Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

Japanese painters used the devices of the cutoff, close-up, and fade-out by the twelfth century in yamato-e, or Japanese-style, scroll painting, perhaps one reason why modern filmmaking has been such a natural and successful art form in Japan.

The calligrapher--a member of the Confucian literati class, or samurai--had a higher status, while artists of great genius were often recognized in the medieval period by receiving a name from a feudal lord and thus rising socially.

Artists divided into two main camps, those continuing in traditional Japanese style and those who wholeheartedly studied the new Western culture.

After World War II, many artists began working in art forms derivied from the international scene, moving away from local artistic developments into the mainstream of world art.

Two terms originating from Zen Buddhist meditative practices describe degrees of tranquillity: one, the repose found in humble melancholy (wabi), the other, the serenity accompanying the enjoyment of subdued beauty (sabi).

The Cultural Affairs Division is concerned with such areas as art and culture promotion, arts copyrights, and improvements in the national language.

A new generation of the avant-garde has broken with this tradition, often receiving its training in the West. In the traditional arts, however, the master-pupil system preserves the secrets and skills of the past.

Another seminal center is Tama Arts University in Tokyo, which produced many of Japan's late twentieth- century innovative young artists

In 1989 the fifth woman ever to be so distinguished was cited for Japanese-style painting, while for the first time two women--a writer and a costume designer--were nominated for the Order of Cultural Merit, another official honor carrying the same stipend.

The Cultural Properties Protection Division originally was established to oversee restorations after World War II.

During the 1980s, many important prehistoric and historic sites were investigated by the archaeological institutes that the agency funded, resulting in about 2,000 excavations in 1989.

A 1975 amendment to the Cultural Properties Protection Act of 1897 enabled the Agency for Cultural Affairs to designate traditional areas and buildings in urban centers for preservation.

Individual artists and groups, such as a dance troupe or a pottery village, are designated as mukei bunkazai (intangible cultural assets) in recognition of their skill.

A growing number of large corporations join major newspapers in sponsoring exhibitions and performances and in giving yearly prizes.

A number of foundations promoting the arts arose in the 1980s, including the Cultural Properties Foundation set up to preserve historic sites overseas, especially along the Silk Route in Inner Asia and at Dunhuang in China.

After World War II, artists typically gathered in arts associations, some of which were long-established professional societies while others reflected the latest arts movement.

By the 1980s, however, avant-garde painters and sculptors had eschewed all groups and were "unattached" artists.