Nanga (Japanese painting)

Due to the Edo period policy of sakoku, Japan was cut off from the outside world almost completely; its contact with China persisted, but was greatly limited.

Bunjinga emerged as a new and unique art form for this reason, as well as due to the great differences in culture and environment of the Japanese literati as compared to their Chinese counterparts.

Unlike in other schools of art which have definite founders who pass on their specific style to their students or followers, nanga was always much more about the attitude espoused by the painter and his love of Chinese culture.

[1] Ernest Fenollosa and Okakura Kakuzō, two of the first to introduce Japanese art in any major way to the West, are known to have criticized nanga as trivial and derivative.

The art of flower arrangement ikebana developed the bunjinbana (文人花) style, which was in homage to Chinese landscapes and literati paintings.