There has always been controversy when East would meet West,
             particularly in the art realm.Hirayama says, in reference to
             Japan, that by increasing ones exposure to Western art, one calls
             into question many long held artistic assumptions and
             institutional practices (57). He noted that such caused upheaval
             throughout the Meiji period, an era of cultural uncertainty (57).
             Some artists, during the controversial years in the early part of
             the twentieth century, would vie for more Western styles. While
             some artists did try to make their works acceptable world wide by
             choosing this option, the Japanese did effectively create unique
             art forms anyway. Japanese aesthetics provide a key to
             understanding artistic works that are quite different than those
             Within the East Asian artistic tradition, China had been the
             leader and Japan's art took much from the country; Yet, Japanese
             artists developed their own style, which is clearly not Chinese
             (Griffin PG). And of course, the world was not always
             discriminatory against the East. Many centuries ago, before the
             eruption of the very popular western art movements, there was a
             different attitude. In order to get a glimpse of how different art was prior to
             the present day, a look at the Asuka period may prove to be
             somewhat enlightening. The periodization terminology was first
             created around the year 1900 to reference the architectural and
             art period called Asuka ("Scope" PG). Sekino had once designated
             the period as being the time most strongly influenced by Korean
             art (PG). In fact, it had been noted that many Korean artists
             came to Japan around this time (Gardner 635). Further, Okakura
             considered the Asuka Period to extend quite broadly from the
             introduction of Buddhism at approximately 552 to the transfer of
             the capital to Heijo (Nara) in 710 ("Scope" PG). Thus, according
             to this definition, the period ran not much longer than 150
             years.The...