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context: painting > early painting
Court painting
The time of the Heian court (794-1185) was arguably the time that the Japanese first conceived of themselves as a nation with its own identity. After cutting off contact with China from 894 in particular, art, literature, self-image, distinctly Japanese themes all start to bloom as never before, and the ideas of this era are still deeply embedded in the Japanese sense of self. Here are a few of the reasons.