Nobunaga’s Ambition Realized: Dawn of a New Rising Sun
- Thread starter Ambassador Huntsman
- Start date
I'm just joking.
If I'm born I'll probably not be born in where I'm born in otl tho lol, as my parent's relatives actually live quite close to each other in the mainland, so chances are I'd be a country bumpkin instead.
Kick
Would you shut up? Nobody cares what you think, stop acting like such a fucking prick toward talented writers.
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I can make things more clear but I do wanna point out that Charles II being married to Christina of Sweden and the context of England not only being much more sympathetic to the Protestants but also being Presbyterian was first raised in Chapter 80. If you can gimme a break and let me catch up with everything, I'd appreciate it. Not to inject excuses but I recently experienced a serious medical emergency which may or may not have disrupted my already frequent posting schedule.
I think you're doing quite well for what you're going through rn!
You can defo go back and fix things later, and I really liked the update! I just didn't know what to say about it other than the Dutch winning against their enemies is quite good for them, and I hope the Netherlands gets into an alliance with the British.
Of course. As I noted, I was presumptuous, but when I started thinking about the problem, my mind immediately started composing a passage that would solve it. So I tossed it out there as an example.
Ow! I hope you recover completely and quickly if you haven't already.
It hardly matters - while I eagerly await every new chapter, real life takes precedence.
I hope you feel better and take all the time you need to recovery safe and soundly
There's a reason why I'd prefer quality over quantity. God speed your recovery.
Chapter 125: Artistic Developments in 17th Century Japan
Chapter 125: Artistic Developments in 17th Century Japan
With peace and prosperity reigning over 17th century Japan much more comprehensively compared to the times of the previous century, arts in the realm flourished with unprecedented creativity and fashion, patronage showered upon artists by samurai, court nobility, and wealthy merchants alike. This resulted in a variety of new art styles inspired by old and new influences alike. One of these was the Rinpa school (琳派) which flourished as one of the primary art styles of the century, displaying itself on various mediums like folding screens, decorative fans, and lacquerware. First patronized by the court nobility and merchants in Kyoto, Rinpa art derived its style from the classical yamato-e (大和絵) tradition while also being influenced by Chinese ink brush paintings. The school’s progenitor, Honami Koetsu (本阿弥光悦), attained a land grant in Takagamine (鷹峯 in Kyoto from daijo-daijin Oda Nobunori [1] in 1615 from where he would develop the art school through a community of artists that developed overtime. This Takagamine community would close after Koetsu’s death in 1637 when Koetsu’s grandson Koho (本阿弥光浦) returned this land grant back to Azuchi, only to be given a land grant near the Azuchi exurb of Ootsu (大津) in 1641 where the Rinpa school would continue to develop and flourish. The Ootsu community’s closer proximity to the administrative capital of Japan would only increase the influence and spread of Rinpa art, enterprising artists and other visitors coming to the community overtime. Prolific artists within the Rinpa school over the course of the century included Tawaraya Sosetsu (俵屋宗雪) and the Ogata brothers, Kourin (尾形光琳) and Kenzan (尾形乾山).
Art styles predating the Azuchi period like the Hasegawa (長谷川派) and Tosa schools (土佐派) also continued to flourish and receive patronage in the 17th century. The most prominent of these older art schools was the Kano school (狩野派), defined by the artistry of the Kano clan (狩野氏) practitioners it was named after. This school of art originated at the end of the 15th century with the rise of Kano Masanobu (狩野正信) as the Muromachi bakufu’s court artist whose ink wash paintings displayed renewed Chinese influence. His successors, however, increasingly would apply firmer outlines and brighter colors to their illustrations while continuing to follow Chinese conventions. The Kano school’s influence and prominence would reach its height with the proliferation of castle decorations produced by painters like Kano Eitoku (狩野永徳), Mitsunobu (狩野光信) [2], and Koui (狩野興以), and their work can still be seen in Nijo and Azuchi Castles even today. It was around the beginning of the 17th century that the Kano school would begin to disperse to other urban centers like Sunpu and Kamakura at the invitation of major daimyo lords, and as a result their work and its collective influence spread beyond the confines of the three big cities of Japan (Sakai, Azuchi, Kyoto). From the mid-17th century onwards, however, the Kano school’s influence and patronage would begin to decline as the growing merchant and artisan classes, interested in newer art styles, put their attention towards other forms of art. However, Kano artists would continue to see patronage and support from the samurai and court nobility and in time their greater geographic distribution would result in the development of different branches of the Kano school like the Kyo-kano (京狩野) and the Tokai-kano (東海狩野) [3].
