It was quite a process wasn't it? Whilst the Japanese were grappling with Western ideas of Fine Art, the influence of Japanese aesthetics on the West was revolutionary and played a central role in the invention of Modernism. Very much a two way street.
I really like how you've developed your style of narration. Watching older videos makes me think that you've found your preferred style that also works best. Keep up the great work!
Jon - Perfect example of and why I'm regularly annoyed by "critics" that *think* they know what they are talking about. Each society/culture/people/industry has their own definition of what art is, and what constitutes fine/high art from more pedestrian pursuits. I added industry as diverse pursuits such as programming, metalworking, quilting, etc. also have their own, in-industry, rigor. In the mid-1800's, someone from France (or Germany, or US) could, most likely, no better decide what's considered excellent in Japan, than some random person from the Amazon could do in the Musée de l'Histoire de France. Personally, I may have my opinion on something (I like it, don't like it, why, etc.) - but I'm not going to tell you you're wrong about yours. Japan - Be Loud and Proud of your heritage and OWN IT! - the good and the bad. (Coming from an American that is loud and proud of my heritage - and owning it that we weren't (and in many cases, still aren't) always the best, brightest, nor did well by others (including our own citizenry)).
On the green belt of my city, right by a square lake, there welcomes the museum of east asian arts, such a calm and neat place. Last spring's guest exhibition from Japan presented over 200 genuinely entrancing _shin hanga_ Great video, thank you very much Asianometry!
As an Austrian it was funny hearing you say "Weiner Wichtaustelling" instead of "Wiener Weltausstellung".´In German the letters i and ie are pronounced like an English e.
I studied fine arts in germany which is very conservative and dogmatic in that regard. What I learned is that all the gatekeeping between craft/decorative art and "fine art" has little to do with the art itself, with its material, process and context. It's mostly rhetorics, and as you pointed out, set through flex in the global discourse. Funny how so many people believe in some supernatural aura/genius of the european-style fine arts or solitary artist. In the end, fine art is used as easy-to-accumulate capital and stored in freeport warehouses, its price being defined by those with the largest leverage in the market and in propagating their curatorial dogmas.
I like the way how You present the events as when was what and who and how and maybe why. It was interesting to learn about the gap of concepts between Japan and "the West", and how strange the debates were (and still are) about what is "true" or ""real" arts ... but I wonder how many people - both in Japan and in the West (including myself) even know about these "concepts". There are rather fuzzy habits among common people (who maybe visit a museum once in their lifetime) of what is seen as art or not. You explained how Japanese language words had been "invented" to reflect lessons from "the West". I wonder if "the West" ever even bothered to invent new words for the Japanese ways of arts ... except the term "Japonism". Thanks for the video, very informative and enjoyable!
This particular episode rises way above the rest as a truly great Asianometry video. Such a unique topic for a seemingly obscure and yet fascinating quirk of history. I also think the slightly shorter length paid off well. Keep it up!
You are awesome 😎 thanks for the awesome content as usual! Do you have any interest in the World Baseball Classic happing in Taiwan and Japan at the moment? I always wonder how popular really is in those countries.
Very Popular. At least in Japan. Sadaharu Oh was the guy with the most homerruns in his career (868), still the world record. I remember reading about him in 5th grade (1983) and being surprised (in a good way). As any other human (see Pete Rose, Barry Bonds), he was not excempt from controversy, in particular when my countrymen Alex Cabrera was about to shater his record 55 HR in a seasson record. But yes, much interest for baseball in Japan. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadaharu_Oh
Even in Europe for the longest time Art wasn't considered as Art as we understand it today, which is why renowned artists such as Michelangelo were only considered as artisans and contractors in their time.
12:00 Dou you mean ... step towards Japan's rise, down in the futer. Or ... step towards Japan's, rise down in the futer. (That , feels wrong but I'd like to group "rise down" as one)
Crossing my fingers on a new video discussing about the latest China restrictions on semiconductor equipment. Is the EUV restrictions being increased to ban DUV machines? I couldn't find any details on which DUV machines might be banned for export to China (immersion lithography??? 28 nm????). There also seems to be some discussion of banning semiconductor chemicals from Japan being exported to China.
