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Japan has been subject to sudden invasions of new ideas and cultures
followed by long periods of minimal contact with the outside world. Over
time the Japanese developed the ability to absorb, imitate, and finally
learn those elements of foreign culture that balance their artistic
preferences.
The earliest complex art in Japan was produced in the 7th and 8th centuries
AD in connection with Buddhism. In the 9th century, as the Japanese began to
turn away from China and develop original forms of expression, the worldly
arts became increasingly important. Both religious and world arts
flourished.
Painting is the preferred artistic expression in Japan, practiced by both
amateurs and professionals. Until modern times, the Japanese wrote with a
brush rather than a pen, and their familiarity with brush techniques has
made them particularly creative. They found sculpture a much less important
standard for artistic expression. Most Japanese sculpture is associated with
religion, and use declined with the shrinking importance of traditional
Buddhism.
 Japanese ceramics are among the finest in the world and include
the earliest known artifacts of their culture. In architecture, Japanese
preferences for natural materials and an interaction of interior and
exterior space are clearly expressed. Japanese art is characterized by
unique difference. In the ceramics of the prehistoric periods exuberance was
followed by disciplined and refined artistry. Another instance is provided
by two 16th-century structures that are worlds apart: Katsura Palace is an
exercise in simplicity, with an emphasis on natural materials, rough and
untrimmed, and an affinity for beauty achieved by accident. Toshogu
Mausoleum is a rigidly symmetrical structure replete with brightly colored
relief carvings covering every visible surface. Japanese is art valued not
only for its simplicity but also for its colorful energy, and has
considerably influenced 19th-century Western painting.
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