A History of Japanese Art

by Noritake Tsuda

  Kobori Enshū, the greatest master of tea-ceremony, was the most eminent gardener of the stroll landscape garden in the early Yedo Period. In his garden many a different natural view was copied at different points in relation to the tea-ceremony houses, so that people might enjoy the changing views of the garden while they were proceeding to the tea-ceremony houses through the garden-path.

  His style of garden, of which that of the Katsura Imperial villa is the masterpiece, became the model of the stroll garden in the Yedo Period.

  In Tokyo there remain two famous gardens laid out for the residences of feudal lords. One of them is called Rikugi-en and the other Kōraku-en.The Rikugi-en garden is located at Fujimae-cho, Hongo, Tokyo. The garden was originally laid out in the Genroku Era (1688-1703) as the villa of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, the feudal lord of Kawagoe, but it is now owned by Baron Iwasaki as his villa.

  The Rikugi-en, covering about 23 acres, is the best example of residential gardens of feudal lords in Yedo (Tokyo). A special feature of the garden is the extensive beautiful pond, the surroundings of which are embellished with rocks, shrubs, and thick groves of different trees. They are beautifully combined in making a picturesque landscape garden. (Fig. 172)

  Fig. 172. Rikugi-en Garden

  Baron Iwasaki’s Villa, Fujimae, Tokyo

  When we enter the garden, we are captivated by the beauty of an extensive foreground of lawn where two aged imposing pine trees, supported by props, spread their majestic branches to all directions.

  The garden is so designed that we may make a round trip around the pond over the hills, enjoying the changing views of the garden from every spot as we proceed. On our way, there are fanciful arbors and tea-ceremony houses, nestled among the trees. We come across a small but the highest hill in the garden. From the hill we may have a fine extensive view of the garden. We feel almost secluded from the world, as if we are far away from the city. As we descend the hill, we are on the other side of the pond. In autumn hundreds of wild ducks come and sojourn in the pond. Among the thick woods, pheasants have their nests all the year round. Proceeding further along the pond, we come to a bridge spanned to an Elysian Isle called Hōrai-jima. On the isle grow aged pine trees, the symbol of everlasting life, and rare rocks are brought from different districts famous for gardening rocks. The isle is indeed, the heart of the garden.

  The Kōraku-en, another representative example of the stroll landscape garden of the Yedo Period, is in the compound of the Tokyo Arsenal in Koishikawa, Tokyo. It was originally laid out by a gardener called Tokudaiji Sahei under the directorship of Yorifusa and Mitsukuni, lords of the Mito clan, in the middle of the seventeenth century.

  The garden is characterized by Chinese features in its design and construction. When we enter the garden through the karamon gate, we go up a wooded slope intended to reproduce a lonely mountain path of Mt. Kiso. Descending the slope we come to the broader view of a large pond. (Fig. 173) In the pond is an Elysian Isle called Horai-jima. On the southern beach of the isle is a massive rock which gives a special attraction to the Isle. Then, passing over the Tatsuta river along a grove of maples, we reach a rustic arbor with a statue of Saigyō, the famous Japanese priest-poet. Proceeding onward, we come to a broader view and reach the “Moon-crossing Bridge.” Around here we may enjoy the miniature views of Arashiyama of Kyoto, and that of a famous Chinese lake called Seiko. From here we go up miniature hills which represent Chinese and Japanese scenes; and passing through a red colored “Heavenward Bridge,” reach the “Hall for Acquiring Virtue and Benevolence” in which are enshrined two wooden statues representing Chinese saints. Proceeding further we enjoy other different views, and shall finish our circuit of the garden in about one hour.

  Besides those two gardens there remain about seven large stroll gardens from the Yedo Period. They were all laid out by feudal lords of the places and are now converted to public gardens. They are mentioned below:

  Kairaku-en garden (Tokiwa-kōen), in the city of Mito, Ibaraki prefecture. Originally laid out by Tokugawa Nariaki, the lord of Mito in the Thempo Era (1830-1843).

  Fig. 173. Kōraku-en Garden

  Tokyo

  Fig. 174. Ritsurin Park

  Takamatsu, Shikoku (Gov. Rys. Photo.)

  Kenroku-en garden is in the city of Kanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture. Laid out by the lord of Kaga in the early nineteenth century.

