more general survey on Japanese orientation in living world, examining its central topos of Fuji Painting. Therefore, we intend to serve a dual purpose; firstly it should offer a brief overview of this cultural heritage by describing concrete materials, and secondly it intends to verify the applicability of the concerned method itself, while it tries to get insight into the problem, how far the iconological investigation would be valid for our eastern tradition.

      In the first place, it is worthwhile to observe the basic fact that the term iconology consists of two notions; ‘icon’, i.e. visual representation and ‘logos’, i.e. verbal meaning and reasoning. This basic structure of the concept tells us explicitly that the iconological studies intend above all to reconstruct the semantic context of the stylization, in order to understand the ‘meaning’ of the visual expressions; of paintings, sculptures and architectures. They try to come to an understanding of ‘why thus’ of the expression and ‘what’s the meaning’ of the representation. Naturally this question of ‘why’ includes in itself the element of simple ‘what’, namely of the subject matter: ‘what is painted here?’. It is also related to the problem of technique; ‘how is it made?’ and so on. Stylistic analysis of traditional formalistic art history includes these both elements of theme and know-how with regard to the compositional device. It constitutes the basis of iconological researches; and in this sense, it is a sheer misunderstanding to oppose both principles.

      The point is, that we should take this pre-scientific basis of iconological consciousness into account, i.e. the simple fact that it is based on the ‘why’ and ‘what’s the meaning’ of the visual representations before us. It is also easily intelligible to ascertain that the iconological consciousness in our everyday life, not the iconological method in the academic field, is the self-evident prerequisite and the first psychological framework we form standing before the visual expressions, before paintings, sculptures, and architectures. ‘The’ iconology in the sense of special scientific method with its strong analytical traits dealing with problems of artistic stylization is therefore to be regarded as the conceptual refinement and systematization of this basic psychological presupposition which expresses itself as rather naïve questions of ‘why thus’ and ‘what’s the meaning’ put forward before the visual expressions.

      If only we become a little more conscious about the interaction between visualization and reasoning in everyday basis, we can ascertain immediately how often one comes across the amalgamation or coordination of both phenomena.

      We shall pick up one example of this universality concerning the iconological consciousness from Chinese literature.

      Lu Xun (Ro Jin) noticed the importance of this interaction, as he studied the documentation of primordial myths and legends in Chinese literature, which resulted in his splendid book, ‘The History of Chinese Novels’.² According to Lu Xun, there had been a vivid tendency to connect the visual expression and verbal tradition in the early strata of Chinese literature. He exemplifies this amalgamation by quoting some ancient documents, in which one poet stands before olden wall paintings and asks not only ‘what’ (‘what is painted here?) but primarily the ‘why’ of the expression; ‘why they depicted these gods and spirits thus?’ This poet was the most suitable person to put such questions towards mythological paintings, for he is no other than Qu Yuan (339 BC - 278 BC); one of the greatest poet in ancient China. He asks before one mythical representation of the moon as follows:

      (Qu Yuan, Tian Wen [The questions about heaven])³

      In this occasion, Lu Xun further refers to one ancient annotation to this text from Han period, which explained the circumstances and background of this questioning:

      (Wang I ) ⁴

      One sees clearly that this document testifies the universality of iconological consciousness, which expresses itself by means of a question: ‘why is it thus represented?’ Qu Yuan went further; he himself created the new combination of visual and verbal expressions, adding his own poem to the wall painting. If this ancient painting with his text had come down to us, it would have offered a quite suitable subject for iconological study.

      One can say, as this case with Qu Yuan illustrates, that the mythological way of thinking has a predetermined affinity to the iconological consciousness, for myths are represented both in visual expressions and verbal texts; and more than that; there is always a vivid tendency in mytho-poetic thinking towards interrelations and interactions between ‘icon’ and ‘logos’, between visual expressions and verbal reasonings. No other than Qu Yuan’s masterpiece, ‘Chu-cu’ (‘So-ji’), testifies by many splendid expressions how vivid and

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