If you're interested in Japanese culture and want to incorporate it into your home decor, you're likely in the right place. Although paintings are not the only option available to you, they do offer considerable benefits in making your home or workplace a warm and relaxing living space.
Introduction to Japanese Paintings
Unlike Japanese prints, which originated during the Edo period (1600-1868), Japanese paintings are much more recent, modern, and varied. While prints were limited in terms of colors and graphic freedom due to technical constraints and the artistic demands of the ancient Japanese people, Japanese paintings introduce a wide array of drawings and graphic styles that highlight all facets of Japanese culture.
This particularly caters to a broad audience that often has very heterogeneous tastes. Today's Japanese paintings include depictions of geishas or Buddha to create a rather zen ambiance in a room, as well as samurais recalling the feudal era of Japan. But also, and especially, more atypical paintings that differ either by their shape, like five-piece or hanging paintings, or others that stand out with their modern or kawaii style, to name just a few examples.
How to Choose Your Japanese Painting?
We have already mentioned this during the presentation of the "Japanese decor" collection, but it's worth repeating. To choose a painting, or any decorative piece for that matter, you must first think about the ambiance you want to set in your home or in the specific room. It will not be the same depending on whether it's for the living room, bedroom, or bathroom but will especially vary based on your tastes and personality. Do you prefer a zen and relaxing ambiance on a daily basis, or are you a fan of a modern and sleek style?
Whatever the case, take the time to determine which Japanese painting will best bring Japan into your home as you envision it.
Our Vision of Japanese Paintings
Here at Au cœur du Japon, we strive to offer the widest possible range of Japanese paintings so that it's relatively simple to match personal tastes with decorative pieces. Thus, you will find all sorts of representations in diverse and varied colors such as geishas, samurais, landscapes, flowers, and many others.
However, we do not provide frames with the canvases we sell because we are convinced that the frame, in addition to the painting, is a decorative piece in its own right and thus also reflects personal taste. Especially since the color, material, and margin of a frame greatly influence its centerpiece, the canvas, which might not always suit the room in which it is intended to be displayed. Our prints, on the other hand, are known as "canvas," a globally recognized quality of printing that enhances the canvases and their design.
Reasons to Install a Japanese Painting at Home
For those wondering what the benefit is of hanging Japanese wall decor in their home, let us review to see what makes them special compared to classic paintings. Firstly, Japanese paintings are quite distinct from mass-market canvases primarily because the designs, landscapes, and various representations found on them are associated with the rich history and values of Japanese culture. Therefore, installing a Japanese painting in a room isn't just about placing a decorative object meant solely to look pretty. It's about establishing an ambiance, motifs, a style, and even very precious values in light of this ancestral culture.
For example, when installing a painting depicting Bushido, the samurai code of honor, in a home, beyond displaying Japanese symbols, it's about paying tribute to and honoring the integrity that samurais made their creed. This allows you, in turn, to draw inspiration from it daily as you pass by.
How to Highlight a Japanese Painting?
To best honor the Japanese culture depicted on the Japanese canvases, it's important to successfully light them in the room where they are displayed. For this, it's crucial to first choose the room where you wish to hang them so as not to have to rearrange and make room in a completely new area. Make sure the room receives a significant source of light, ideally natural, to bring out its colors best. If this isn't possible due to your interior layout, a lamp or light fixture will suffice as long as the painting remains bright enough.
Generally, a living room, bedroom, or even a kitchen usually works well. Secondly, when choosing the wall that will host the Japanese painting, be careful that it has enough space to allow some room around the painting. Without this, it won't be able to breathe and will appear crushed by the wall or furniture next to it. Finally, choose a frame that matches your wallpaper and curtains; in the case of Japanese paintings, a room to give contrast to the canvas and make it stand out against the wall on which it is displayed.
After this, you should have what you need to decorate your bedroom or dining room in the style of the Land of the Rising Sun. Successfully creating a cozy and warm atmosphere in a room often comes down to just one decorative accessory or a few decorations that suit you to make you feel comfortable. That's why we wanted to give you some decor ideas from these Japanese paintings which, much like a Japanese garden, are soothing when one is near them. Moreover, decorative objects from Japanese culture are perfect for creating a calm decorative space intended for meditative or spiritual practices.
