Yoga Art Movement

Introduction

East Asia extends to Mongolia, mainland China, Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and North and South Korea. East Asian art and culture are characterized by philosophical schools of thought and language systems such as Confucianism, Neo-Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Shamanism (Asian Art | Oxford Art). In Japan, modernism began around 1868 when the Tokugawa shogunate lost his power and Emperor Meiji was restored to the head of Japan. The nation was a militarily weak country, was mainly agricultural and had little technological development. It was controlled by hundreds of semi-independent feudal lords. The Western powers, Europe, and the United States, had forced Japan to sign treaties limiting its control over its own foreign trade and requiring crimes involving foreigners in Japan not to be tried in Japanese courts but in Western courts. The abolition of feudalism made enormous social and political changes possible. Millions of people were suddenly free to choose their profession and move around without restrictions. As far as the arts in Japan are concerned, the end of the feudal system meant the end of the old system of artistic patronage (‘The Art and Antiques of the Japanese Meiji Period’). The art of the Meiji period (1868-1912) was characterized by the division between European and traditional Japanese styles (Yockel). Styles such as Yoga and Nihonga appeared, while Japan's influence on the Western world led to Japaneseism. Western-style painting, Yoga (Yōga), was officially promoted by the government, which sent promising young artists abroad to study. The Yoga (Yōga) style painters formed a Meiji Fine Arts Society to organize their own exhibitions and to renew interest in Western art. They also hired foreign artists to create art curricula in Japanese schools. The Yoga (Yōga) style included oil painting, watercolors, pastels, ink sketches, lithography, engraving, and other techniques developed in Western culture. (Yockel).

Politics

After hundreds of years of self-imposed isolation during the Edo period, Japan opened its ports to the outside world, causing a large influx of Western influences to infuse its national consciousness. This triggered a struggle towards modernity as Japan sought to establish itself as a viable peer on the world stage.  This push toward a new identity spurred one of the most important movements in Japanese art, as some of its artists sought to break away from the traditional realms of indigenous historical painting to create a new voice that would surpass better the  integration and equality with A Modern World.  Yōga art, or Western-styleOn (‘Yōga Movement Overview’)r During the Meiji period, Japan underwent a tremendous political and social change during the European and modernization campaign organized by the Meiji government.

Arts

The Hakuba-kai (白馬会) or "White Horse Society" was a fluid late Meiji association of Japanese yōga or Western-style painting practitioners. Founded in June 1896, thirteen exhibitions were held before the dissolution of the Society in 1911. Fueled by disagreements over style (including the purple/brown feud or that between the Violet School (紫派, Murasaki-ha) and the Resin School (脂派, Yani-ha)) and the rigid bureaucratic methods of Meiji Bijutsukai (明治美術会), until now the dominant yōga association, Kuroda Seiki, Kume Keiichirō, and others founded the new group, named after their beloved Shirouma (characters can also be read Hakuba) brand of unfiltered sake. Other participants and exhibiting artists included Yamamoto Hosui, Okada Samburuke, Wanda Eisaku, Kobayashi Mango (小林萬吾), Aoki Shigeru and Fujishima Takeji (Wikipedia contributors).

The rise of Yōga marked a historic rift in Japan's psyche. The artists  his  They were seen as pioneers, pushing towards modernity, while in contrast artists of the Nihonga genre tried to preserve Japanese styles while evolving country art. Western techniques which  used by Yōga artists were significantly different from its previous aesthetics  Japanese art, which largely included wooden barks distinguished by flat color, bold contours, unique planes, and aerial views, and Nanga works inspired by Chinese themes, among others. These new techniques introduced the employment of perspective, a push towards oil painting, lithography, pastels, watercolors, sketching and the practice of plein air painting, and the incorporation of decidedly Western motifs and themes. Though  The Yōga adopted features of popular movements of the time, including Fauvism, his  Cubism, his  Impressionism and his  Naturalism, his artists created distinctive works that not only copied these other conventions, but helped develop Japanese art Project in a Modern  idiom. The artists Yōga  They made a bold departure from The  Japan's traditional creative theme of the past, which was mainly infused with depictions of everyday Japanese life, literature, and cultural mythologies, introducing the concept of the artist as an individual with an independent voice and opinion amid the country's changing social and political conditions. The cycle of the rise and fall of Yōga remains an important indicator of art's role in documenting periods of remarkable transformation in a country.     It remains an inspiration for their  Japanese artists today who continue to work in the spirit of balancing respect for the past with the innovations of evolution (‘Yōga Movement Overview’).