Art styles predating the Azuchi period like the Hasegawa (長谷川派) and Tosa schools (土佐派) also continued to flourish and receive patronage in the 17th century. The most prominent of these older art schools was the Kano school (狩野派), defined by the artistry of the Kano clan (狩野氏) practitioners it was named after. This school of art originated at the end of the 15th century with the rise of Kano Masanobu (狩野正信) as the Muromachi bakufu’s court artist whose ink wash paintings displayed renewed Chinese influence. His successors, however, increasingly would apply firmer outlines and brighter colors to their illustrations while continuing to follow Chinese conventions. The Kano school’s influence and prominence would reach its height with the proliferation of castle decorations produced by painters like Kano Eitoku (狩野永徳), Mitsunobu (狩野光信) [2], and Koui (狩野興以), and their work can still be seen in Nijo and Azuchi Castles even today. It was around the beginning of the 17th century that the Kano school would begin to disperse to other urban centers like Sunpu and Kamakura at the invitation of major daimyo lords, and as a result their work and its collective influence spread beyond the confines of the three big cities of Japan (Sakai, Azuchi, Kyoto). From the mid-17th century onwards, however, the Kano school’s influence and patronage would begin to decline as the growing merchant and artisan classes, interested in newer art styles, put their attention towards other forms of art. However, Kano artists would continue to see patronage and support from the samurai and court nobility and in time their greater geographic distribution would result in the development of different branches of the Kano school like the Kyo-kano (京狩野) and the Tokai-kano (東海狩野) [3].
Works by Kano Koui
Among the emerging urban merchant and artisan classes as well as middle and lower-ranking samurai families, two new schools of art arose in the latter half of the 17th century. The first to emerge was yōga (洋画) [4]. Yōga came about as a result of Japan’s greater interactions with the West and subsequent exposure to European art styles, especially to the medium of oil painting. The earliest example of yōga art was the Baroque oil painting of Oda Tomoaki in colorful samurai attire with European aristocratic elements in the background [5]. Subsequent forms of yōga, however, would focus on two primary subjects. The first and more common of the two was traditional depictions of Japanese nature, transformed by European influences and the medium of oil painting. A pioneer of this yōga variation was Nabeshima Naoyoshi (鍋島直能), a retainer to the Ryuzoji clan. Patronized by Ryuzoji lords Noriie and Tomoie, Naoyoshi would illustrate native Japanese plants in his yōga paintings throughout his artistic career, especially in the form of illustrated flower arrangements. and these types of yōga would find an early foothold in the port cities of Japan, especially those in Kyushu and in Sakai. The second subject matter yoga depicted early on was Christianity, especially after the fall of the Jesuit-heavy Catholic apparatus and the rise of the Yamato Church. Although the first few decades of the Yamato Church’s existence saw it primarily utilize imported Christian iconography, this would change in the 1660s and 1670s as yōga became more popular and the church itself experienced an increase in popularity, patronage, and influence. Amakusa Geronimo (天草ジェロニモ) [6], a church leader and Azuchi patriarch from 1676 to 1681, would pioneer this development, being both a painter and patronizer of Christian yōga through his position as a significant church leader. Geronimo himself would become most famous for an intricate folding screen depicting the biblical parting of the Red Sea by Moses, the Jews following the Hebrew prophet depicted in everyday Japanese attire.
