East Asian arts, the visual arts, performing arts, and music of China, Korea (North

Korea and South Korea), and Japan. (The literature of this region is treated in separate
articles on Chinese literature, Korean literature, and Japanese literature.) Some studies of
East Asia also include the cultures of the Indochinese peninsula and adjoining islands, as
well as Mongolia to the north. The logic of this occasional inclusion is based on a strict
geographic definition as well as a recognition of common bonds forged through the
acceptance of Buddhism by many of these cultures. China, Korea, and Japan, however,
have been uniquely linked for several millennia by a common written language and by
broad cultural and political connections that have ranged in spirit from the uncritically
adorational to the contentious.
Chinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Painting in the traditional style is
known today in Chinese as guóhuà (simplified Chinese: 国画; traditional Chinese: 國畫), meaning "national" or "native
painting", as opposed to Western styles of art which became popular in China in the 20th century. Traditional painting
involves essentially the same techniques as calligraphy and is done with a brush dipped in black ink or coloured
pigments; oils are not used. As with calligraphy, the most popular materials on which paintings are made are paper
and silk. The finished work can be mounted on scrolls, such as hanging scrolls or handscrolls. Traditional painting
can also be done on album sheets, walls, lacquerware, folding screens, and other media.
The two main techniques in Chinese painting are:

 Gongbi (工筆), meaning "meticulous", uses highly detailed brushstrokes that delimits details very precisely. It is
often highly coloured and usually depicts figural or narrative subjects. It is often practised by artists working for
the royal court or in independent workshops.
 Ink and wash painting, in Chinese shui-mo (水墨, "water and ink") also loosely termed watercolour or brush
painting, and also known as "literati painting", as it was one of the "Four Arts" of the Chinese Scholar-
official class.[1] In theory this was an art practiced by gentlemen, a distinction that begins to be made in writings
on art from the Song dynasty, though in fact the careers of leading exponents could benefit considerably.[2] This
style is also referred to as "xieyi" (寫意) or freehand style.
Landscape painting was regarded as the highest form of Chinese painting, and generally still is.[3] The time from the
Five Dynasties period to the Northern Song period (907–1127) is known as the "Great age of Chinese landscape". In
the north, artists such as Jing Hao, Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, and Guo Xi painted pictures of towering mountains, using
strong black lines, ink wash, and sharp, dotted brushstrokes to suggest rough stone. In the south, Dong Yuan, Juran,
and other artists painted the rolling hills and rivers of their native countryside in peaceful scenes done with softer,
rubbed brushwork. These two kinds of scenes and techniques became the classical styles of Chinese landscape
painting.
The Six principles of Chinese painting were established by Xie He in "Six points to consider when judging a
painting" (繪畫六法, Pinyin:Huìhuà Liùfǎ) from the preface to his book "The Record of the Classification of Old
Painters" (古畫品錄; Pinyin: Gǔhuà Pǐnlù) written circa 550 and refers to "old" and "ancient" practices. The six
elements that define a painting are:

1. "Spirit Resonance," or vitality, and seems to translate to the nervous energy transmitted from the artist into
the work. The overall energy of a work of art. Xie He said that without Spirit Resonance, there was no need
to look further.
2. "Bone Method," or the way of using the brush. This refers not only to texture and brush stroke, but to the
close link between handwriting and personality. In his day, the art of calligraphy was inseparable from
painting.
3. "Correspondence to the Object," or the depicting of form, which would include shape and line.
4. "Suitability to Type," or the application of color, including layers, value and tone.
5. "Division and Planning," or placing and arrangement, corresponding to composition, space and depth.
6. "Transmission by Copying," or the copying of models, not only from life but also the works of antiquity.
These have been translated over the years by a succession of sinologists with very varying translations. "The
problem lies, of course, in the terseness of the original Chinese, where each principle is stated in but four
characters.... Each period of Chinese painting has its own special way of interpreting the six principles...their
application is fluid, varying according to period and artist".[1]
Japanese painting (絵画, kaiga, also gadō 画道) is one of the oldest and most highly refined of
the Japanese visual arts, encompassing a wide variety of genres and styles. As with the history of
Japanese arts in general, the long history of Japanese painting exhibits synthesis and competition
between native Japanese aesthetics and the adaptation of imported ideas, mainly from Chinese
painting which was especially influential at a number of points; significant Western influence only
comes from the later 16th century onwards, beginning at the same time as Japanese art was
influencing that of the West.
Areas of subject matter where Chinese influence has been repeatedly significant include Buddhist
religious painting, ink-wash painting of landscapes in the Chinese literati painting tradition,
calligraphy of ideographs,[1] and the painting of animals and plants, especially birds and flowers.
However distinctively Japanese traditions have developed in all these fields. The subject matter that
is widely regarded as most characteristic of Japanese painting, and later printmaking, is the
depiction of scenes from everyday life and narrative scenes that are often crowded with figures and
detail. This tradition no doubt began in the early medieval period under Chinese influence that is now
beyond tracing except in the most general terms, but from the period of the earliest surviving works
had developed into a specifically Japanese tradition that lasted until the modern period.
The official List of National Treasures of Japan (paintings) includes 158 works or sets of works from
the 8th to the 19th century (though including a number of Chinese paintings that have long been in
Japan) that represent peaks of achievement, or very rare survivals from early periods.

Korean painting includes paintings made in Korea or by overseas Koreans on all surfaces. It includes art as old as
the petroglyphs through post-modern conceptual art using transient forms of light. Calligraphy rarely occurs in oil
paintings and is dealt with in the brushwork entry, Korean calligraphy. Like arts of East Asia, beauty of space is
important for Korean painting. Generally the history of Korean painting is dated to approximately 108 AD,
when it first appears as an independent form. Between that time and the paintings and frescoes that
appear on the Goguryeo tombs, there has been little research. Until the Joseon dynasty the primary
influence was Chinese painting though done with Korean landscapes, facial features, Buddhist
topics, and an emphasis on celestial observation in keeping with the rapid development of Korean
astronomy.
Throughout the history of Korean painting, there has been a constant separation of monochromatic
works of black brushwork on very often mulberry paper or silk; and the colourful folk art or minhwa,
ritual arts, tomb paintings, and festival arts which had extensive use of colour.
This distinction was often class-based: scholars, particularly in Confucian art felt that one could see
colour in monochromatic paintings within the gradations and felt that the actual use of colour
coarsened the paintings, and restricted the imagination. Korean folk art, and painting of architectural
frames was seen as brightening certain outside wood frames, and again within the tradition of
Chinese architecture, and the early Buddhist influences of profuse rich thalo and primary colours
inspired by Indian art.
Korean painters in the post-1945 period have assimilated some of the approaches of the west.
Certain European artists with thick impastotechnique and foregrounded brushstrokes captured the
Korean interest first. Such artists as Gauguin, Monticelli, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Pissarro,
and Braque have been highly influential as they have been the most taught in art schools, with
books both readily available and translated into Korean early. And from these have been drawn the
tonal palettes of modern Korean artists: yellow ochre, cadmium yellow, Naples yellow, red earth, and
sienna. All thickly painted, roughly stroked, and often showing heavily textured canvases or thick
pebbled handmade papers.
Colour theory has been used over formal perspective, and there has yet to be an overlap between
painterly art and pop-graphics, since the primary influence on painters is ceramics art.