  Kōraku-en garden in the city of Okayama. Originally laid out as the residential garden of the lord of Okayama in the later seventeenth century.

  Sen-tei, or Shukukei-en garden in the city of Hiroshima. Originally laid out in the early seventeenth century as the residential garden of Asano Chōsei, the lord of Aki.

  Ritsurin Park in the city of Takamatsu, Shikoku Island. Originally laid out as the residential garden of Matsudaira Yorishige, the lord of Takamatsu in the middle of the seventeenth century. Occupies about 76 hectare and beautifully preserved. (Fig. 174)

  Suizen-ji (Jōju-en) garden in the city of Kumamoto. Originally laid out as the villa of Hosokawa Tadatoshi, in the middle of the seventeenth century. (Fig. 175)

  Iso-no-bettei garden, in the city of Kagoshima. Originally laid out for the villa erected at the bay of Kagoshima by Shimazu Mitsuhisa, the lord of Satsuma in the seventeenth century. (Fig. 176)

  Fig. 175. Suizen-ji Garden

  Kumamoto (Gov. Rys. Photo.)

  Fig. 176. Iso-no-bettei Garden

  Prince Shimazu's Villa, Kagoshima (Gov. Rys. Photo.)

  CHAPTER 11

  The Art Of The New Age: The Meiji-Taishō Era 1867-1926 A.D.

  The Meiji-Taishō Era covered about sixty years, from 1867 to 1926. In 1867, the Imperial sovereignty was restored from the hands of the last Shogun of the Tokugawa, and a remarkable change in thought and institutions set in, and continued with sweeping power for a period of about twenty years. The people became inclined to take in everything new from the West, and to ignore their native culture. Their ignorantly destructive attitude toward old things and institutions went to an extreme.

  The new era was inaugurated with the removal of the Imperial residence from Kyoto to Yedo in 1868, and the city of Yedo changed its name to Tokyo, which means the eastern capital. In July 1869, the feudal rights of the Daimyos over their territories and people were abolished. The Gregorian calendar was adopted. The military service, which had been the exclusive calling of the Samurai class became extended to people of all classes, and the French military system was adopted. European dress was introduced and schoolboys wore Western uniforms. English readers were translated and taught in the schools. The telegraph and the steam engine were introduced. In this way, and at this moment, Japan was most eager to clothe herself in new garbs and to discard her old garments as useless encumbrances.

  The new movement was forcibly felt also in the world of art. Public buildings were erected in the Western style. The architecture of the Renaissance, of Gothic or Romanesque style, was adopted for universities, museums, and office buildings. Some Japanese painters learned oil painting from Charles Wirgman, a correspondent of the London Illustrated News. Among his pupils were Takahashi Yuichi and Goseda Hōryū. Meanwhile, in the College of Engineering, Western painting was taught by an Italian instructor, Antonio Fontanesi; and sculpture, by Ragsa.

  However, from about the twentieth year of Meiji (1887), a reactionary attitude began to struggle against this blind westernization, and Japan woke up to see that she should not lose what remained from her own past. This reaction was greatly accelerated by Ernest Fenollosa, a graduate of Harvard University who was appointed a professor of philosophy at the Tokyo Imperial University in the eleventh year of Meiji (1878). He began to study Japanese art merely for pleasure, but as he pursued it deeper and deeper, he became quite astonished at its greatness, and becoming a great admirer of Japanese art, he made it known to the world. He thought that the civilization of a country should be based upon the history of her past, but that Japan was going astray by blindly adopting foreign styles and disca
rding her own supreme art, which she had acquired over a very long period of time. Such an attitude was a danger to her own existence. In co-operation with him, Mr. Kakuzo Okakura endeavored to propagate this conviction and had a considerable influence upon the new tendency toward nationalism.

  This movement resulted in the establishment of a government art school at Ueno, Tokyo, in the twenty-first year of Meiji. It was inaugurated in the following year, 1888. Two professors of Japanese painting were appointed. They were Kanō Hōgai, 1828-1888, and Hashimoto Gahō, 1835-1908, both of whom belonged to the Kanō School. Kawabata Gyokushō, 1842-1913, of the Maruyama School, was also appointed at the same time.