The terms of the ban are imprecise, as it covers "the most advanced inmerssion machines". As John said in his 157nm lith video (here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZPa_RKFTBPc.html ) inmersion stared being used on the 45nm node. And it was used up until the 14nm node by all foundries, and was further squeeeeeeeezed by Intel's 10/7 and 7nm (called N+1) in the case of SMIC. It is not clear then which machines are forbiden. ¿The 45nm ones? ¿the 32? ¿the 22? ¿the 14? ¿the 10/7 whici are pretty much the same ones as the 14nm ones? Only time will tell... «Extensive Design Technology Co-Optimization (DTCO) features and high-density logic libraries enable a logic transistor density of 89 million transistors per square millimeter (89MT/mm^2), which is comparable to what TSMC’s N7 and Intel’s 10nm offer, making [SMIC's] N+1 a viable 7nm-class alternative (at least for logic, as scaling SRAM is tricky).» www.tomshardware.com/news/smic-mass-produces-14nm-nodes-advances-to-5nm-7nm
for a long time the japanese themselves didn't see ukiyo-e art as anything but trinkets to be sold to tourists. even the great wave of kanagawa was merely a part of a greater collection of images made by Tokugawa, these things were mass produced and everyone had them (the value of a single woodblock print rarely exceeded that of a bowl of noodles). still despite this i consider these art pieces to be very fine examples of design and art, i don't think they should have tried to get official recognition of their art that hard. many times that simply leads to other forms of imperialism.
There is a whole video dedicated to the deer, its meaning, and why it is the logo of the channel... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zLsKh7YUvF0.html Having said that, in LatAm , having a deer as your mascot is a double-entendre ;-)
@@H0mework While your there, look around among the older material look for videos on Taiwans' countryside, there's a good chance you will enjoy those as well. m
When once we find yet another continent and they hold an art fair there we may send them a few Monets just so that later we learn they think these Monets make for fancy wallpaper. People are funny.
Please don't say "folded over a thousand times" like it is a quality. It was their process to purify the steel from dirt and other elements and also to decarbonise that's all. And not the best one since you always have particules that will stay inbedded in every next folds. That creates micro-impurities leading at fractures over time. War time of course... Museum show rooms time isn't too brutal...
Western customer: I'm looking to buy some soup bowls, for my kitchen, nothing fancy, whatever you think is suitable. Japanese craftsman: I will dedicate my life to this, spend 100 hrs handcrafting each, using only the best material and fired in the furnace of my spirit, they shall all be unique and perfectly imperfect as we all are. You come back, one year.
Hmm... You should see for yourself those items made by true craftsmen like that, they are perfectly perfect, but First making request like that they will kindly show you the door, and point you to nearest china retail store.
Wait a moment! The difference between Fine art and Decorative arts is just that the first are "pretty but useless" and the second are "pretty and useable". These categories only sort the use, not the quality of the object in question.
I couldn't care less for a statue or a painting, I have fine knife from a Japanese master smith, and its both beautiful to look at with hammer patterns over black and white finish that looks like heavy rain and fog but also a superb tool that brings me joy every time I use it.
good for you but that doesn't negate how "decorative art" is considered lower deep inside our legislations. The fundamental principle of fine art is serving no practical purpose, as well as being unique creations without any other exact copy production. This categorization can change a lot of things for creators and customers, like taxes, subventions or even the ability to enter some markets.
Samurai swords are NOT furniture, they can be items of beauty. Especially the wakawasi sorry if I butchered that. That's the pattern of steel and iron unique to every blade, similar to damask steel, or the Indian foundation. Japanese ceramics are works of art as well, so much so that they themselves have anointed 12 great master ceramic artists 11 of these are Japanese, the one other is an adopted Cornish ceramic artist from the 19th century. Forget who but goggle/bing will find asap.
The Japanese also created a fake cultural history, called "Bushido" by a pair of Japanese - one living in japan, the other in America - in the late 19th and early 20th century, stealing concepts from the European Chivalric code and the American definitions for "Honor" - Japan was not an "Honor" Culture, which required self-reflection on the Soul in piety to God - another way of saying it is "Guilt Culture". Japan was a FACE Culture which relied on reputation and peer-pressure - another way of saying it is "Shame Culture". Over time, the two meaning have been INTENTIONALLY muddled, but the difference between the two is stark. And yes, this has a huge effect on Technology too - do you want a researcher that is "Intelligent", "Well-regarded", "sophisticated", etc. A real researcher would tell you that the single greatest asset is "Integrity", "Honor", in the historic definition "Honor to the Truth, means Honor to God" (and not the historic Japanese definition for "Honor", which actually meant "Pride"). You can see why this religious devotion to Truth/God would spur technological and scientific discovers en masse. A lot of people make a big deal about apocryphal or anecdotal stories about Japanese returning wallets (the kind of stories Japanese would often boast about to puff themselves up in front of foreigners). The question is "Did you return it because you wanted the praise or attention? Or did you return it because it was the right thing to do? And would you have done so if nobody would know one way or another?"