Music

As far as the music of the period of the first phase of modernism in Japan is concerned, it was during this period that a strong presence of Western classical music was established, which was considered a fundamental factor of modernization. This led to the establishment of various Western-style composition teaching schools in Japan, such as the Tokyo Music Academy, the genesis of opera tradition in Japan, and the creation of foundations for familiarizing the official Japanese tradition with Western music. The interaction of Western and Japanese music in the Meiji era was mainly associated with the military, religious and educational spheres. The musical panorama in Japan gradually became lively and productive, where Western-inspired music flourished. This included public concerts of Western music such as marches, patriotic music, and works by European composers such as Wagner and Tchaikovsky. Christian missions also became an important way of spreading Western-style music in the Meiji era.  The westernization of Japan took place not out of genuine love for it, but out of envy of the economic development of the West. The Westernization of Japan arose out of fear because of what was happening regarding China's unequal conditions with Western powers. Thus, no amount of Western soft power could overcome the Japanese people's passion for imperial worship when the interests of the emperor and the interests of the West were about to come into conflict, as they did in World War II (Music of Meiji Japan – Music Politics)

Notable Compositions

Symphony in F "Triumph and Peace" - Kosaku Yamada (1912)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY7He5w_5cY  

Kosaku Yamada was the first Japanese composer of Western style and composed Japan's first classical symphony "Triumph and Peace".  He dedicated this work to the triumph of the Japanese Empire in World War I, although it was written a few years before the conflict because it represents the high spirits with which his nation ended the war (Kosaku Yamada).

Symphony "Inno Meiji" - Kosaku Yamada (1921)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNrgeL-cSg8  

In this work, Yamada took an 1857 classic nagauta piece to which he adds his original orchestral music. The Sinfonia "Inno Meiji" is essentially a symphonic poem depicting Japan on the road to Westernization from the second half of the 19th century to the early 20th century. It combines a large orchestra with the hichiriki, an ancient Japanese double reed wind instrument and other Asian instruments (Yamada, K.: Nagauta Symphony / Meiji Symphony / Ma.. - 8.557971 | Discover More Releases from Naxos).

Kosaku Yamada  (山田耕筰):  "Close" [Red Dragonfly] (1927)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4vLFn2DDQM  

Kosaku Yamada (1886–1965) was a Japanese composer and conductor and is the first musician to become known in Europe and the USA. After studying at the Tokyo School of Music, he left Japan for Germany to study composition with Max Bruch and Karl Leopold Wolf and piano under Carl August Heymann-Rheineck, and after studying in Germany,  he went to the U.S. and conducted orchestras in New York. After returning to Japan, Yamada introduced classical music to Japan and contributed to the Japanese classical music scene. The work "Red Dragonfly (Akatombo) is one of the most beloved Japanese children's songs. The lyrics say that "when I see a red dragonfly, I get a nostalgic feeling and remember my homeland and my mother."

Nagauta Symphony "Tsurukame" - Kosaku Yamada (1934)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEou_EdZp-U  

The Nagauta Symphony represented the pinnacle of his musical genre. In this work, Yamada composed music for a Western-style orchestra to contrast with classical nagawa, the music that accompanies kabuki  (‘Inspired by the symphony’).

Bibliography

Asian Art | Oxford Art. https://www.oxfordartonline.com/page/asian-art. Accessed 22 Sept. 2022.

Cole, Joanne. Western Influence on Japanese Art Song (Kakyoku) in the Meiji Era Japan. 2013. minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au, http://hdl.handle.net/11343/40851.

Kosaku Yamada: Symphony in F ‘Triumph and Peace’ (1912). Directed by Past_notes, 2014. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY7He5w_5cY.

Music of Meiji Japan – Music Politics. https://musicpolitics.as.ua.edu/timeline-entries/music-of-meiji-japan/#event-music-of-meiji-japan. Accessed 30 Sept. 2022.

‘Nagauta Symphony’. Wikipedia, 9 Mar. 2021. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nagauta_Symphony&oldid=1011094706.

'Rentarō Taki'. Wikipedia, 29 May 2022. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rentar%C5%8D_Taki&oldid=1090440475.

Rentaro Taki / Ida Riegels: The Moon over the Ruined Castle. Directed by BetweenStrings, 2014. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGL1w0Kfvk4.

‘The Art and Antiques of the Japanese Meiji Period’. Mayfair Gallery, https://www.mayfairgallery.com/blog/japanese-meiji-period-art-antiques/. Accessed 19 Sept. 2022.

Wikipedia contributors. ‘Hakuba-Kai’. Hakuba-Kai, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia., 9 Apr. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hakuba-kai&oldid=1016883677.

Yamada, K.: Nagauta Symphony / Meiji Symphony / Ma.. - 8.557971 | Discover More Releases from Naxos. https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.557971. Accessed 4 Jan. 2023.

Yockel, L. Japanese Art During the Meiji Period (1868-1912). Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) gallery text.

‘Yōga Movement Overview’. The Art Story, https://www.theartstory.org/movement/yoga-western-style-japanese-painting/. Accessed 4 Jan. 2023.