The Synthesis of Tradition and Innovation in Japanese Oil Painting of the Tuisho Era, 1912-1926
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The Synthesis of Tradition and Innovation in Japanese Oil Painting of the Tuisho Era, 1912-1926 Sharon H. Collins• Western painting has had a profound effect on the (sliding doors form ing part of a horizontal painting surface). development of modern Japanese art. The eighty years prior and lhe f11s11ma (six-panel folding screen). Each formal 10 World \½Ir II saw evolution of a genre based on the required the creation of a unique repertoire of compositional materials. techniques and subject mailer of European oil solutions. painting.' Unfavorable comment from bolh Japanese and Works synthesizing imponcd and traditional elemems European critics was immediately fonhcoming. The oil could only be produced by anisls who had advanced beyond medium was considered inappropriace for expressing lhe copying foreign examples. ln order lo show that such a level Japanese sensibility and similarity lo Western models had been reached a brief review of che introduction and prompted critics lo conclude thal the Japanese artisc en development of oil painting in Japan up 10 the Thisho period gaged in oil painting was forsaking his artistic heritage. The is in order. Three examples of Th.isho works will then be reviewer of a contemporary Japanese painting exhibition in compared 10 European paintings with similar imagery, and Paris in 1929 wrote: "For the acquisition of a foreign also 10 pre-modern Japanese works uli.lizing different for mediocrity the Japanese anisl has bartered his artistic mals , as a means of demonstrating their uhimate composi binhrighl of a sublle symbolism and simple purity of tional sources. technique. "2 This same attitude is reflected in recent The opening of Japan 10 the \\1:$1 in 1854 had a delayed literature a.~ well. The art historian Michiaki Kawakita 's but crucial impact on Japanese painting. All aspects of life bias was nol as strong bul is nonetheless apparent. In his were affected by the results of renewed conlacls with survey text he wrote, foreign societies, panicularly those of Europe. Early oil paintings reflect the intense interest in lhe Occident which Modern Japanese painting is by no means con was so prevalent during the initial period of confronlalion. fined 10 scyles adopted from the \\\:sl. On lhe In the race to catch up wilh lhc West no avenue was left contrary, many interesting devclopmenL~ have oc unexplored. Government-sponsored schools laugh! courses curred in the fie ld of traditional Japanese styles as covering all facets of \\\:stern culture, in lhe belief lhal well . Indeed, if this had nol been lhe case, the Japan ·s survival depended on the ability lo assimilate those history of modern Japanese art, though easier lo cultural innovations. trace, would probably have been a barren maner The srudy of Western painting was consequenlly initi ac best, liule more than a recitation of how a aled by the government and taught simply as a technical fore ign an was imponed and mastered. 3 skill. The Japanese admired the utilitarian aspect of \\\:stern realism which allowed them to reproduce objects with Although many early Japanese oil paintings are deriva almost photographic accuracy. Initially, instructors learned tive. a substantial body of interesting work was produced the required technique by copying Wescern oil paintings and during lhe movement's mature phase. A close examination succeeding teachers were culled from lhe ranks of the of works from the Thisho period, 1912 10 1926, suggests lhal school's students. Such a closed syscem was eventually even those examples based closely on European imagery found lacking and an Italian painter. Antonio Fontanesi, and technique fall well within the continuum of the Jap was hired in the late 1870s 10 teach the latest European anese artistic tradition. This analysis seeks lo demonstrate styles. The technically advanced level of his students made lhal these Thisho period works combine Western imagery il possible for Fontanesi 10 move well beyond mechanical and rechnique with Japanese COl1lp06itions. These composi instruction. His pupils were the first Japanese painters lo tional arrangements were available 10 the Taisho artist in receive indoctrination in Western art theory and con• traditional ink paintings and in European sources influenced sequenlly the firsl lo regard oil painting as an art form. by the Japanese woodblock prints imponed during lhe The wave of nationalism lhal developed during the nineteenth century. Other indigenous artistic devices were 1880s added a new level of meaning to the genre. Accused also transmiucd back 10 the Japanese, including the utiliza of subvening native Japanese styles, works in the oil lion of flat areas of saturated color defined by concour lines, medium were barred from entry in the government spon and the use of these devices was refined to a degree sored exhibitions of 1882 and 1883. Consequently, young surpassing that achieved in European paintings. This analy painters were attracted by the medium ·s radical stance as sis is concerned only with compositional arrangements. well as by its artistic potential. In addition, the functional which had developed in response 10 fonnats unknown in lhe aspect of \'lestern realism gradually losl force as lhe 1\1:sl. These include the venical hanging scroll, the byobu motivating factor keeping Japanese oil painting alive. The presence of increasing numbers of contemporary European •Ms. CoUios" paper was awarded the 1984 Gi.inlher St.anun Priu for works in Japan during the Taisho period presented the case ,.,cttkncr. for utilizing the oil medium 10 express subjective emotions. 