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context: painting > general comments
Media
Paper and silk have always been the main media used by Japanese painters. I hope to add something to this site at some point about paper-making, but I know next to nothing about it at this time. It's been an important craft in Japan for a very long time, and has been a vital foundation for vast amounts of great art, and deserves more attention.
Another major factor has been Japanese architecture: earthquakes and sweltering summers led to lightweight homes of wood and paper, which in turn meant major fire hazards. Heavy and permanent was not the style - the history of Japanese art is very low on hefty framed canvases and frescos. Instead, we find hanging scrolls designed to be interchanged with seasons and for special occasions, and horizontal scrolls only ever held, not displayed.
Oil painting, the major mode in the West for many centuries, has no role in Japanese art until very recently. The painting style was much more like watercolours, unless it was monochrome, just black ink and a brush and some paper.
Note the importance of work on fans, screens and plates, also mentioned in the previous section on formats.