Violets between cherry blossoms : the diffusion of classical motifs to the East: traces in Japanese art : fictions, conjectures, facts
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Bibliographic Information
Violets between cherry blossoms : the diffusion of classical motifs to the East: traces in Japanese art : fictions, conjectures, facts
Leiden University Press, c2011
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Includes bibliographical references (p. 665-721) and index
Summary: A unique comparative overview of motifs and images from Greece to Japan, exploring cultural flows into the Mediterranean and the Black Sea from the earliest days, Alexander the Great, Greek culture in the Roman Empire, the Silk Road and the spread of Buddhism to China and Japan. Researcher Pieter Arts feels that the geographical expansion was part of a greater adoption and assimilation of cultures across enormous distances. The second part of the study follows the cultural flow of specific gods, heroes, airborne deities and monsters from Greece to Japan
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This richly illustrated book is a comparative study, which shows how motifs and images travelled throughout Eurasia from Rome to Tokyo. It covers a period from around the early fifth century BC, when there was a well-established Grecian influence in the Black Sea area, up until today. It is likely that already in the fifth century BC there was some indirect cultural exchange between the Black Sea region and China, thanks to rudimentary roads linking these regions. In the wake of the military campaigns of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), Hellenistic culture spread to regions east and south of the Mediterranean Sea, including Egypt, Persia (today Iran), present-day Afghanistan, northern India and the western parts of Central Asia. Buddhism also spread at this time. As both land and sea routes became more reliable, Hellenistic Rome acquired a crucial position in the trade network. From the second to the sixth century AD elements of Greco-Buddhist culture gradually found their way to China and subsequently, from the mid-sixth century AD on, reached Japan.
Violets between Cherry Blossoms is the first comprehensive work to provide a critical and compelling study of the cultural flow across this extensive area. It shows convincingly how Greek images and motifs travelled East, were adopted and preserved in Chinese art and how they spread to Japan.
Table of Contents
FOREWORD IX ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS XI NOTE TO THE READER XIII ABBREVIATIONS XV CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES XIX LIST OF MAPS XXIV INTRODUCTION XXV PA RT I CULTUR A L F LOW F ROM GR E ECE TO J A PAN: CENT R E S , CARRIERS AND TRACKS 1 THE DEVELOPMENT AND SPREAD OF GREEK CULTURE UNTIL 3 2 3 B.C 3 1.1 Historical background 3 1.2 The rise of Greek culture to its Golden Age 6 1.3 Early colonization and contacts with the East 27 1.3.1 Italy and Sicily 30 1.3.2 The countries of the Black Sea 40 1.3.3 Early routes and contacts with the East 50 2 ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND THE HERITAGE OF HELLENISM IN THE MIDDL E EAST AND INDIA 59 2.1 The conquests of Alexander 59 2.2 The Hellenistic culture in Greece 64 2.2.1 General 64 2.2.2 Preoccupation with fortune 65 2.2.3 Realism and emotional expression 76 2.3 Persia and Parthia 85 2.4 Bactria and North India 93 3 THE ROMAN WORLD AND THE EAST 107 3.1 Rome as a centre of Hellenistic culture 107 3.2 Attempts at direct contact between Rome and China 110 3.3 The Silk Road 118 3.4 The sea-route 123 3.5 Roman objects found in Central Asia and the Far East 127 3.6 The Indo-Parthians and the Kushans 136 3.7 The East Roman Empire 148 4 BUDDHISM AND TRADE : THE VEHICLES OF CLASSICAL CULTURE 155 4.1 Buddhism in India 155 4.2 Merging of western culture with Buddhism: Gandhara 158 4.3 The spread of Buddhism 160 4.3.1 Bactria and Central Asia 160 4.3.2 China 164 4.3.3 Korea and Japan 175 4.4 The role of monks and merchants 184 PA RT I I CULTUR A L F LOW F ROM GR E ECE TO J A PAN: IMAGE S , DECORAT I V E PATT E R N S , MOT I F S 5 SOME REMARKS ON CONVERGENC E , TRANSFER AND ACCEPTANCE 199 6 GODS AND HEROES 207 6.1 Boreas and Fujin 207 6.2 Herakles and Nio 217 6.3 The Hermes-complex: Daikokuten and Bishamonten 229 6.4 Tyche and Koshimojin 239 6.5 Atlas 246 7 AIRBORNE DEITIES 257 8 HUMAN FIGURES 301 8.1 Features of the human body 301 8.2 The Buddha image 316 8.3 The boy motif 326 9 PEGASOS 341 10 THE FISH-TAILED DRAGON 373 11 THE FACE OF THE MONSTER 393 11.1 The Gorgoneion and its ancestors 394 11.2 The kirttimukha of India 407 11.3 The monsterfaces of China 414 11.4 The changing face of the monster in China 431 11.5 The kwi-wa of Korea 439 11.6 Intermediate summary and considerations a439 11.7 Monsterfaces of Japan 445 11.8 Conclusions 456 12 DIONYSIAN MOTIFS 459 12.1 Grapes 459 12.2 The drinking panther 490 13 FOLIAGE AND FLORAL MOTIFS 503 14 conclusions 553 NOTES 561 GLOSSARY 597 BIBLIOGRAPHY 665 SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS 723 INDEX 743
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