Action Points from My Tutor’s Feedback received on October 9, 2024:

Action points ( quotes from my Tutor’s report):

● ” Employ the poetic phrasing around the garden as a transcendental realm. This creates a rich focus for the research question”.

●  Gather specific quotes and/or paraphrase text/poetry in relation to specific spiritual narratives.”

●  Gather and organise a selection of illustrations to posit an evaluation, analysis and develop your arguments.”

●  Keep bringing yourself back to the main focus of the research. Ask how and in what ways the paintings, quotes, and material inform help to develop and respond to the research question.”

I tried to address each action point in the draft of my research. The most challenging point is to “employ the poetic phrasing” since I didn’t state that the transcendental significance of the garden is directly or straightforwardly channelled via poetry. The sense of transcendence in Pichwai is achieved via the devotee-artist’s mental focus on the upper realm and Divine, which he imagines as a garden and depicts on the surface. In traditional Japanese, visual art is intertwined with poetry – poetry focuses on human emotions and the human experience of life on earth in connection with Divine nature. Human’s sensitivity to the beauty of Nature signifies the delicate sense of the Upper realm.

Exercise 1: Refining your Critical Perspective. Update your Research.

At this point, we must expand our research and find new materials with new perspectives and arguments related to our research thesis.

Below is my latest and essential addition to the research material: the book “Gates of the Lord. The Tradition of Krishna Paintings, a collection of essays ( 176 pages) edited by Madhuvanti Ghose, published by @The Art Institute of Chicago, Mapin Publications, 2015. I am happy I found and obtained this book because it is my primary academic research reference material and a rare edition.

With the help of this material, I will expand my research and thesis by adding the following points:

• Both visual art traditions are characterised by deliberate emotional elements in the painting: evoking a particular emotion—the concept of Bhav for Pichwai and Kazari for Byōbu. The devotee is an aesthete. The deliberate, active stimulation of a sense of aesthetics via artwork.
• Devotional poetry was the source of inspiration. Thus, Pichwai’s visual representation, poetry and devotional singing, and poetry strips on byōbu were instrumental in creating a transcendent reality—a portal to a different plane.
• Both visual art traditions sourced their inspiration from the beauty of Nature, recognising its superiority and Divine power.

Exercise 2. Review Structure and Format.

The general structure of my contextual study has remained the same; however, now I understand that from a structural point of view, I must add the following:

• I must add a glossary and notes since much specific terminology is associated with Pichwai and Byōbyu. Here are some of the words I have to explain in the glossary: For Pichwai: Pushtimarg ( name of the sect), Darshan, Bhakti, Bhav, Leela, Haveli Sangit ( divine poetry), Mala ( flower garland); About Byōbu: kazari, waka, tanzaku, gaman.
• Another point I realise now is that I must work more on the introduction, specifying what areas about Pichwai and Byōbu I don’t cover in my research.
• Another critical step is a final review of the illustrations/images I will use in my written piece. This will significantly enhance the part that describes the garden as an object of visual representation since I will build up the research around particular artworks.

My other book is for primary academic reference.

“Beyond Golden Clouds”, Japanese Screens from the Art Institute of Chicago and the Saint Louis Art Museum; edited by Janice Katz, essays by Philip K. Hu, Janice Katz, Tamamushi Satoko, Alicia Volk; published by @ 2009 The Art Institute of Chicago, Saint Louis Art Museum, Yale University Press, New Haven and London.