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Japanese Art of the Meiji Era and Okakura Tenshin and Fenollosa
In this article, I will discuss the flow of art after the Meiji period, which I left out a little in “History of Japanese Art and Buddhist Statues.
The Meiji Restoration brought an end to the shogunate system of the Edo period, established the Meiji government, and brought about large-scale social and cultural changes modeled after Western modernization. This Meiji Restoration is an important turning point in Japanese history, and has had a profound impact on art and culture as well.
The first national art education institution established in Japan was the Kogbu Art School, which was founded by the Ministry of Industry in the early Meiji era as an institution for training engineers and was established as an affiliate of the Kogbu Daigaku (College of Engineering), one of the predecessors of the current Faculty of Engineering at the University of Tokyo. Its purpose was to quickly catch up with Western culture, and in the process, Japanese art was denied and discarded.
In contrast, Ernest Fenollosa, who came to Japan and lectured at the University of Tokyo with the introduction of Edward S. Morse, who was actively studying Japan, including the discovery of the Omori shell mound and the first excavation of a burial mound in Japan, and the establishment of the “Waterfront Experiment Station” on Enoshima Island to conduct original Japanese biological research, took a deep interest in Japanese art, Together with his assistant Tenshin Okakura, he restored the reputation of Japanese art, which had been devastated.
Until the Edo period, the unique Japanese religious beliefs of Shinto and Buddhist syncretism, as described in “History and Mountain Climbing Race of Mt, as described in “Zen Philosophy and History, Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism, and Christianity“. Therefore, God and Buddha came to be discussed under the same religious viewpoint. As a result, the value of temples and Buddhist statues was greatly reduced, and for example, the five-story pagoda of Kofuku-ji Temple in Nara was sold for 25 yen (about 200,000 yen in today’s value). Such a situation is a reality.
As described in “Ukiyo-e and Shinsenga – The Good Old Things in the Art World” Ukiyo-e, now highly regarded, at that time served only as wrapping paper for exporting ceramics and porcelain.
In contrast, when Fenollosa saw the standing statue of Bodhisattva Salvation Kannon at Horyu-ji Temple, which is said to be a life-size version of Prince Shotoku, he praised it in his book “The History of Oriental Art” as “approaching ancient Greek sculpture in its beauty of profile.
In addition, the damaged Buddha, such as the standing statue of Nyorai Buddha (Important Cultural Property), known as the “Torso of Toshodaiji Temple,” was also treated with respect.
In contrast to the Japanese view, which had not attached much importance to damaged statues because of their imperfections as objects of faith, the West has shown that sculptures that are partially missing, such as the Venus de Milo and the Nike by Samothrace, have artistic value. Fenollosa also at Yakushiji Temple.
When everything in Yakushiji Temple is viewed as a whole, its aesthetic value fully meets the expectations of the travelers who took the trouble and expense to visit Japan from the U.S.,” he wrote in his “History of Oriental Art.
Through Fenollosa’s activities, a trend to reevaluate Japanese art was created, which led to the establishment of national treasures. Currently, there are a total of 1,136 National Treasures, including 906 works of arts and crafts and 230 buildings.
Okakura Tenshin and the Book of Tea
Okakura Tenshin (岡倉天心) was one of Fenollosa’s students when he was teaching at the University of Tokyo, and he became Fenollosa’s right-hand man, taking on the role of interpreter and assistant.
He was also inspired by Fenollosa’s ideas, reevaluating the value of traditional Japanese culture and working to fuse Western and Japanese culture. He also contributed greatly to the establishment of the Tokyo Fine Arts School (the predecessor of the current Tokyo University of the Arts) and later founded the Japan Art Institute.
Okakura Tenshin had a passionate interest in the tea ceremony and Japanese art, and spread his thoughts and ideas through his many writings. Among his writings, his book “The Book of Tea” will be especially famous.
This will be a work that focuses on the spiritual aspects of the tea ceremony and Japanese culture, a book that explains the importance of deepening one’s sense of humanity and aesthetics through the tea ceremony.
