Japanese Influences on Western Art and Sake, a Rice Wine.

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“If you insist on forcing me into an affiliation…then compare me with the old Japanese masters. Their exquisite taste has always delighted me, and I like the suggestive quality of their aesthetic, which evokes a presence by a shadow and the whole by a part.” Claude Monet parkwestgallery.com

Well, there you have it. Monet was an adherent to what the French called “Japonisme,” an interest that began influencing artists in the late 19th century after Japan was opened for trade with the Occident. Monet’s home in Giverny is literally, among other things, a gallery of fine Japanese prints done by some of the most notable of the Japanese printmakers. On the one visit that I have made so far to Giverny, I noted buses of only Japanese tourists. They had come, yes, to admire the wonderful gardens, also inspired by the Japanese aesthetic, but as well to see masterworks done by their famous artists, those old Japanese masters Monet refers to.

It has often been said that Monet’s other great gift to the world was his vast garden at Giverny. Actually they are a collection of gardens that range from fruit trees that are split so that their branches run horizontally along wires, to flowers of all kinds, and of course, the famous lily ponds. In the painting above, we see his Japanese bridge that spans a section of a lily pond. In this painting we see not only the bridge, but the beginning of Monet’s quest to decentralize landscape painting by removing certain boundaries that are normally expected. For more on this idea and how it manifests in Monet’s late painting, see this article in the right hand column of this page, “Monet’s Lily Pond and the Last of the Summer Wine.”

Of course Monet was not the only artist of that time period to be influenced by the arrival of these beautiful and quite different works of art from Japan. Cezanne, Degas, Toulouse Lautrec, and even Gauguin, who stopped using lithography and began using woodcut printing techniques, were all influenced. One of the topics that attracted attention was that of bathing women. Edgar Degas (1834-1917) took the theme of the bathing woman for his pastel “The Tub,” in which the angle of the woman’s body, the details of the intimate objects used for her bath, and the way the shelf is flatten as it might be in a Japanese print as opposed to western ideas of perspective and foreshortening, all show the influence of those Japanese prints.

One of the artists most taken by the arrival of Japanese prints and the artistic aesthetic related to them was Vincent Van Gogh. He did his versions of the famous prints, sometimes even copying the Japanese writing that accompanied the print, though the piece below showing the frame would indicate that Van Gogh was not a great calligrapher. Below we can compare his Flowering Plum Tree (1887) with Hiroshige’s Plum Blossoms. Van Gogh gives the colors a punch with deep reds, pinks, and a solid orange for the frame. The small figures in the background are in yellows and blue, and trees have yellow and white blossoms that move into pink, orange and a deep red. Hiroshige, on the other hand keeps the colors subtle, using calming grays, blues, and a soft pinkish-red. Van Gogh does keep some of the flatness that one sees in Hiroshigi’s print.

However, Van Gogh was to integrate the Japanese idea of a delicate focus on simple items, like a stem of flowers or a branch of blossoms. In particular we see this in Van Gogh’s Almond Blossoms (1890), which he painted in honor of the birth of his brother Theo’s first child. There are no experiments with color combinations nor any attempts at calligraphy. Here there is just nature’s delicacy, along with Van Gogh’s incredible ability to focus on detail in order to make these blossoms the perfect heralds of the birth of a new life.

The influence of Japan continued to be felt into the 20th century with artists like Piet Mondrian using the concept of the single stem of flowers as the basis of many of his own floral paintings. Certain Japanese concepts like wabi-sabi, the finding of unexpected beauty or beauty in imperfection, appeal to the western mind as does Monet’s estimation of how presence is evoked by a shadow or the whole by a part. One contemporary artist who thoroughly appreciates and who can also aptly express those ideas is Jess Preble. Perhaps it comes from her time working as a sushi chef in San Francisco. Perhaps it is her deep appreciation and understanding of how Junichiro Tanizaki explains the subtle in Japanese culture in his wonderful work, In Praise of Shadows. Whether it is one or both of these, she creates pieces that respond to elements of that aesthetic and which provide a counterpoint to much of her other work.