61 These aspects of oil painting elevated it to the anistic level by a cluster of flowering plaats. The venical member of a of traditional painting styles by adding meaning beyond that suppon, or perhaps a fence, stands directly in front of the of visual representation. The ideals of individual expression flowers and is emphasized by a single bloom rising above it. and freedom thus became linked 10 the technical tradition of A cross-piece descends at a gentle diagonal from either side oil painting as it existed prior 10 the Taisho period. of this central member. A wedge of vegetation projects The first Taisho painting under consideration is Yorozu downward from the top of the painting. terminating behind Tcisugoro·sN11de Beall/y (Figure I). ·n,c painting ponrays a the poppies. Small areas of growth to the left and right of panially nude female reclining on a sloping hill in the the central form break the symmetry of the composition. foreground. The background contains rolling hills and a The treatment of the subject is European, and shows long undulating mass above them which could be either a Kuroda 's debt to the Impressionists, who often represented further mountain range or mis!. A large. compact cloud similar motifs. Work such as Monet's The Artist's Garde11 at hovers ambiguously above and 10 the lefi of the figure ·s Vetheuil (Figure 5) arc the source for Kuroda ·s brushwork. head. However, Monet's painting attains a degree of na1ness The brushwork and treatment of the figure are based on through the controlled use of color, while Kuroda relics a European rather than a Japanese model. The outlines primarily on a tightly designed and complex composition to enclosing areas of c-0lor, panicularly around the edges of the achieve a planar quality. The Strong central venical axis figure and her gam1en1. are probably based on conventions draws the eye constantly to the center of the painting. In a present in works such as Matisse ·s The Algeria11 Wo111a11 less sophisticated tream1ent the result would be a frozen, (Figure 2). Many early twent.ieth century European works symmetrical composition, but the anist has provided relief reHect this use of the outline as a device with which to with the inclusion of a series of diagonals radiating out from Hatten a form and thereby negate the sense of volume which the center of the work. The eye is thus drawn away from the suggests that the canvas is other than a nat surface. center and then pulled back, to travel again 10 the edge of Matisse ·s use of contoured fonn resulted from his exposure the painting. 10 Japanese woodblock prints. A similar treatment can be found in Kano Sanraku ·s The truly novel aspect of Yorozu 's painting is the Red P/11111 Blossoms (Figure 6) dating from the early arrangement of the figure within the landscape. The viewer seventeenth century.• Here the central form is provided by familiar with Japanese landscape painting is reminded of the the trunk of the tree and the rock behind it. framed by the convention of creating a zigzagging diagonal through the tree's fork. In this painting, as in Kuroda's Poppies, the center of the composition. The fonn can be seen repeatedly. strong central focus could create an extremely static work. the zigzag created by the arrangement of a body of water. but Sanraku also included diagonals as visual relief. The patches of mist, land masses, or any combination of the two limbs of the central tree project upward to the left and three. This type of composition was popular during the right , and the diagonal slope of the hill behind and to the left eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. and was frequently of the tree is defined by rocks which line its crest. In used in works which dealt with a journey through nature. addition, Sanraku broke the symmetry created by a strong lkeno Taiga ·s Pltmk Road through a RtNi11e (Figure 3), central axis with the inclusion of rocks and the tree in the produced in the eighteenth century, exhibits this composi · extreme right side of the work. tional form . The viewer is invited to accompany the figures Sanraku 's use of this composition must be examined in the lower right as they begin the passage up into the with regard to its effectiveness within a given format.