Nihonga

DEFINITION

A Japanese term originally meaning 'Japanese painting', it has come to encompass painting executed primarily in traditional materials such as ink and glue-based mineral pigments; supports such as paper and silk; and formats such as hanging scroll, hanging scroll or screen. Nihonga was coined in the 1880s as a means to distinguish the pictorial practice grounded in the native tradition of "shoga" (calligraphy and painting) from "yoga" or Western type painting that employed Western media, formats and modes of representation." Source; Sandra Buckley, "Encyclopedia of Contemporary Japanese Culture", 2001, p. 356. Submitted by M.D. Silverbrooke, West Vancouver, Canada