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Article

Bark cloth  

Gordon Campbell

Unwoven cloth made from the bast (inner bark) of a tree. It is also known as ‘tapa’, with reference to the Polynesian bark cloth made from the bark of the paper mulberry and used for clothing. There is a huge collection of Polynesian bark cloth in the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu. In sub-Saharan Africa bark cloth was traditionally decorated with free-hand painting applied with grass brushes, and was used for room-dividers and screens as well as clothing. Its widest application was in Japan, where bark cloth was used for windows, screens, kites, flags and umbrellas.

L. Terrell and J. Terrell: Patterns of Paradise: The Styles of Bark Cloth around the World (Chicago, 1980)M. J. Pritchard: Siapo: Bark Cloth Art of Samoa...

Article

Belthook  

Jenny F. So

Functional personal accessory used in China from the Eastern Zhou period (771–256 bc) to the 2nd century ad, after which elaborate forms evolved with a purely symbolic and decorative purpose. The typical Chinese belthook (also sometimes garment hooks), which was worn by both men and women, was made of bronze in a club shape, with a button on the underside of the broad end and a small hook turned to the top at the other (see Zhengzhou Erligang, pl. 40:9). It also occurs in a wide variety of sculptural shapes, including shield-form and rectangular, and may on rare occasions be made of gold, silver, iron, jade or bone. Most belthooks between 100 mm and 200 mm long were worn horizontally to secure a belt, with the button inserted into one end of the belt and the hook latched on to the other end. A bronze kneeling figure excavated from a site of the Warring States period (...

Article

Celadon  

Gordon Campbell

European term for a type of Chinese stoneware also known as greenware; the name derives from the colour of the dress worn by the shepherd Céladon in the stage version of Honoré d'Urfe's 17th-century pastoral romance, L'Astrée. The natural presence of small percentages of iron and titanium oxide in the glaze raw materials gave a wide range of celadon greens when fired in a reducing atmosphere. The glaze was later imitated in the stoneware of Japan and Korea, and still later in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. China began to export celedons to Japan in the Song period (960–1279); the Japanese gave the name kinuta (‘mallet’) to the finest Longquan celadons, which have a cloudy, blue-green colour.

G. St G. M. Gompertz: Chinese Celadon Wares (London, 1958, rev. 1980)Ice and Green Clouds: Traditions of Chinese Celadon (exh. cat. by Y. Mino and K. R. Tsiang; Indianapolis, IN, Mus. A., 1986)...

Article

China: Jewelry  

B. V. Gyllensvärd

Personal adornments that can be termed jewelry have been used in China from the Paleolithic period. Chinese jewelry often combines the aim to adorn and bestow status with the function of an amulet to avert evil and thus incorporates symbols for longevity, happiness, prosperity, etc. As regards materials, gold and silver were rare in early times; instead, jade—more specifically, nephrite (see China: Jade-carving)—and other stones, as well as bone, animal teeth, shells, and ceramics, were made into adornments. Among the finds from the upper caves at Zhoukoudian, Hebei Province, datable to the Upper Paleolithic period (c. 18,000 bce), were beads for necklaces and pendants made of stone, bone, animal teeth, and shells. From the Neolithic period (c. 6500–c. 1600 bce) nephrite was considered the most precious material; gold and silver were adopted for jewelry in the Shang period (c. 1600–c. 1050...

Article

China: Textiles and dress  

John E. Vollmer and Verity Wilson

revised by Kate Lingley

The preeminence of silk in the economic and cultural development of China, and its unique, highly specialized technology, has significantly affected perceptions of Chinese textiles and weaving technology. To ancient Greeks and Romans, China was known as Seres, the Land of Silk. By the Han period (206 bce–220 ce) silk-weaving had reached a level of sophistication that was to continue with remarkable consistency for the next 1500 years.

Ethnology, archaeology, and documentary evidence, however, provide a complex picture of Chinese textile technology covering areas other than the silk industry. In general, the back-strap loom, circular warping, S-twist spinning, and a predominance of warp-faced fabrics characterize Chinese cloth production, elements that link Chinese textile-production technology to that of parts of Southeast Asia and South America. Yet, despite remarkable achievements and sophisticated textile merchandising systems, basic technological innovation was lacking in Chinese weaving. Factors contributing to technical conservatism include family-centered management and a possessive attitude towards special skills. The tendency for artisans to keep their skills secret or to pass them on only to their sons meant that many techniques for producing beautiful fabrics were scattered unsystematically and were eventually lost....

Article

Inrō  

Gordon Campbell

Japanese container for herbal medicines, attached by a cord and worn hanging from the waist. In the 16th century the plain black lacquer inrō came into fashion, and by the 17th century it had developed into the decorated gold lacquer inrō. Most lacquer artists active during the 18th and 19th centuries made inrō, and the variety of design adapted to their miniature form was infinite, ranging from elegant makie burnished to a perfectly seamless finish to depictions of popular legends. Inrō were accessories in which personal taste could be expressed, and certain individuals had collections from which they could select an appropriate design for any occasion (see colour pl. XVI).

