Japanese nihon-ga painting workshop by Mayumi Goto

On 8 November the students and employees of Department of Japanese Studies took part in a Japanese nihon-ga painting workshop under the patronage of Japan Foundation and Japanese Embassy in Prague. Workshop was lead for a second time in a row by the artist Mayumi Goto who thanked both organisations for their support which allowed the participants to use genuine gold leaf for gilding their paintings.

The workshop started with a lecture on the topic of the history of the nihon-ga style and the materials used by the artists for their works (powdered mineral pigments and animal glue). After the lecture the students tried mixing the colours themselves. Then the painting itself followed where the participants used traditional maple leaf motif. Because they used colours they mixed themselves the resulting paintings differed considerably despite using the same motif.