Asian Art

A variety of art from the Asian land mass, spanning from ancient times to today.

[korean-art]

Chest

Joseon dynasty

Late 19th century

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[thekimonogallery]

Kosode with Iris Design and Sarasa Patchwork.  Sarasa: India and others, 17th to 19th century, Japan. Bunka Gakuen Costume Museum

[just-asian-art]

I was curious about Sarasa fabric, and I found this article from Japan Times, which had some cool info:

“[Japan] was closed to Portuguese ships in 1639 until 1853. But trade was still carried out with the Dutch and Chinese on the Nagasaki island of Dejima, and relations were established with Korea via the Tsushima region and with China again through the Ryukyu Kingdom (today’s Okinawa). Relations with the Ainu of Northern Japan, meanwhile, went through the Matsumae domain in Hokkaido. These were all windows onto the world….

Sarasa — a geometrically patterned and colorful, often reddish, fabric — was sewn into Japanese clothing and accessories.... It became a major trade item, with the first official record of it entering Japan in 1613; though, ostensibly it had been introduced earlier via the Ryukyu islands, perhaps a century earlier.

Kyoto’s Gion Festival in July still boasts floats displaying tapestries from Belgium (then a part of the Netherlands) and Persian carpets as decorations, all mixed in with sarasa fabrics. Sarasa also featured in Edo Period paintings and was prized for use in the creation of tea-caddy bags, wrapping cloths, and pouches for tea utensils....”

[fateash]

明代智化寺大智殿藻井

[shitouwo-blog]

The caisson roof of the Hall of Wisdom (大智殿) in the Edifying Temple (智化寺), built in the 15th century, Ming Dynasty.

[historical-nonfiction]

Luang Prabang, Laos. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the city is home to well-preserved Buddhist temples, including the oldest still-open temple in Laos. It was once the capital of the Kingdom of Luang Prabang. It had been a city even before being conquered by Luang Prabang in 698 CE; it is so old no one knows when it was founded or how except for by legends and myths. The kingdom fell, but the city survived, even thrived. Until the communist takeover in 1975, it was the royal capital and seat of government of the Kingdom of Laos. 

Photos are courtesy of Alfred Melon

[mingsonjia-deactivated20170120]

[just-asian-art]

丁云鹏 - 洛神图

by Ding Yunpeng (Ming Dynasty)

[mingsonjia-deactivated20170120]

[just-asian-art]

吴道子 - 送子天王图

by Wu Daozi (Tang Dynasty)

[blackcoffeecinnamon]

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)   葛飾北斎

Lilies, ca.1832-34

[japaneseaesthetics]

Two courtesans and Kamuro from the House of Yotsu-meya.  Ink and colour on paper.  Early 19th century, Japan, by artist Hosoda Eishi .  Gift of Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer.  Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

[just-asian-art]

"Calligraphy in Various Scripts" Sasaki Shougen Handscroll, ink on silk Late 17th-early 18th century

"A common practice of professional calligraphers during the Edo period was to demonstrate the range of their skills by writing out texts or poems in different scripts sequentially in a single handscroll....This handscroll by Shougen...exhibits a full spectrum of both Chinese and Japenese styles of calligraphy. Included are Chinese poems and prose passages written in bold running script (gyousho), regular script (kaisho), clerical script (reisho), and seal script (tensho); these were alternated with waka inscribed in the Japanese syllabary known as kana. After several sections of poems, Shougen added a biography of T'ao Yuan Ming, a sign of her great respect for the Chinese poet....

The end of the scroll contains some of the most extraordinary passages. The climax is two Chinese poems; the first written in clerical script, and the second in an ornamental form of seal script called "bird" script, in which the characters are wonderfully pictorial. These final two verses read:

Spring waters fill the four valleys, Summer clouds envelop the strange pinnacles, The autumn moon raises its bright radiance, Winter peaks dominate the lone pines.

Deer Cries

Yu, yu, cry the deer Grazing in the fields. I have an honored guest; We strum the zither, blow the panpipes, Blow the panpipes, trill the reeds. Take up the basket of offerings-- Here is a man who cares for me And will teach me the ways of Chou."

-Source: Japanese Women Artists 1600-1900, Patricia Fister. Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. 1988

[red-lipstick]

[istinia]

Shiro Kasamatsu, 1935. Japan

[just-wanna-travel]

Bagan, Myanmar

[mingsonjia-deactivated20170120]

[just-asian-art]

Beautiful Silver Ornaments of the Miao people. 

Photography by 龙翔影流

[zeezrom]

"Seated figure of a woman"

Katsushika Hokusai, 1760-1849

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

[art-of-swords-deactivated201705]

Chilanum Dagger

Dated: 17th century

Culture: Indian, Mahratta

Medium: Steel, brass, silver, silk

Measurements: H. 10 5/8 in. (27 cm); H. of blade 7 1/2 in. (19.1 cm); W. 2 11/16 in. (6.8 cm); Wt. 8.1 oz. (229.6 g)

Source: Copyright © 2015 The Metropolitan Museum of Art

[fleurdulys]

Unknown - Vu Cao Dam

1966

[inland-delta]

 Utagawa Hiroshige, New Year’s Eve Foxfires (detail), 1857

[thekimonogallery]

Unknown artist, Japanese Noh theater costume (karaori), 18th Century, Japan Ikat-dyed silk compound weave with supplementary continuous gold-leaf paper patterning wefts and supplementary discontinuous silk patterning weft floats Center back length: 144.8 cm (57 inches) Gift of Miss Lucy T. Aldrich 35.481

The karaori is the No theatrical costume used primarily for women’s roles, as well as for costuming sprites and young courtier-warriors. Floral motifs combined with specific weave structures define a karaori. The bamboo and peony motifs are created by supplementary discontinuous weft (horizontal) yarns and areas of long weft floats of glossy silk. The background is enriched by a combination of supplemental gold-leafed paper strips woven into warp (vertical) yarns that are ikat dyed (patterned by tie-dyeing before being woven).