The study of Japanese art has frequently been complicated by the definitions and expectations established in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when Japan was opened to the West. The occasion of dramatically increased interaction with other cultures<span> seemed to require a convenient summary of Japanese </span>aesthetic<span> principles, and Japanese art historians and archaeologists began to construct </span>methodologies<span> to categorize and assess a vast body of material ranging from Neolithic pottery to wood-block prints. Formulated in part from contemporary scholarly </span>assessments<span> and in part from the syntheses of enthusiastic generalists, these theories on the characteristics of Japanese </span>culture<span> and, more</span>
