 Art From
the World
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Many of the Elder Hostel groups from the U.S., want lectures on the
art of Japan. This is very easy if we talk about modern art, or even medieval
art. When we talk about the origins of art, however, we have to go back
a long way. I usually start the lecture at a period about 250,000 years
ago, with some of the first people who came here, and the religions that
they must have practiced. The reason is that the art of Japan, and the
world, has been based on religion, in some form or other, since it began.
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The Neanderthals were not the first humans here, but they were the first
with any identifiable culture. The first, original painting that has been
found, dating from the late Jomon period, was a geometric lacquer design
on pottery. Nothing older has been found. Older stone artifacts that have
been found, show that Japan had the most advanced Stone Age of any other
people! One more point is that Japan also had the oldest pottery in the
world! These facts have all been proven by archeological findings.
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The period at the beginning of the Christian Era was a very successful
time for the transfer of art from the mainland of China and Korea, to
Japan. The origin of that particular art, is the point of this essay.
China was a huge, adventurous, and powerful country for long centuries
before it discovered Japan. It had gone to the areas that are now Greece,
Turkey, Iraq, and others that were Persia and Mesopotamia, in addition
to other European countries. From those countries, they brought to China
the artisans and craftsmen that helped to develop China's own arts.
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That is why we can sometimes see Greek or Persian designs in Chinese
pictures. The dragon that everyone thinks is related to, and came from,
China, really came from Mesopotamia! That fact is amazing, but true. It
shows that art from the world did not originate in China, but in other
parts of the world. We must keep a very open mind when dealing with the
origins of, not only art, but everything else.
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The land that is now Japan, may well have been part of the mainland,
at one time. The first people came from a different place. According to
the myths, some of those places may well have been in the northern part
of Europe. I will investigate this further in the future. In the recent
past, we had artists that were really magnificent. Some of them were the
Kano School of artists. They were great artists, and most of their art
was based on Chinese art. This shows that most of the culture of Japan
really came from other countries.
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