R. Bushell: The Inro Handbook: Studies of Netsuke, Inro, and Lacquer (New York and Weatherhill, 1979) J. Hutt: Japanese Inro (New York and Weatherhill, 1997) M. Watanabe and others: ‘Did Inro Come from the West?’, Mag. Ant., 156/ 3 (Sept 1999), pp. 330–37...

Article

Japan: Coins, kites, tattoos, and other arts  

Joe Cribb, Patricia J. Graham, Willem van Gulik, Henryk Jurkowski, Sadako Ohki, Tal Streeter, and David Waterhouse

The subjects discussed in this section reflect modern art-historical classification systems that were not recognized in pre-modern Japan (see Japan: History and culture). The art forms are therefore not necessarily considered as such in Japan, but their inclusion conforms largely with comparable sections elsewhere in the Dictionary of Art.

See also Japan

Since prehistoric times, Bamboo has been one of the most versatile and ubiquitous of materials in Japan for the making of objects, from simple utilitarian devices to carefully crafted articles esteemed as artistic creations, and it has long occupied an important place in Japanese daily and ritual life. Bamboo is one of the three plants displayed on felicitous occasions to bring good fortune. It is commonly used for baskets, weapons, toys, musical instruments, notably flutes (see §7 below), tools, combs, tea ceremony utensils, furniture, window blinds and curtains (sudare, for dividing inner from outer rooms), architectural elements, ...

Article

Japan: Netsuke  

Raymond Bushell

Netsuke are carved toggles, usually of ivory or wood, used to secure sagemono (‘hanging objects’) to the obi (sash) of a man’s kimono.

The absence of pockets in traditional Japanese garments led to the development of the netsuke–sagemono ensemble, which was in common use throughout the Edo period (1600–1868) and into the Meiji (1868–1912) and Taishō (1912–26) periods, when the kimono was gradually replaced by the Western suit for everyday wear (see also Japan: Textiles and dress). The most common sagemono were inrō (lacquer boxes with compartments; see fig.), which were originally cases to carry seals and ink but later evolved into containers for traditional Chinese medicines. Other sagemono include tobacco pouches (tabako-ire), purses (kinchaku), seals, pipe cases (kiseruzutsu), writing sets (yatate) and flint and steel bags (hiuchibukuro). The ojime, a small spherical bead, tightened and loosened the cord to give access to the ...

Article

Japonisme  

Phylis Floyd

French term used to describe a range of European borrowings from Japanese art. It was coined in 1872 by the French critic, collector and printmaker Philippe Burty ‘to designate a new field of study—artistic, historic and ethnographic’, encompassing decorative objects with Japanese designs (similar to 18th-century Chinoiserie), paintings of scenes set in Japan, and Western paintings, prints and decorative arts influenced by Japanese aesthetics. Scholars in the 20th century have distinguished japonaiserie, the depiction of Japanese subjects or objects in a Western style, from Japonisme, the more profound influence of Japanese aesthetics on Western art.

There has been wide debate over who was the first artist in the West to discover Japanese art and over the date of this discovery. According to Bénédite, Félix Bracquemond first came under the influence of Japanese art after seeing the first volume of Katsushika Hokusai’s Hokusai manga (‘Hokusai’s ten thousand sketches’, 1814) at the printshop of ...

Article

Kawakubo, Rei  

Pamela Roskin

(b Tokyo, Oct 11, 1942).

Japanese fashion designer. Rei Kawakubo, the fashion designer and creator of Comme des Garçons (Like Some Boys), is best known for her often oversized, asymmetrical, monochromatic and deliberately imperfect clothing (see fig.).

Born during World War II, Kawakubo was the oldest of three children. She described her childhood years as comfortable and normal even though her parents divorced, which was unusual in post-war Japan. Her father was an administrator at Keio University, a prestigious college in Tokyo, and her mother taught English at a local high school. In 1964 Kawakubo graduated from Keio University with a degree in aesthetics that included coursework in Asian and Western art. That same year, Japan hosted the Olympics, signalling that the postwar reconstruction period was over. The boom years that followed allowed such designers as Kawakubo, Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto to flourish.

After graduating, Kawakubo moved to Harajuko, a bohemian neighbourhood in Tokyo. Although she herself did not adopt an alternative lifestyle, she was attracted to her neighbours’ rejection of traditional values. Her first job was in the advertising department of Asahi Kasei, a textile manufacturer. She said of those early career years that she was not thinking of a job in fashion but rather was striving towards self-sufficiency, a goal she believed every woman should attempt and a driving philosophy behind her designs....

Article

Korea: Jewelery  

Lisa Bailey

See also Korea

The refined polishing techniques developed for producing stone arrowheads during the Neolithic period (c. 4000–c. 700 bc) were also applied to round stones, which were strung together for bodily ornament. The items excavated at the late Neolithic Nongp’o site in north-eastern Korea included birds’ heads carved from stone, which are thought to have been suspended from the neck. The large amounts of horn and bone found at the same site have led archaeologists to believe that these materials were also used to decorate the body or clothing. The excavation of the Tongsamdong site (c. 3250 bc) in southern Pusan, North Kyŏngsang Province, has yielded bracelets made from shells, and it is evident that animals’ teeth were pierced and strung together to produce necklaces. Simple finger-rings, made by hollowing out a hole in a small stone and rounding the edge through extensive polishing, have been discovered in sites in the valley of the Pyŏngch’ang River....

