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Studies of Japanese Art by Period
Heian (794-1185)
On the cultural background, see a highly readable book by Ivan Morris, The
World of the Shining Prince (London: Oxford University Press, 1964). The
best short introduction to the art is John Rosenfield, Japanese Art of
the Heian Period, 794-1185 (New York: Asia Society, 1967). For a more detailed
and rather encyclopedic account, see Rose Hempel, The Golden Age of Japan,
794-1192, translated by Katherine Watson (New York: Rizzoli International, 1983).
More specialized studies - all well illustrated and with useful texts - are Toshio
Fukuyama, Heian Temples: Byodo-in and Chuson-ji, translated by Ronald K. Jones
(New York: Weatherhill, 1976); Takaaki Sawa, Art in Esoteric Buddhism, translated
by Richard L. Gage (New York: Weatherhill, 1972); Hisatoyo Ishida, Esoteric Buddhist
Painting, translated and adapted by E. Dale Saunders (New York: Kodansha International,
1987); and Joji Okazaki, Pure Land Buddhist Painting, translated and
adapted by Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis (New York: Kodansha International, 1977). Mimi
Yiengpruksawan has written an article on the Phoenix Hall at Byodoin in Art Bulletin
77 (1995): 647-72, and on the Konjikido (a private chapel) at Chusonji in Monumenta
Nipponica 48 (1993): 33-52. See also her article on the Chusonji sutra repository
in Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 20 (1993): 55-72. (A book by Yiengpruksawan
on Chusonji is in press.) Two handsome, excellently illustrated books are devoted
to the calligraphy and the illustrations for the Lotus Sutra: Art
of the Lotus Sutra, edited by Bunsaku Kurata and Yoshiro Tamura (Tokyo: Kosei
Publishing, 1987), and Willa J. Tanabe, Paintings of the Lotus Sutra (Tokyo:
Weatherhill, 1988). Of the two, the former is more lavish (107 large full-color plates),
the latter (46 color and 126 monochrome illustrations) more detailed.
For secular paintings, see Saburo Ienaga, Painting in the Yamato Style,
translated by John M. Shields (New York: Weatherhill, 1973). For excellent full-scale
reproductions of all that survives from the earliest extant Genji scroll (except
for one much-repainted picture), along with excellent commentaries, see Ivan Morris,
The Tale of Genji Scroll (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1971). For discussion
of gendered gazes in these Genji paintings, see Joshua Mostow, "E
no Gotoshi: The Picture Simile and the Feminine Re-guard in Japanese Illustrated
Romances," Word & Image 11 (1995): 37-54.
Several important Heian sculptures have been discussed at length: see Sherwood
Moran on the Eleven-headed Kannon at Kogenji, the Eleven-headed Kannon at Hokkeji,
and the Nyoirin Kannon in Kanshinji in Artibus Asiae 34, no. 2/3 (1972): 119-61;
Sherwood Moran on Jocho's Amida in Byodoin in Oriental Art, n.s. 6, no. 2
(Summer 1980): 49-55; Samuel C. Morse on Jocho's Amida in Res 23 (1993): 96-113;
Morse on the Yakushi at Jingoji in Archives of Asian Art 40 (1987): 36-55;
and Mimi Yiengpruksawan on the Ichiji Kinrin at Chusonji in Monumenta Nipponica
46, no. 3 (Autumn 1991): 329-47.
For Shinto material, see (in addition to Kanda's book on sculpture) the works
by Kageyama and by Tyler listed under Kamakura period.
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