In “The Book of Tea,” Okakura explains that the tea ceremony is more than the mere offering of a beverage; it is connected to broader cultural elements such as the Japanese sense of beauty, etiquette, and harmony with nature. From Okakura Tenshin’s perspective, the tea ceremony was more than a mere act of drinking, and he believed that it brought tranquility and spirituality to people.
In his “The Book of Tea,” Tenshin wrote
The tea ceremony is a ritual to find beauty in the chaos of daily life and to respect and honor it. It teaches purity and harmony, compassion for one another, and reverence for the social order. The essence of the tea ceremony is the veneration of imperfection, the acceptance and treatment with awe that nothing is perfect. In the midst of a life destined for the impossible, the tea ceremony is a gentle attempt to achieve something possible.
In the modern world, the human sky has been shattered by the enormous struggle for wealth and power. The world is groping in the darkness of selfishness and vileness. Knowledge is bought with an evil heart, and good deeds are done with a calculated utility. The East and the West, like two dragons thrown into a raging ocean, struggle vainly to recover the treasures of humanity. It is necessary for Nyoka (*17) to appear once again to repair this horribly ruined world. A great avatar (an incarnation of God appearing in the world) is long awaited.
In the meantime, let us have a smoke and a cup of tea. The bamboo grove glistens in the afternoon sun, the fountain boils with joy, and the sound of the pine wind can be heard from the tea kettle. For a while, let us dream of transient things and ponder the beautiful and foolish…
The use of the words “foolishness” and “great folly” in Zen suggests that, while useless in the eyes of worldly, utilitarian values, they are, on the contrary, a vast and boundless spiritual value that cannot be captured on a utilitarian scale, and that is what is meant by foolishness. In other words, foolishness contains the possibility of all wisdom. We can read the truth of the world into it only when we empty ourselves of it, rather than filling ourselves with various kinds of knowledge.
Those who do not see that what they fancy themselves to be great is in fact only a tiny thing tend to overlook that what others disregard as tiny is in fact great.
While Japan was indulging in this peaceful and serene geiko, Westerners used to regard Japan as a savage and uncivilized country. But recently, when Japan set out to kill all of its enemies in Manchuria (Russo-Japanese War), Japan became a civilized country. In recent years, there has been much discussion about the Samurai Code, the “art of death” to which Japanese warriors willingly gave their lives, but little attention has been paid to the tea ceremony, which teaches the “art of life. This is a gross lack of understanding, but it is unavoidable. If we have to depend on the terrible glory of war to be recognized as a civilized nation, then let us be content to remain a barbaric nation. Let us wait for the proper respect to be paid to our art and ideals.
When we look back on the history of tea, tea itself and the philosophies behind it, such as Lao Zhuang, Taoism, and Zen, all originated in China, but it was in Japan that they were fused and perfected in operation.
Tenshin’s ideas are based on Taoism, which he describes in “Living Like Water: The Path at the Foundation of Lao Tzu’s Thought” and on Zen, which he describes in “Zen Thought and History, Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism, and Christianity” and in “Zen and Art.
A key feature of Zen is its emphasis on intuitive understanding, direct experience, and the pursuit of truth beyond words and concepts, emphasizing the importance of being present and aware in the present moment. The act of drinking tea is also an aesthetic practice that explores the tranquility and spirituality of the mind through tea, where the act of brewing and drinking tea in a state of harmony and respect for others, while maintaining a state of purity and tranquility, known as “harmony, respect, and tranquility,” is considered important.
Inazo Shintobe’s Bushido, published around the same time as The Book of Tea and popular in the West, describes the “Samurai Code: The Art of Death,” to which Japanese warriors would willingly dedicate their lives,
The “Book of Tea” teaches the “art of life.” The key is neither battle nor pride, but beauty and peace,
In the meantime, let’s have a cup of tea and sip it. The bamboo grove glistens in the afternoon sun, the fountain boils with joy, and the sound of the pine wind can be heard from the tea kettle. Let us dream for a while of transitory things, and ponder the beautiful and the foolish…” These are the words of the tea ceremony.
These words express the Zen-like state of mind when practicing the tea ceremony. The act of drinking tea, like Zen, becomes an act of pursuing inner growth and insight rather than material value or external success.
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