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24/03/2026
Japanese-style furnishing has become very popular in interior design in recent years, both for aesthetic reasons and for the general trend of returning to the pure, natural forms of the environment around us.
To rediscover the elegance and spirituality typical of oriental environments in your home, here are some interesting ideas that you can find in our catalogue of puzzle paintings to hang , including two works by Monet and a faithful reproduction of one of the most illustrious masters of the Land of the Rising Sun, Hokusai.
Why is nature so fundamental in a perfect Japanese-style home ?
Because Chinese and Japanese culture itself, including all Eastern languages, are based on a very close connection between humanity and the surrounding environment. Indeed, each ideogram represents a concept, a figure borrowed from the natural sphere, but language itself also draws inspiration from Mother Nature.
For example, if we want to stay connected to the furniture sector, the Japanese term feng shui identifies wind and water, and seeks harmony in the home environment, according to the principles of the Eastern philosophy of energetic balance.
So, in contemporary design, respecting the rules of feng shui means arranging furniture according to the hygrometric conditions of the house and the arrangement of doors and windows, humidity, light and so on.
Instead, moving to the culinary realm, shabu shabu is a recipe in which diners cook the dishes directly in a hot broth, in the center of the table: in Japanese, this word recalls the sound of the waves and the movement of the sea, associating it with the bubbling of the soup on the stove.
As can be well understood from these two simple examples, all Japanese culture and ideology are strongly linked to the sphere of natural elements.
A small step to start decorating in Japanese style would be to hang a puzzle depicting water, flowers, or greenery.
Claude Monet , with his work Impression of Sunrise of 1872, founded, together with his colleagues, a new term that was welcomed as a provocation by the entire art world of the time.
Indeed, Impressionism was coined during the photographer Nadar’s exhibition. A critic accused the artists of being incapable of painting, but simply of placing a mere impression of nature on the canvas. They disregarded the canons of drawing the base, in favor of many random brushstrokes to reproduce a moment, a fleeting, fleeting instant.
In fact, the Impressionists, including Monet, Renoir, Camille Pissarro, and many others, eliminated the black line from the drawing and used color in its material value to emulate nature and the light that shapes the figure. Later, the break with the compositional system of the black border would become even more vigorous in the Pointillists, until it was completely exacerbated in Expressionism, the Fauves, and the definitive split with figurative art.
This gradual departure from conventional iconography can already be seen in Monet’s famous water lilies : the flowers depicted by the painter blend completely into the reflection of the waves. And they interpenetrate with the lilac and blue, the indigo and green of the leaves, in a continuous, reciprocal circle.
It is precisely this chromatic dance that creates highly evocative pictorial and plastic effects. Indeed, anyone lucky enough to admire the canvas up close and have been to the Orsay in Paris can see the vivid and vibrant brushstrokes in which the tempera and oil paints emerge from the support.
Each of Monet’s paintings, while always featuring the same subject of water lilies, is different from the others because the contribution and reflection of light on the petals and on the mirror of the water are different, and the effects that are reflected on the retina are new, just like the impression of an analog shot in photography.
The 1000-piece Monet Water Lilies panoramic puzzle is perfect for recalling the aquatic and floral concepts so dear to Japanese style!
But to decorate in Japanese style, where can you place a puzzle painting with Water Lilies, a tribute to 19th-century Impressionist painting?
Certainly in a private space like the bathroom that features a water theme, or in the room where you have installed a hot tub or swimming pool, for a truly home-living sauna spa.
Another version of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies is the famous water lilies in shades of red, lilac, and blue. This is another interesting puzzle painting to hang for an elegant and refined Japanese-style decor .
Monet’s canvases, so naïve, conceal a very strong connection with the art of the Rising Sun and with that authenticity, almost primitive, of the signs and symbols of writing.
According to the artist’s biography, Monet became interested in the parchments and paintings on papyrus paper of ancient Japanese masters, being fascinated and deeply impressed by the simplicity and beauty of those figures, naive and at the same time profound and beneficial to the soul.
If we think about it carefully, Claude Monet’s paintings, the water lilies, the lilies and his streams, are very similar to the decorations on the screens of Japanese houses : everywhere we perceive the desire to reconcile ourselves with the natural sphere, to rediscover that contact with the Earth and that bond between the spiritual and the earthly.
From the Japanese futon and the traditional way of eating in a cozy atmosphere, Japanese people have a deep respect for home and nature, and try to be as close to their environment as possible.
Katsushika Hokusai was a Japanese printmaker and painter born in 1760 and died in 1849, a few decades before the famous exhibition in the studio of the painter Nadar: it was precisely his paintings, his investigations of sea waves and decoration that inspired the painters of the Impressionist avant-garde.
We offer you the puzzle painting Onda by Hokusai which depicts his mythical foaming wave , perfect for furnishing the dining room and living room of a chic and classy apartment in Japanese style .
In fact, Hokusai is the modern artist who best embodies the principles of nature and expressive force , without forgetting that spirituality which is the essence of the culture of the Rising Sun.
Water, the sea, and the roar of rivers and streams hold a divine power for the Japanese; for this very reason, according to culture and tradition, all life must exist near a body of water.
Artificial streams are an integral part of the Zen garden , with their characteristic flow and the pebbles that mark its perimeter. Ponds with goldfish are also a very popular theme in Japanese engravings, a theme later revived by Claude Monet himself.
Especially in today’s world, when Japan and China are characterized by increasingly overbearing industrialization and technology, creating dizzying buildings and skyscrapers that soar above the clouds, reconnecting with nature is a theme dear to today’s painters and artists, almost as if to exorcise an increasingly rampant spiritual void.
To create a delightful “Japanese-style” home, simply hang one of our 1000-piece artistic puzzles : among other stylish ideas, we recommend using tall, lush plants, such as lucky bamboos, or small Zen gardens and bonsai trees that create a glimpse of nature on your office desk.
Futons and mats are ideal for the dining room: you can use low seating combined with some antique wooden furniture, on which you can simply place one of the art puzzles we recommended.
