The methodologies of art history, period style and iconography, both in Japan and in the West, are conditioned by practices and theories which were codified in the West in the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries by scholars like Wolfflin, Male, and Panofsky. However, ideas of periodization of art, also Renaissance and nineteenth century practice, are retained.
Modern art is, therefore, a uniquely nineteenth century Western notion.
Dealing with the notion of modern is problematic for historians of Japanese art. First, certain aspects of modernity in Western modern art are already apparent in ancient Japanese art compositions. Second, the conventional art historical methodologies of period style classification created for Western art do not fully explain Japanese art history. Modern art in Japanese art history is based on periodization-works produced after the Meiji period. In other words, the modern is determined chronologically.