Samurai battle scenes (artwork)
The artwork, Samurai battle scenes± painted in the 19th century is a Japanese style artwork painted on a single four-fold screen in colour and gold leaf on paper. In the painting we get an overhead, almost a birds eye view of a samurai battle. Warriors are riding into battle on horseback, wearing armour and bearing weapons. The landscape is strewn with many bodies and horses and with the combination of diagonal parallel lines on the landscape creates the feeling of coordinated movement from the armies. Another factor of the painting, which catches the viewer's eye, are the clouds or fog overlaying the battle. The curves in the cloud also relay a feeling of smoothness and calm or even tranquillity, which is directly contrasted and even juxtaposed with the battle scene. This fog or cloud creates the simulation of a birds eye± view and another popular saying, the fog of war.± The cloud as previously mentioned contains a variety of possible different meanings. One such meaning suitable for the scene is t
The clouds in the painting are balanced and strewn apart so that the viewer has an even view of the battle. This artist may be trying to convey the valiant ways in which brave warriors died. I agree with what this critic has to say. The painting conveys the much confusion in a battle with certain parts and sections of the painting covered by fog, and the interruption to tranquillity it can impose. The "floating world" was a refuge from the rigid, hierarchical society of feudal Japan. Because the origins of the painting are vague and artist unknown not much information can be surely comprised from the painting. Their loyalty and sacrifice, and the stoicism with which they accepted the death verdict, encapsulated the most admirable samurai qualities. It is also arguable that the battle scene is in dominance as battle and the way of the samurai± was a large concept in Japan those centuries ago. For hundreds of years Japan was wracked by rivalry and wars between the daimyo or feudal lords, who had emerged as the dominant force out of the decaying imperial court society centred in Kyoto. he saying referred to as the fog of war±. Its narrow focus on the sensual pleasures of the courtesan and the kabuki theatre reflected, at least in part, the peculiar character of the niche that the artists inhabited. The era in which the painting was painted was thought to be one of growth for the Japanese and introduction into western culture. It is hard to determine which facto dominates the painting, the calm tranquil clouds or the haphazard confused battle scene. Based on actual events, this is a story of 47 ex-retainers of the Lord of Ako. For the artist it brought a degree of freedom of association and expression unheard of in highly polished and defined classical traditions.
Common topics in this essay:
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Lord Ako,
battle scene,
samurai battle,
floating world,
riding battle,
painting ukiyo-e,
fog war±,
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