Here the name of the piece evokes that idea of the shadow of a presence. The viewer knows without seeing it that there is another, a mate to this cup. That brings the question: What is the quality of this matching cup? Does it match in appearance or is it the polar opposite? Is it the sun to this moon? Just as the moon has its light and dark sides, this cup has mystery. The rough hewn surface, the imperfect symmetry (asymmetry?), and the way it is set off center in the picture indicate its unique character. It is a creation of wabi-sabi, a beautiful imperfection, which appeals in its singularity to the person who holds it. This is a cup for the famed 16th century Japanese tea master, Sen no Rikyu, whose explanation of the beauty of raku pottery is wonderfully presented in the film Rikyu by Hiroshi Teshigahara (1989 imbd.com ) in which the zen master’s thoughts on a teacup express this idea of unique beauty. Preble’s sensitivity to the textured surface of the cup extends to the textured treatment of the background elements, which also move from light to dark. This cup is a creation that might be set aside by some but surely seen by a discerning eye captured by its silent possibilities.

No other way to end this journey into another aesthetic than to return to Monet. In this case it is a koi pond in Seki, Japan that reflects the beauty of his gardens in France. It is the Nemichi Shrine, a Shinto shrine with a pond that looks like a living Monet painting. (For video see youtube.com)

Paintings used in this article are in public domain or used with permission of the artist.

Marjorie Vernelle is an artist, writer, college professor, and traveler. For more see the Pages at ofartandwine.com or her author page at amazon.com and her art at Vernelle Art Boutique vernellestudio.com.

Sake, a Rice Wine or a Misnomer?

Of course it is the perfect compliment to a nice Japanese meal, and though subtle, it can pack quite a punch (sake is 16% alcohol on average). But how can that be, you ask, it’s made from rice, isn’t it? Well, here is the main thing wine from grapes and wine from rice have in common: sugar. From grapes the sugar comes from the juice; from rice is comes from converting the starch to sugar. And, of course, they are both then fermented to create the alcohol content. So in that loosest of senses, they are both wines.

However, some say that is as far as this comparison should go. The Sake Times has an article in which it insists: “Let’s Stop Calling Sake “Rice Wine.” It points out that sake is actually just a Japanese word for alcohol, en.sake-times.com. I don’t know how much headway they are going to make with that. However, it is pointed out that “rice wine” is the term used to describe a number of Asian alcoholic drinks made from fermented rice and does nothing to engage the differences in the process of making the various national versions (Chinese, Korean and Japanese) of these rice alcohols or their differences in taste.

We will leave the rice wine or not rice wine wars behind and move on to other important things in sake culture. As in all things Japanese, there is a protocol for how and when to do things. Now I am sure that any of our local Japanese restaurants would be happy to serve us sake with our sushi, and the more of each the better. However, tea or water is normally the drink that accompanies a feast of sushi, itself a special treat rather than a daily meal habit. The sake, made from rice, can blunt the taste of the fish which comes also with rice. Better to have warm sake at the end of the meal when it can settle calmly alone on the taste buds and descend with a mild tingle to create the appropriate after glow of a fine meal.

SAKE GOES INTERNATIONAL

Of course, seafood is always a good bet with sake. Oysters, scallops, shrimp are all easy choices. However, cheeses work well as do some chicken and some tomato based pasta dishes (just think of the pizza above). By the way Eater.com goes into some other unusual combinations like barbeque, Thai food, and chocolate(!) with suggestions for which type of sake to choose for each.

Another aspect of sake that yes, has a comparison to grape wine, is that it is a wonderful addition to your cooking. It can be used to enhance flavor just like grape wines can; however, it can also cut the “fishy” taste of some fish dishes as well as add healthy antioxidants to you diet. Cooking sake is a special blend of sake made expressly for cooking and it is normally rather inexpensive.

Lastly sake is a traditional New Year’s gift. One form is toso, sake infused with medicinal herbs to help one fight off winter’s illnesses like the common cold or to help with upset stomachs. One thing nice to do is to follow the custom of opening a bottle to toast the new year and perhaps write a haiku. Here is one from Yosa Buson (1716 – 1783):

The old calendar

fills me with gratitude

like a song.

So remember that sake is a noble drink with a long tradition. The more you learn about it, the more you’ll be tempted to try it. For myself, that sparkling sake sounds really good. I shall give it a try.

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©marjorie vernelle 2020

Coming Soon: Natural America: Audubon and Bodmer, plus Organic Wines.

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Sometimes capturing the essence of a place is done in amazing ways by those who come from other places. The work of Jean Jacques Audubon and that of Karl Bodmer provide unique visions of what these men from other lands found in America. Nature’s influence is also being felt in the wine making industry as organic wines are becoming the rage.