Article

Miyake, Issey  

Mai Vu

(b Hiroshima, April 22, 1938).

Japanese fashion designer, active in Tokyo and Paris (see fig.). For his Autumn/Winter 1998 collection, Issey Miyake sent all his models down the Paris catwalk in a single stream of red, knitted tubing. Unlike the typical fashion show where the season’s look is unveiled in its finalized form, Miyake’s show was a presentation of his process. In collaboration with designer Dai Fujiwara, Miyake developed a radical approach to fashion design. Utilizing technological advances in fibre, fabric and computer science, he created a system to manufacture individual garments from a single thread. The method, known as A-POC, an acronym for ‘A Piece of Cloth’, is Miyake’s solution to the complicated manufacturing methods of traditional cut-and-sew garments.

Miyake was born in Hiroshima 1938 and witnessed the destruction and devastation of his country during World War II, but also saw its rise and redemption in the following years. This strength imbued in him allowed his artistry and discipline to grow. In ...

Article

Transculturalism in Asian diasporic art  

Alice Ming Wai Jim

Transculturalism proposes an approach to contemporary Asian art practices that addresses the conditions defining the modern experience of Asian artists living and working outside of their home countries. It is a term derived from the word transculturation, which describes the process of adjustment and re-creation that arises from the convergence of different cultures. The term became popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a period defined by major social changes wrought by globalization, increased mobility and ethnic intermingling that affected local community networks in both home and host countries, and also an upsurge in interest paid to contemporary art in and out of Asian countries.

Cuban anthropologist and humanist Fernando Ortiz (1881–1969) developed the concept of transculturalism in the 1940s, when he coined the term “transculturation” in a pioneering description of Afro-Cuban culture (Contrapunto cubano del tabaco y el azúcar, 1947). Ortiz devised the term to counter the notion of acculturation introduced by the British anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski (...

Article

Vever, Henri  

Milo Cleveland Beach

(b Metz, 1854; d 1942)

French jeweller and collector. Vever directed the family jewellery business, begun in Metz by his grandfather Pierre-Paul Vever (d 1853). After the capture of Metz in the Franco-Prussian War (1871), the family moved to Luxembourg and then Paris, where the Maison Vever became well established on the Rue de la Paix, winning the Grand Prix of the universal expositions in 1889 and 1900 and becoming a leader in the Art Nouveau movement. Vever gave an important group of Art Nouveau works to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. His early interest in contemporary French painting led him to assemble a large and important group of works by Corot, Sisley, Renoir and Monet, of which he sold the majority (Paris, Gal. Georges Petit, 1897) to concentrate on Japanese and Islamic art. Vever had begun to collect Japanese prints in the 1880s and in 1892 joined the distinguished private group ...

Article

Yamamoto, Yohji  

Pamela Roskin

(b Yokohama, Oct 3, 1943).

Japanese fashion designer (see fig.). Yamamoto’s influential designs combined traditional Japanese silhouettes with notions of architectural forms and impeccable tailoring. The collections from the designer’s early years were often in dark, muted colours and featured unstructured oversized layers that evoked the uncut philosophy of the Japanese kimono. Later in his career, he incorporated splashes of bright colour into his pieces.

Yamamoto’s father, a soldier, died in World War II. His mother was a seamstress. Yamamoto received a degree in law in 1966 before graduating in 1969 from the Bunkafukuso Gakuin, a prestigious Tokyo fashion school. That same year he won two fashion design awards, the So-en and Endo. He then lived in Paris for two years where he became familiar with European ideals in fashion. The juxtaposition of high style amidst the French student riots, anti-war protests and the women’s rights movement had a profound effect on his work. In an interview with ...

Article

Chen Yifei  

Mia Liu

(b Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, 1946; d 2005).

Chinese painter, filmmaker, and fashion and style entrepreneur. Chen was born in Ningbo and moved to Shanghai with his family, graduating from the Shanghai College of Art in 1965, one year before the Cultural Revolution officially started. The training he received in Russian Socialist Realism helped prepare him for the state-run Shanghai Institute of Painting, where he met success with his portraits of Mao Zedong and other propaganda works depicting stories of revolution and lauding the heroism of Communist leaders and soldiers. Paintings such as The Occupation of the Nationalist President’s Palace (1976–1977) were iconic masterpieces of the time.

After the Cultural Revolution, China began opening up and Chen was among the first artists allowed to study in the United States. He arrived in New York in 1980 and pursued a master’s degree in painting at Hunter College, New York, simultaneously securing a contract with the Hammer Galleries, where his oil paintings of Chinese women in traditional dress and landscapes of canal towns in the Shanghai area found great commercial success. The owner, Armand Hammer, even gifted one of Chen’s paintings, ...