Different ways of seeing, from Western and Japanese perspectives, are the subject of 'Shifting Perspectives'. Willem van Gulik, professor of Art History and Material Culture of East Asia, will say goodbye on Monday 23 November.
Curiosity
The Japanese are known for often copying foreign influences, according to evil tongues. Those same evil tongues actually mean 'western' influences by 'foreign' influences. On a more positive note, you can see that in Japan new things are always greeted with curiosity and usually with enthusiasm. This often results in the taking over of that influence, but soon the acquired takes on an unmistakably Japanese face of its own.
Self-selected isolation
This adoption of foreign influences started shortly after the beginning of our era with Chinese culture via Korea and a little later Buddhism via China. These are two examples of takeovers that rocked Japanese society. A similar shock meant the opening of the country in the mid-nineteenth century after more than two hundred years of self-imposed isolation. Western influences were imbibed at a rapid rate and Japan was transformed from a feudal state into a technocracy in just a few decades.
Wirtschaftswunder
After the Second World War, it was repeated again and it is the aforementioned evil tongues who claimed that the Japanese owe their 'Wirtschaftswunder' alone to this. Between these earth-shattering events, there were also some smaller ones. This includes the subject that has been Van Gulik's mind for some time:the transfer of Western painting and perspective techniques to Japanese graphics and painting.
Fashion trend
In the 1640s, Portuguese traders were the first westerners to arrive in Japan, followed in 1549 by the Jesuit mission. Christianity exerted a great attraction on the curious Japanese. "It is known from eyewitness accounts of the Jesuits that strolling on the street in Western clothing, complete with puff pants, hats and preferably glasses on the nose, had become a fashion trend," says Van Gulik. “The pinnacle of worldly wisdom was to hold a handkerchief in one hand and a rosary in the other, while walking recited the Our Father in Latin.”
Reproduction
By the late 1500s, several hundred thousand Japanese had converted to Christianity. The demand for religious paintings and copper engravings increased enormously, and because imports from Europe could not meet that demand, Japanese artists became involved in the reproduction of these paraphernalia. Van Gulik:'When copying, Western techniques such as the application of perspective and chiaroscuro were faithfully adopted without there being any theoretical awareness of these techniques.'
Blending style
At the same time, non-religious images were also copied. This created an entirely new mixing style. ‘On the other hand, you can see that the adoption and assimilation of Western painting techniques has in fact never really taken off and that in any case the Western painting style has not had a chance to gain a foothold in Japan,’ says Van Gulik.
Deshima
By the beginning of the seventeenth century, the role of the Portuguese and Spaniards had largely been played out in Japan and with them the role of Christianity in general and of the Roman Catholic faith in particular. With the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603, a political process began that eventually led to the expulsion of all Europeans and the total elimination of Christianity in 1641. Only the Dutch and Chinese were allowed to set up a small post where trade could be conducted under strict conditions. The artificial island of Deshima with the Dutch trading post was Japan's only window on the western world for over two hundred years.
Life level
The curiosity for Western knowledge and sciences increased among Japanese authorities and scholars, especially in the eighteenth century. The official interpreters who were in close contact with the Dutch merchants developed into rangakusha 'Hollandologists'. They translated, often on request, scientific works on various subjects from Dutch. Among them were also books on painting. Due to the long-lasting peace during the isolation, the standard of living of the city population increased, who could therefore afford more and more excesses.
Chinese woodcuts
Greater prosperity in the visual arts manifested itself mainly in the rise of printmaking, the so-called ukiyo-e 'prints of the floating world'. Van Gulik:'In the second half of the eighteenth century, those prints were also accompanied by prints with an exaggerated central perspective composition. Although the prints seem forced and sometimes clumsy, the principles of Western perspective constructions must have been familiar. A remarkable resemblance can indeed be found between the Japanese perspective prints and the illustrations from the 1604 handbook Perspective by Johannes Vredeman de Vries. Nevertheless, it cannot be ruled out that Chinese woodcuts with Western perspective have found their way to Japan.'