Kyoto school (art)

Kakuzo Okakura, predominant Japanese art historian of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, traced the origins of the Kyoto school to the schools of both Manchu-shin and Ming dynasties in China.

The two latter schools focused on the power of the artist as a lay person or scholar, as opposed to a professional.

[1] Okakura noted Kyoto school's attempts to repurpose the Japanese tradition of copying works from other (predominantly Chinese) cultures, a technique known as utsushi.

[2] Unlike the bold and colorful style of the Kanō school or the restrained elegance of Tan'yu school, the Kyoto style favored surreal and elongated forms.

The Kyoto tradition is evidenced in the ceramic art of potters of the Kiyomizu and Awata kilns, which specialized in enameled porcelains and pottery, respectively.