The other was ukiyo-e (浮世絵), meaning “pictures of the floating world”. Unlike more traditional schools of art like the Rinpa and Kano that found their home in cities like Kyoto, Sunpu, and Kamakura rich with traditional Japanese culture by the upper classes, ukiyo-e would initially emerge from the more merchant-heavy, lower class cities like Sakai, Azuchi, and Kanazawa. These cities were culturally less rigid, more accepting of hedonism and other more everyday, light-hearted topics that ukiyo-e would come to illustrate and represent. Ukiyo-e began emerging in these cities in the 1660s through hanging scrolls and other painting mediums. However, they only began to really take off when they began to be applied via woodblock printing, keeping that printing process alive despite the greater efficiency and increasing usage of wooden movable type for writing purposes. One of the first ukiyo-e artists was Yodo Shigehiko (淀重彦) [7], the younger brother of prominent rice merchant Yodoya Shigemasa (淀屋重當). Shigehiko is credited with consolidating various brooding art styles and topics into what would become a more unified ukiyo-e genre and popularizing the art through his commercial and political connections as a younger son of one of Sakai’s major merchant families. His most famous works revolved around the depictions of courtesans and his artistic contributions in the pages of early ukiyo-zoshi by authors like Ihara Saikaku. Shigehiko’s style of ukiyo-e would come to form its own school within the genre, the Yodo school (淀派), one that would come to influence and nurture ukiyo-e artists for generations to come.
One of Yodo Shigehiko’s early ukiyo-e
Paintings were not the only artistic outlets that saw a boom in the 17th century, for lacquerware and porcelain all increased in creative variation and production. Both experienced this partially due to many samurai clans either subsidizing or taking control of local production and craftsmanship to stimulate their domains’ economies and the clan’s own coffers in some cases through ji-shoukai. Lacquer tree cultivation and kiln construction expanded and both lacquerware and porcelain wares would become major exports for many regions, though Japanese porcelain would noticeably be limited in appeal in foreign markets compared to their lacquer counterparts due to merciless competition from Joseonite and Chinese potters [8]. Japan itself continued to import Chinese and Joseonite wares throughout the early Azuchi period, incorporating continental influences into its wares especially for its porcelain. A major native development across both mediums, however, would be the increasingly common adaptation of popularized Rinpa art designs onto many wares, distinguishing these wares from their foreign contemporaries.
Sake ewer lacquerware from the 17th century
[1]: Granted by Tokugawa Ieyasu IOTL.
[2]: Mitsunobu is Eitoku’s main successor ITTL unlike IOTL where due to the urging or potentially an order by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Eitoku adopts Kimura Sanraku (木村山楽) as his main successor.
[3]: Centered in Sunpu, named after the Tokaido road that runs through the Tokugawa domain including Sunpu.
[4]: Called yofuga (洋風画) or ranga (蘭画) IOTL.
[5]: TTL’s painting of Hasekura Tsunenaga (支倉常長). Can be found in Chapter 78 within TTL.
[6]: OTL’s Amakusa Shiro (天草四郎).
[7]: Hishikawa Moronobu (菱川師宣) is a nobody ITTL because Edo is not a big city ITTL for obvious reasons.
[8]: Japanese porcelain IOTL really came into its own during the Edo period as a consequence of Korean potters kidnapped during the Imjin War and Ming refugees fleeing the Qing invasions of the 1640s providing expertise and injecting creativity. A glut in Chinese porcelain exports during that decade also allowed Japanese porcelain to take up a now-vacant market share. Because none of that happens ITTL, Japanese porcelain is more on the back foot compared to its more established and well-known competitors.
Nice chapter. Love learning more about ITTL Japan's cultural development. I hope you're feeling alright and making a quick recovery
I really like the expansion on how Western influences create new strains of art that will only continue to change Japan ittl, and I love how Japanese pottery has its own unique flair that will differentiate themselves from the competition! Considering that the Europeans will eventually get their hands on it I'll love to see their imitations too.
So, a thought occurred. With the continued Japanese-Western syncretism in the arts and culture, what is the possibilities of a fusion between European-style fencing (Most likely French) and Japanese Kenjutsu? Yes, I know the smallsword/rapier/foil/sabre and Katana are completely different swords, but I'm wondering if that style of sword would become more a niche for certain Samurai in Japan. Someone makes a mix between Japanese swords and European smallsword (Japanese blade + European guards) or for this specific syncretism, the reemergence of Japanese straight swords to fit the European fencing style.
Also, I'm wondering for music, and if instruments like the Piano later in the 18th century will become popular in Japan
Also, I'm wondering for music, and if instruments like the Piano later in the 18th century will become popular in Japan