In 1992 when I was 14 my dad took my to Tokyo, he bought some Japanese prints. He still has them up. Before that trip I didnt associate Japan with quality and after the that trip I generally associate Japan with high quality. I have been practicing origami since the 4th grade and I make 2 or 3 thousand paper cranes per year I love Japanese art and I kind of think Japanese have artistic Easter eggs in everything they make. This topic fascinates me I studied this stuff in college along with engineering so I usually watch your tech videos but this was a great video! I'm sorry I make fun of you sometimes I actually really enjoy your videos. I want to learn more about Asia because I think it's cool but that video about nasa Apollo was great too!!!
Excellent video. 1: To be classified as "Art", it must be useless. Anything useful, anything that has a function, is not art. 2: This is a concept that those who are rich understands very well, but they will NOT explain to WeThePeople. 3: Why? because the function of art, the usefulness of art, is for those who are rich to compete against each other, as "who has more spare resources to afford useless shit." 4: Longer yacht, bigger private jet, trophy wife(s), and expensive useless shit called "art"... all serve as "means of measurements", for ego competition, amongst the rich. 5. The Rich, will NOT explain this to the poor, for that would ruin their game, their sense of "superiority": "We are better than you, and you are too stupid to understand why we are better than you, and it's impossible to explain this to you, you don't belong here, take you lower ranking shit somewhere else, this game is not for you."
Design art is functional and practical, but not rare. I watched John berger's ways of seeing and he basically states that paintings of rare items gives the depiction of the valuables another way to show wealth and stores value. Interesting that they painted still lives of fruit which used to command a fortune like pineapples.
Your first point is false. Art doesn't necessarily means useless, just that having some practicality declassify the creation. For example, there are plenty of buildings that have useless decorations, but the architecture has to be somehow practical. Moreover, the word art by himself originally described all forms of mastering and aesthetic of techniques, including all sorts of practical things like martial arts. And again nowadays artists have to master their fundamental techniques before being able to create pieces of art.
can't you see how you are no different than those elitists that are discussed in the video? your efforts of framing everything into neat little boxes of tight definitions are futile. right under this comment is another one saying how artfully crafted japanese swords are- when ironically they are tools of war.
Oh how tables have turned... Western art these days is represented by unkept beds and shattered glass on a floor, and Japanese art and furniture is revered in high regard edit: The irony in some of these other comments and replies to this one are hilarious. I don't know why I was surprised to find all these elitists crawling out of the woodwork to lecture us all on what is art and what isn't. But one thing has remained the same from the days of Ernest Chesneau, it seems. The existence and proliferation of Asian works of art and commercial products seems to be threatening to the perceived sanctity and supremacy of others, particularly Western. LMAO
This is such a narrow-minded thinking. Just because you can't understand someone's art, doesn't mean it's less of an art. There may be different movements of art in seperaten countries, but they are also not uniform
look at all these offended ahh westerners lmao they took the bait! ironically it's the same mentality discussed in the video, keep those Roman noses high whiteys! edit: this is what it feels to have others imply/outright label your culture's art as non-art. how did it feel?
Your comment is a great way of showing, what was done wrong back then. But this doesn't mean, that people in the West or elsewhere these days still make the same mistake. The way of acting by the generations in the west back then was dumb, but it was about 150 yrs ago and not the guilt of today's generation. Therefore I don't think it's ironic, that people defend all arts, no matter where they come from
@@johanness6545 wtf are you serious? first you are wrong about "people don't make the same mistake" have you been to r/art recently? lol. westerners (and to an equal extent non-westerners, east asians and south west asians, middle easterners alike are all guilty edit: these days mostly because of the internet) and that compounds on your following statement "it happened long time ago it's past us" again false af. the racist supremecist history of whites and is undeniable. but I do agree with you I am guilty (purposefully) of implying certain art pieces aren't art. but it's you who took the bait and going about calling others "narrow minded" and all that. ironically the same supremecist behavior of that french dude. GG
I recently debated with someone online about how Japanese culture went global where I basically rattled off plausible-seeming ideas that came to the top of my mind (I wanted to win but didn't want to do the research so I created the most likely counter scenario). It seems however that I was on the right track.
@@davidcovington901 Of course not. The Israelites were not worshiping the temple. The spirit of GOD came down into the temple in the hollies of hollies. Don't you know the second commandment. Thou shalt not worship any graven image. You are not too bright are you...
@@davidcovington901 The fact that you feel offended says volumes about who you are. Revelation 9:20 (KJV) And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
@@davidcovington901 Here is a nice one for you. 😏 Revelation 18:21-23 (KJV) 21 And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. 22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; 23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
@Nomad Hgnis Nothing is funnier then one person with magical beliefs dissing other magical beliefs. Both have the same amount of evidence for them: zilch, nada, zero, niente, null.
I highly dislike you using the 'Asian' propaganda term 'Unequal Treaties'. This is just a propaganda term used when Asian lose 'Face' nationally. All Treaties in the history of mankind are unequal.
