どう、じゅつ／Arts

=どう、じゅつ・道、術・The Arts=

Almost anything in Japan has been made into an art form. There's flower arranging, archery, fighting, penmanship, paper folding, ceramics, and kimono making. Below are just a few of the highly technical and beautiful arts which were created in Japan.

[|Kyudo] - The meditative and ancient art of archery. This site has a description, history, and basic technique of kyudo.

[|Ikebana] - Flower arrangements have been highly prized for centuries in Japan. Along with a description and history of ikebana, this site also features examples of arrangements ranging in color, size, and type.

[|Aikido] - Aikido is a defensive martial art developed in Japan, emphasizing the use of blending movement, self-control, and accuracy over brute force and painful techniques. Although there are as many different philosophies of aikido as there are students of the founder of the art, Ueshiba Morihei, this website is a good overview of some of the basic principles and spiritual concepts of the art.

[|Go] - The game of go (碁), although originally developed in China, became popular in Japan among the imperial court by the 8th century. "Although at heart an abstract strategy game, Go has variously been said to be a symbolic representation of war, colonization, settling a frontier, capturing market share, having a debate or a lively discussion in a specialized language, and probably many other concrete situations." It is one of the most played games in the world, but is rarely seen in the West.

[|Woodblock printing and ukiyo-e] - Woodblock prints, especially the "ukiyo-e," or "pictures of the floating world," are some of the most iconic images of Japan. Covering a wide variety of topics, Japanese woodblock prints are noted for their beautiful use of colors, meticulous creation method, and unique historical value. "Reading the images demands an extremely high level of visual, textual, and cultural literacy. [...] Ukiyo-e images and texts frequently referred to themes from classical, literary, and historical sources. At the same time, Ukiyo-e constantly expanded to reflect contemporary tastes, concerns, and innovations over the two and a half centuries of its development."