Mono-Ha: The Art School of Things

Japanese art can be acclaimed as having its unique style and special spirit inspiring by its sophistication and fineness which can be hardly confused with anything else in the world. Japan is especially known for its unique art movements and styles including mono-ha, yamato-e, sumi-e, and ukiyo-e. These movements and styles developed as a result of a special vision of the world common for Japanese people who are known for their devotion and tender affection to nature and its beauty, and the desire to understand their place in the universe along with their relationship with the surrounding space; in addition, the art of Japan is remarkable for its originality which is so different from any other art conceptions in the world. In the following blog, such important art movement of the twentieth century as mono-ha will be examined in terms of its main tendencies and the influence on the modern art of Japan. Generally, it appears that mono-ha style’s main concept can be characterized as a sophisticated outlook on space along with seeing interdependent relationships with natural “things” including such simple and daily seen materials as wood, steel or cement. The other important concept of this style of art is in helping the audience to develop the awareness of their position in the open space and their relation to everything surrounding them.

Mono-ha exhibition at Blum and Poe Art Gallery, 2012.

The word mono-ha in itself can be explained as “the art school of things”, and it is known for its connection with the ideas prevailing in the Japanese society during 1960 including cultural, political and social implications. Namely, these were the ideas of nature preservation and care for the well being of every living thing, and the environmental protection. In 1968 the first work accomplished in this style attracted the attention of public by the above-mentioned concept’s realization. It was the artwork called "Phase – Mother Earth" installed in Kobe’s Sumarikyu Park during the First Open Air Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition. The work simply struck the minds of the present ones with its unusual layout. It was a whole with the depth of 2.7 meters and the diameter of 2.2 meters along with the excavated earth next to it, which was compacted into a cylinder of similar size. The power of this first remarkable piece of art accomplished in mono-ha style was an incredible one. People were standing and evaluating it for long time. This became a grandiose birth of mono-ha. Finally, one more important concept addressed within this style is in topology. In this vein, the artworks of mono-ha are characterized by the three-dimensionality and quantifiable entities. 

"Phase – Mother Earth"at Blum and Poe Art Gallery, 2012.

Further, speaking about mono-ha style, its development and its main peculiarities, it should be mentioned that it is the style peculiar for Japanese nature admiring the way of thinking developed by Japanese artisans themselves without any other influence from behind (Monroe, 261). The artworks of this style are distinguished by their abundance of themes from surrounding world and daily life of common Japanese people including nature and rural scenes with their pleasures and joys. The artists and artisans of this movement became especially active in the late sixties to early seventies of the twenties century. Mono-ha style has its indicative feature of being accomplished in wood, steel or cement without processing to express and discover a new modernism or abstract reality (Mono-ha and the Search for Fundamentals, 84). The artworks from mono-ha style reveal a lot of interesting details about Japanese way of thinking, and especially about its moving affection for nature’s glory and inspiring philosophic ideas. 

Concluding on all the information related above, it should be stated that Japanese art could be described as especially permeated with the spirit of love and devotion to nature and its beauty along with the place of an individual in the Universe and the relationships with the world around us.

In my next blog I will introduce a famous modern Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara who represent another modern art genre named Kimo kawaii.

References: 
Jarves, James. A Glimpse at the Art of Japan, Japan: Boxerbooks, Inc. Print.

Mono-ha and the Search for Fundamentals, Japan: The Museum of Modern Art,

            Saitama, 1995. Print.

Monroe, Alexandra. “The Laws of Situation; Mono-ha and beyond the Sculptural

            Paradigm”. Japanese Art after 1945: Scream against the Sky: 256-287. Print.

Tatehata, Akira and Alfred Birnbaum. "Mono-ha and Japan's Crisis of the Modern."

            Third Text (September 2002): 223-236. Print.