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Colors in the water

White

Its huelessness provides white with a special placement within the scope of color study in Japan, and yet it codes for many different culturally important aspects. For example, white holds special significance in Japan as a representative of sacredness, often used to denotate the province of the gods in Shinto. However, the absence of color in white materials also affords the opportunity for a break in the tumult of color in Japanese art history and thus a measure of elegant tranquility.

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Edo period uchikake (outer robe). 19th century. Gifted to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1924. This robe is to be worn on the outside of other garments, in order to display to best advantage the gold embroidery on the white, green, and deep blue silk representing the sights of the city of Kyoto. The watery motif of the deep blue ground inspires a stillness of presence and is directly evocative of the cool waters surrounding Japan. White picks out sacred torii gates, whereas the green hills of Japan may be easily distinguished.
Tokugawa era, late 18th century. Ceramic. Mead Art Museum at Amherst College. The white used to make this vessel for the tea ceremony, lacking in hue, confers a gravity to the piece that is shared by the sacred white of Shinto--but beyond this, the importance of the white used here is to be found in its humble quality. No colors flash to catch the eye, and this is an ideal feature of a tea bowl: so unobtrusive as to emphasize the value of the moment of tea-drinking rather than the expense lavished on the vessels involved.
Nomura Ran, mid-20th century. Painted and whitewashed wood with lacquer. Mead Art Museum at Amherst College. This mask is for use in noh, a traditional Japanese form of musical theater. The mask itself is made specifically for the depiction of the character named Atsumori, who features in an eponymous play as an exceedingly handsome youth; the stark whiteness of the face is reminiscent of the oshiroi makeup that was once used by actors, as it was codified as the paleness of the face long seen as a beautiful and desirable physical quality in Japan.