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    Art and Technique of Sumi-e Japanese Ink Painting: Japanese Ink Painting as Taught by Ukao Uchiyama
    Art and Technique of Sumi-e Japanese Ink Painting: Japanese Ink Painting as Taught by Ukao Uchiyama
    Art and Technique of Sumi-e Japanese Ink Painting: Japanese Ink Painting as Taught by Ukao Uchiyama
    Ebook172 pages52 minutes

    Art and Technique of Sumi-e Japanese Ink Painting: Japanese Ink Painting as Taught by Ukao Uchiyama

    By Kay Morrissey Thompson

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    About this ebook

    Explore the ancient technique of Japanese ink painting.

    The art of sumi-e, which means "ink picture," combines calligraphy and ink-painting to produce brush painting compositions of rare beauty. This beauty is paradoxical--ancient but modern, simple but sophisticated, bold but subdued--no doubt reflecting the art's spiritual basis in Zen Buddhism. At the same time, sumi-e painting is firmly rooted in the natural world, its various techniques serving as the painter's language for describing the wonders of nature.

    Buddhist priests brought the ink stick and the bamboo-handled brush to Japan from China in the sixth century, and over the past fourteen centuries, Japan has developed a rich heritage of ink-painting. Today the artistry of sumi-e can be admired in books, reproductions, and museums, but the techniques of the art have been much less accessible. As a result, little information has been available to the inquisitive Western artist attracted to Japanese sumi-e. This book, designed to help remedy that deficiency, is the product of the author's study with her teacher, Ukai Uchiyama, master calligraphist and artist. It contains extensive explanations of technique as well as detailed painting instructions and diagrams.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTuttle Publishing
    Release dateOct 30, 2012
    ISBN9781462908561
    Art and Technique of Sumi-e Japanese Ink Painting: Japanese Ink Painting as Taught by Ukao Uchiyama

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    • 5/5
      What a marvellous finding! This book is educative and beautifully illustrated. Also, it includes terms and the symbolism behind this fascinating ancient art in an easy way to understand.

    Book preview

    Art and Technique of Sumi-e Japanese Ink Painting - Kay Morrissey Thompson

    an introduction to Ukai Uchiyama, master calligraphist and sumi painter

    An ardent gallery-goer in Tokyo may be surprised to find wall after wall covered with brilliant abstractions in oil pigments on canvas. Many Japanese artists are experimenting with this more lavish medium which does permit of greater freedom of technique and subject matter—or lack of subject matter. Oil painting in Japan is a relatively new challenge after centuries of the rigid discipline of monochrome painting. There seem to be no rules or restrictions in applying oil to canvas excepting the artist’s own, and many of today’s artists are enthusiastically enjoying this new freedom.

    Even so, the ancient art of sumi-e, or Japanese ink-painting, though now somewhat in eclipse, has not disappeared from the contemporary scene. To a Westerner who feels sometimes saturated with rampant color, these linear and calligraphic interpretations stand out even monochromatically as the most colorful of all. One wonders what it is that makes this art still thrive though centuries of artists have come and gone, though other styles and schools of thought have had their days of great popularity only to give way to new and different ones. The art of sumi-e has remained essentially the same, varying only according to the skill and imagination of successive artists. For although there are rules to this art, they serve to stimulate rather than to arrest artistic creativity. Following the old techniques without feeling or imagination can perhaps lead to superficial skills, but more than this is required of the sumi artist.

    In ancient China, mastery of brush and ink was the accomplishment of scholars who were at once poets, philosophers, and often Buddhist priests, as well as painters. Similar brushes were used for both writing and painting and the two arts invariably shared the same piece of silk or paper. Indeed, the written characters themselves evolved from visual symbols, gradually becoming more and more abstract and losing much of their pictorial quality. It is further evidence of the affinity of the two arts that the strokes used for calligraphy frequently are adopted by the sumi artist to represent, say, the branch of a tree or the tail of a bird. If calligraphy is writing, sumi-e is the painter’s language of nature, with various techniques forming his vocabulary.

    When Buddhist priests brought the ink stick and bamboo-handled brush to Japan in the sixth century, the Japanese soon became adept in their use and for the past fourteen centuries have been contributing to their own heritage of ink painting. The artistic accomplishments of successive Japanese artists are to be admired in books, museums, and reproductions, but the techniques themselves have been passed from generation to generation by means of personal instruction and apprenticeship. As a result, not enough information is available to the inquisitive Western artist who is attracted to this art.

    It is for this reason that, through my dear friend Mrs. Tadako Arakawa, I sought and found Mr. Ukai Uchiyama, master calligraphist and artist, a contemporary inheritor of the long and honorable line of Japanese sumi artists. (His art name, Ukai, seen both in the last two characters of his signature at the left and in his seal at the upper right, means Rainy Sea.) Like his artistic ancestors, he is a philosopher, calligraphist, scholar, and teacher. He continues the tradition of teaching along with his painting as is expected of those with superior gifts. In Japan the sensei—master or teacher—of any subject is one who commands great admiration and respect.

    Uchiyama-sensei agreed to take time from his busy schedule to introduce me to his own contemporary calligraphic version of sumi techniques. After we had painted together two or three times I realized there must be many other artists, potential or accomplished, who might like to share this study. Mr. Uchiyama found the idea to his liking since he had received many requests for information from artists and interested persons from other parts of the world. From then on, we worked together to prepare this book, all without benefit of a mutual language other than that of the brush. Fortunately, Mr. Uchi-yama’s daughter, Mrs. Yuko Takenouchi, and his son, Ryuichiro Uchiyama, served as interpreters extraordinary, not only translating their father’s instructions but also helping me interpret his thoughts. Some techniques and strokes needed little or no translation since just watching Sensei execute a masterful stroke with the brush and watching the wet, black sumi flow swiftly and beautifully into a creation of great excitement was beyond any spoken or written language. But how to put into words this magic one has witnessed? Perhaps it is not possible to translate the language of painting into the language of words. Certainly words alone cannot make an artist. In the end it is only the artist himself who, through application and effort, observation and development, can attain his maximum fulfillment. But words may attempt to direct and suggest, perhaps even inspire.

    All the words used here are my own, but based directly upon Mr. Uchiyama’s teachings. All the drawings are by him, some drawn for my lessons and

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