A Comparative Study On The Decoration Art Of Hanging Fish In Chinese And Japanese Traditional Architecture

As a traditional architectural element, the Hanging Fish always draws littleattention from experts, scholars or researchers. Since Liang Sicheng began to studyarchitecture, a large number of books and papers on architecture have been published.However, it’s hard to find the studies on Hanging Fish in those books and papers.Although Hanging Fish is only a small decorative element that would not play the majorrole in traditional architecture, the fantastic, colorful, and ingenious Hanging Fishdecoration with fine carving makes many traditional buildings more intimate withoutkitsch, beautiful without luxury, simple without vulgarity, and natural without affection.Like many traditional architectural symbols-wind firewall, ridge, and sparrow brace, theHanging Fish can vividly reflect the cultural connotation and aesthetic characteristics oftraditional architecture. Nowadays, as one of the symbols of regional architecturalculture, the Hanging Fish have attracted a lot of attention from Japanese experts, somespecial research institutions and websites, but it has not been paid enough attention inChinese architecture.This thesis took the Hanging Fish in Chinese and Japanese traditional architecturedecorations as the research subject. It firstly summarized the research status of theHanging Fish at home and abroad, expounded the significance and framework of thestudy. It then introduced the origins and basic characteristics of Hanging Fish decoration,and briefly elaborates its historical and cultural background. Based upon above research,this thesis conducted a specific comparison of the constitute art and color characteristicsof Hanging Fish decoration in Chinese and Japanese traditional architecture, andanalyzed the different development path and present situations of the same architecturalelement under the homologous cultural background. It indicated that the fundamentalreason of the distinctive characteristics of Chinese and Japanese architecturaldecorations lay in the difference of culture and aesthetic qualities under therepresentation of art form, and those differences have evolved with the development ofChinese and Japanese architectural history, and even spread to the whole field ofcontemporary architectural design. Finally, it analyzed the inheritance and developmentof traditional architectural in China, and conducted preliminary explorations on the methods and principles of application of Hanging Fish decoration in Chinese modernarchitectural design. It’s expected that it will provide references for future studies.