Page 262 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868
P. 262

Landscape                                        is the firstborn of





           City,  Country,         creation. It was here long, long before we were ever dreamed. It was                   here

           Travel,   and           without    us. It watched us     arrive. How strange we must          have   seemed."   1


           Vision in               Throughout history cultures have internalized countless ways of coming

           Edo   Cultural          to terms    with  their  environment. The landscapes in this            book unfold     to                             261


           Landscapes              us the   rich, emotional worlds created by the Japanese in response to

                                   their  surroundings. Because these          worlds seem      so "natural," it is easy to


                                   overlook that what       we see in these     pages is not nature, however, but
           M E L I N D A  T A K E U C H I
                                   culture: it is representation       of representation.


                                             The Japanese paradigms for landscape resist linear narratives.


                                   By the   Edo period landscape as         a discursive field had      evolved for more

                                   than   a millennium. Elements of Chinese thought                mingled with Japanese;


                                   conflicting    claims to the land, like argument          over the   relative superiority

                                   of native gods versus imported           Buddhas, were thrashed         out in  the


                                   theaters of politics, religion, and       art. Let us begin by excavating some of


                                   the layers of meaning that accrued to landscape through Japanese his-

                                    tory. As will be   clear, many objects in the       book fit more than       one  of these


                                    conceptual     situations.

                                             Ritual  appropriation   by mewing     (kunimi}:  To view the     landscape


                                    implied   taking possession      of it, a ceremonial     practice   dating   from


                                    protohistoric    times.   Even  as late   as  1582 the  warlord Akechi Mitsuhide

                                    ascended    sacred   Mount Atago outside         Kyoto,  directed   his  gaze   across


                                    the prospect, and composed ritual poetry the              day before he     assassinated







                                    Opposite:  detail of Great Wave (cat. 169)
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