The image of a divine bird-eagle Garuda is common in different cultures and religions of Asia, being connected with deity Vishnu and his avatar Krishna in Hinduism, and adopted in Buddhism. The article examines its modification in Chinese-Japanese esoteric Buddhism. Garuda is often being shown playing conch trumpet and transverse flute. At present such an image is preserved only in Japanese Buddhist iconography. The history of Garuda (Jap. Karura ) in Japan can be traced since 6th cent. in the context of foreign cultural influences of ancient states, including South East Asia. The author describes different types of Garuda/Karura masks in the Gigaku and Noh theatre Buddhist music and dance performances. Garuda images in the Taizōkai (The Wamb Realm) mandala and the Lotus Sūtra mandala, in the ancient manuals of Buddhist painting, famous sculptures of Karura including Karura playing flute at the Sanjūsangen-dō temple in Kyoto are also being described. The paper emphasizes the role of musical sound in Hinduism and Tantrism, as well as significance and symbolism of Garuda’s musical instruments, which begin to play the role of certain signs of the ancient deitie’s power and become symbols of the spiritual ”relay”, being passed by the Hindu deities to their reincarnations in esoteric Buddhism. Buddhist image of Garuda with conch trumpet is interpreted as manifestation of deity Vishnu and his main avatar Krishna, while Garuda with flute as manifestation of Krishna. The author comes to conclusion that the musical aspect of Buddhist iconography can be considered to be a special transmission channel of the doctrine’s esoteric aspects. The article touches upon the problem of Garuda’s image on Chinese Taoist («Master Thunder» Lei Gong) and Japanese deities such as mountain demon Karasu Tengu (Raven-Tengu) and Garuda’s Shinto «avatar» Izuna-gongen. In conclusion, the ”relay” communication from divine music of Garuda’s flute to meditative prayer music practice Suizen - being played on the shakuhachi flute - is detected, as if fixing the spiritual continuity of the Shingon esoteric doctrine and Fuke Zen direction.

The article considers a unique period in Japanese history, when instead of engaging in a cultural dialogue with the West, Japanese cinema aspired to position itself as an embodiment of exclusively "Japanese" artistic tradition. The search for a "pure" national style was determined by the growth of nationalism and political confrontation with the West, as well as the lack of commercial success of Japanese cinema abroad. Japanese film studios’ attempts to modify their products by bringing them closer to the West European standard did not bear fruitful results. Despite the introduction of Western technologies, methods of filming and editing, Japanese cinema did not receive wide international recognition. Triggered by the inability to expand Japanese film export, former proponents of learning and adapting from the West set on a search for a uniquely “Japanese” path. Seeking to redefine the origins of an ultimately Japanese cinematic expression, filmmakers and critics in the 1930s and 1940s turned to the traditional arts developed in pre-modern Japan. Art historian Okudaira Hideo (1905-2000) and film critic Imamura Taihei (1911-1986) saw the origins of modern cinema in the aesthetics of illustrated emaki scripts. A physicist and a writer, Terada Torahiko (1878-1935), also engaged in film critics, emphasized the resemblance between the traditional “linked verses” renku poetry and the cinematic principle of montage. Brought to Japan from abroad, cinema was often seen as a living embodiment of the Western influence and modernity. By theorizing cinema within the framework of traditional Japanese arts, film critics in the 1930s and 1940s were able to reestablish cinema as a part of cultural heritage associated with traditional Japan. At the same time, they also succeeded in elevating the social status of traditional arts, which due to constant comparisons with the West, still needed a sense of “justification”. Paradoxically, Japan's acquaintance with Soviet montage theory played a decisive role in shaping the traditionalist tendencies in Japanese film theory. Sergei Eisenstein’s article “Behind the Frame” (1929), which identifies “montage” as an underlying principle of traditional Japanese culture and urges Japanese “comrades” to understand and apply “their cultural peculiarity to their own cinema” had been especially influential.

The article touches upon the phenomenon of Japanese handmade paper given the example of “Precious Notes on Papermaking” (“Kamisuki Chohoki”) as the first printed illustrated manual on papermaking in Japan. When Japanese masters borrowed first samples of paper from China, they spent long time to adopt new technology of papermaking and find the most fitting materials. Apart from western masters, who were engaged in making this process more mechanized, Japanese masters maintained manual way of papermaking up to 1872. All this time they considered quality more important than quantity. This probably made Japanese paper an example of highest quality. By experiencing with different materials masters managed to produce different kinds of paper suitable for various purposes. For instance, in housekeeping different kinds of paper were used to cover shoji and screens, to make clothes, to write, etc. While Japan was at peace for 300 years during Edo period, bookselling flourished, so papermaking was also in high demand. It was the time when the manual on papermaking “Kamisuki Chohoki” (1798) was published for the first time. It became well known not only among Japanese masters, but also among foreigners. In 1871, a British diplomat and a collector of Japanese paper Harry Smith Parkes quoted this book in his “Reports on the Manufacture of Paper in Japan”. Meanwhile the pictures presented in “Kamisuki Chohoki” were used to illustrate the process of papermaking in other different manuals. This article also examines, whether the text of “Kamisuki chohoki” could be used as a real guide to papermaking, for it seems not to cover papermaking process in full. The book was written by Kunisaki Jihei, a prosperous merchant from Iwami who traded in Osaka. Besides the papermaking process (from growing kozo plant to paper casting), Kunisaki also mentioned the cost for raw materials, work and made paper. The text is supplemented with illustrations by Niwa Tokei and comments of the book’s characters. That makes “Kamisuki Chohoki” absorbing and even entertaining. The article also provides full translation of “Precious Notes on Papermaking” into Russian language.

