nanban-e 南蛮絵

Western painting brought by the Portuguese and Spanish who arrived in Japan in the 16th century, nanban bijutsu 南蛮美術. Also refers to copies done by Japanese artists. Though mainly Christian icons, Western genre paintings were also produced. Nanban-e was the first Western style painting (phase 1 of *yōfūga 洋風画), but its popularity soon declined without leaving any influence on the traditional Japanese painters, largely because of the thoroughness of the ban on Christianity (from 1614) and the closing of the country in 1639. Distinguished from *kōmōga 紅毛画, painting introduced by the Dutch in the mid-Edo period (phase 2 of yōfūga).