Art & Culture in Japan

Our Art & Culture in Japan tour of important temples, shrines, castles and galleries will be interspersed with lectures and discussions designed to provide a background to a fuller understanding of cultural developments and art movements. The tour will present an easy to understand introduction to Japanese art as we examine the artistic expression of different historical periods.

We will gain familiarity with specific styles, themes and the art forms that were inspired by the major religions of Buddhism and Shintō. There will also be the opportunity to explore issues such as the relationship between art and patronage, art and belief as well as art and materials. Various Japanese art forms and types will be introduced including handscrolls, sculpture, ceramics and prints.

Vernon of Canberra who joined this tour in 2009 said:
Very informative, well thought out and well managed cultural and artistic introduction to Japan.

Lynne from Perth who joined our November 2008 tour:
Many thanks for a fantastic tour. An excellent experience in Japanese culture but also great fun and plenty of new experiences. Thank you for sharing so much with us. It has been a privilege.

Tokyo

Art & Culture in Japan begins in Tokyo, the capital of Japan and one of the world’s most modern cities and a leading center of contemporary culture and art. It has been the capital since the seventeenth century when it was known as Edo, ruled by the fierce samurai class under the leadership of the Shogun. Mostly destroyed by natural disasters and war there is little left of the ancient city but in many ways contemporary Japan is defined by the life of this great metropolis – as such it provides a dramatic contrast to the ancient capitals of Kamakura, Nara and Kyoto which we will visit subsequently.
Whilst moving about Tokyo on its labyrinth of subways we will have the opportunity to observe contemporary Japanese life. Fortunately this city is also home to some of the world’s greatest collections of Japanese art housed in major museums and is thus a fitting place to get an overview of Japanese cultural history.

The 1889 Tokyo National Museum is one of the oldest and largest art museums in Japan. It houses a vast collection of Japanese from pre-history to the pre-modern period. By looking at this historical progression through the art works we will be able to orient ourselves to Japanese art history.

Founded in 1993 Edo-Tokyo Museum is an immense architectural monolith whose displays elaborate the history of the city of Tokyo (formerly Edo). This exhibition space will enable us to understand the history of pre-modern Japan during the Edo period (1600-1868), one of the most important and prolific in Japanese art history.

Jinbō-cho is an area of downtown Tokyo famous for its second-hand bookstores. It is here that there are a number of important wood block print dealers. Under the guidance of Dr. Hickey, who is a specialist in this field, we will visit a number of these premises and have the opportunity to purchase, at a surprisingly affordable price, an original Edo period print – a most fitting memento of your trip to Japan.

Surprisingly within modern Tokyo one can glimpse aspects of traditional Japan. This is the case with Asakusa, the ‘downtown’ area of Tokyo and the site of Sensōji, home to the Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion Kannon, the temple celebrated by the Edo period artist Hiroshige in one of his iconic images of the city.

Meiji Jingū, the Shintō shrine dedicated to the Meiji emperor, with its deep forest and timber buildings provides a refreshing sojourn from the hustle and bustle of the city. After visiting this shrine we will walk around the exclusive shopping district of Omote Sandō, home to the world’s greatest haute couture fashions and site of some of the cities cutting edge architecture by world famous architects such as Ando Tadao.

Nagoya and Ise

Leaving Tokyo we will travel about two hours south by the famous bullet train (Shinkansen) to Japan’s fourth largest city Nagoya. Whilst here we will visit the Tokugawa Art Museum set up to house the collection of the Tokugawa family, the ruling shoguns during the Edo period. It is in this collection that we can see sections of the twelfth painted hand scroll illustrating the classic love story of Japanese literature The Tale of Genji, a national treasure.

Nagoya is a convenient stopping off point for a trip to another national treasure, Japan’s most sacred Shintō shrine at Ise.       

Dating to the third century Ise Shrine, as a sacred ritual of renewal, has been rebuilt every twenty years using traditional temple carpentry techniques of precisely aligned joints without recourse to any nails. Set within deep forests that are themselves considered sacred the various buildings that make up this shrine are crossed by numerous paths. Ise Shrine consists of two geographically separated complexes, an Outer Shrine (Gekū) and Inner Shrine (Naikū) the former dedicated to the Goddess of Agriculture and the latter to the Sun Goddess, the guardian deity of the Japanese nation.