The paper examines the art heritage of Niwa Tōkei (1760-1822) - an ukiyo-e book illustrator from Osaka - in terms of historical, social, and local peculiarities of his life and epoch. The edge of XVII-XVIII centuries demonstrates the flourishing of illustrated book-printing on various subjects dedicated to urban dwellers. An illustration in these books has played not a supplementary, but an equivalent to the text role. Niwa Tōkei alone or in collaboration with other artists took part in creation of more than 20 book on diverse subjects. In the paper we try to define the main genres of his books which are guidebooks meisho zue and saiken ; kyoka poetry books; books for reading yomihon ; encyclopedias; and we examine more properly some of the books of the following genres: Setsu meisho zue ; Kawachi meisho zue ; Miotsukushi; Kyōka risshō shū; Kawakoromo-no ki; Ehon sankan gunki; Ehon shūi shinchōki; Tokai hyakkatsū setsuyō shū; Kodō zuroku; Unkonshi; Chōsen chinka asagao shūi; Kengyō hinrui zukō . The art heritage of Niwa Tokei is being studied in terms of professional peculiarities, with observation of his collaboration with editors, painters, scholars, writers of his time. These are Shitomi Kangetsu, Akisato Ritō, Tetsugōshi Namimaru, Nakai Rankō, Kiuchi Sekitei, Takehara Shunchōsai, Ryūkōsai Jokei, Kamata Kansai, Minegishi Ryūfu. Special attention is paid to the reflection of the epoch’s social and economic peculiarities in Niwa Tōkei’s art heritage, such phenomenon as the growth of economic potential of population, the need for new ideals, the increasing number of inland pilgrimage. Niwa Tōkei was a well-known author and painter of his epoch, and his books can be found in collections of Japanese art and xylographs all around the world, though the present article is one of the first attempts to analyze his art heritage.

In this paper the author makes an attempt to analyze and categorize the illustrations to “Precious Notes on Papermaking” (“Kamisuki Chohoki”, ed. 1824) according to their function. The researcher also tries to find prototypes for some compositions and create a context for the book’s publication. The main question is: what genre of books does its structure resemble the most - manuals, scientific or entertaining literature? The author identifies several types of illustrations, depending on the way images are related to the text. These images have various functions - amusing the reader, emotionally moving him or her and making the learning process easier and more enjoyable. She points that the images taken separately are not particularly valuable in the artistic sense, but as a whole they create a great example of book design. Prototypes for several compositions can be traced: certain scenes illustrating papermaking appear among images of other crafts on the 16th century scrolls, being reproduced in the same context as in books printed earlier. The artist’s (Niwa Tokei’s) interpretation of these compositions and the original way he incorporates them in the whole process of papermaking is noteworthy. The title and content of the book link it to scientific or introductory publications: the paper compares it with the book on silk production and various publications about agriculture. On the other hand, some features of the “Precious Notes on Papermaking” are completely beyond the boundaries of educational literature. These distinct features can be found in satirical literature. This combination of genres seems to make the book special in comparison with other contemporary publications, although it is also possible that suitable analogies have not yet been found. In any case, “Precious Notes on Papermaking” is a significant source of study which demonstrates several prominent phenomena of the Edo period like an urge to categorize things and include humorous details in the text.

The paper deals with the graphic features of the text of “Precious Notes on Papermaking” (“Kamisuki Chohoki”) edition, a typical representative of a printed book of popular literature, published in the Edo period for a general reader. The article analyzes the collocation of the text and illustrations: the graphical arrangement of the text (including its division into semantic parts and principles of its distribution on the page) differs depending on whether or not the page contains illustrations. The paper also focuses the hentaigana signs used in “Kamisuki Chohoki”, their forms and tendencies of usage. Number of occurrences of different hentaigana characters in the text have been calculated, and the results show that it is possible to distinguish one predominant character (i.e. the form of hentaigana sign that occurs in the text much more frequently than other characters) for the vast majority of kana syllables. Moreover, the text uses only two variants of hentaigana signs for most syllables (19 altogether); 13 syllables have no variation, while 10 syllables have three variants, four and five versions are attested for only 2 syllables. This means that the variability of the signs used in the text is rather low, although it still exists and seems to be important. An attempt has been made to trace the patterns the text creator could have used for selecting certain characters. Of course, no strict rules can be derived, and yet for certain signs tendencies can be traced. Most of these tendencies seem to be related to aesthetic considerations, such as graphic compatibility of signs. The research shows a clear tendency for the writing to be simplified, but the fact that it didn’t achieve full standardization suggests that variability was considered to be an example of good taste. We believe that the creator of the text of “Kamisuki Chohoki” pursued two opposite tasks: on the one hand, he wanted the text to be simple enough to be read by not so highly educated reader; on the other hand, the importance of aesthetic principles forced him to keep strictly to the established rules for manuscripts (such as variability and graphic compatibility of signs). All the above mentioned features emphasize the importance of the aesthetic component for the Edo era Japanese printed book.

A brief report on results of the Conference “Japanese Culture and Traditions in Contemporary Japanese Society” held in Museum of History of Oriental Studies of the Institute of Asian and African Studies - MSU on May 26, 2018.

The article provides a critical analysis of the monograph “Japan’s phenomenon according to Russian Japanologists” which is actually a continuation of the book published in 1996. This new edition is an updated and extended version of the previous one. A lot of authors - specialists in modern Japanese society, history and culture issues - took part in creating this edition. This activity has resulted in a deep analise of such matters as Japanese public administration pecularities, social problems, foreign policy, Japanese traditional consciousness, etc. Authors also give their prognosis concerning Japan’s development in mid-term perspective.