  Among these three professors, Kanō Hōgai and Hashimoto Gahō were greatly influenced by Professor Fenollosa and Mr. Okakura, and acted as forerunners in a national art movement. This activity was in favor of a new school of objective idealism. However, they found some value in the principles of Western painting and made use of them in their new work.

  Fig. 177. Hibo Kwannon, by Kanō Hōgai

  Tokyo Fine Arts School

  Hōgai's idealistic theory may be seen in his last and most famous work, Hibo Kwannon, or Kwannon as the Merciful Mother, owned by the Tokyo Fine Art School at Ueno, Tokyo. (Fig. 177) The Kwannon stands with a highly dignified pose, in resplendent clouds. In her left hand she holds a tiny branch of willow, a symbol of meekness. From the delicate flask in her right hand falls a drop of water, the water of wisdom, which forms a transparent globe containing a baby. The child is looking up with its tiny and lovely hands clasped in grateful adoration. Okakura has compared this painting with the "Creation" by Michaelangelo, in the Vatican at Rome, as expressing with equally wonderful merit the highest beauty of creative power. Unquestionably it occupies the highest position in modern Japanese painting as an example of idealistic painting with a distinctive high spiritual quality. He died in 1888 before the opening of the art school. His theory and style were followed and developed by Gahō.

  Gahō left us a number of masterpieces. In the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum is the "Autumn Tandscape" painted by him in ink and slightly colored on silk. (Fig. 178)

  Fig. 178. Autumn Landscape, by Gahō

  Tokyo Imperial Household Museum

  Among the pupils of Gahō were such able masters as Yokoyama Taikan, Shimomura Kanzan, Kawai Gyokudō, and Hishida Shunsō.

  This new movement, the keynote of which may be called "Life True to Self," left the art school. Mr. Okakura resigned with the important professors of the school, Hashimoto Gahō, Yokoyama Taikan, Shimomura Kanzan, Terasaki Kōgyō, and Hishida Shunsō. They organized the Nihon Bijutsu-in at Yanaka, Tokyo, under the leadership of Okakura.

  On the other hand, a Committee for the Investigation of Historic and Art Treasures in Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines was organized in the Imperial Household Department in 1889, acting on the original suggestion made by Professor Fenollosa. Later, in 1897, this work resulted in the establishment of a system of protection by law of national treasures and historical buildings.

  After the Russo-Japanese War, when the peace of the country was restored to its normal condition, a general interest in art revived, and a competitive attitude in different groups of artists became distinctly noticeable. Such a trend was accelerated by the exhibition of Japanese and Western paintings held by the Department of Education in 1907 at Ueno. It attracted the keen interest of the general public and was crowded every day with a great number of visitors. The aesthetic appreciation of the people was much encouraged. An art exhibition committee for Japanese painting was formed with the following representative painters of the times:

  Hashimoto Gahō, Kawabata Gyokushō, Araki Kampō, Terasaki Kōgyō, Shimomura Kanzan, Kikuchi Hōbun, Takenouchi Seihō, Noguchi Shōhin, Imao Keinen, Kawai Gyokudō, Yokoyama Taikan, Yamamoto Shunkyo, Matsumoto Fūko, Kobori Tomoto.

  Besides these painters, there were added some eminent critics. From the next year, the exhibition was held every autumn until 1919, when the task was transferred to the Imperial Fine Arts Academy (Teikoku Bijutsu-in), organized in the same year.

  This annual government exhibition gave an important opportunity to place on view some representative paintings of all the different schools of the day under the same roof.

  Generally speaking, throughout the Meiji-Taishō Era, the new and the old, that is, Westernization and Nationalism, were always at work in the field of painting as well as in the general civilization of new Japan. The new and old elements, such as Idealism, Naturalism, Classicism, and Aesthetic Formalism were apparent in the works of the painters of different schools. Under such an atmosphere some painters became distinguished for their own imagination and subjectivity, based upon what they had acquired from different schools of the past.

  In the early years of the government art exhibitions, Yokoyama Taikan, Shimomura Kanzan, Kawai Gyokudō, and Terasaki Kōgyō, became most prominent in Tokyo. In Kyoto,Takenouchi Seihō, and Yamamoto Shunkyo were distinguished leaders.

  Taikan, who is still keeping up his high fame, was at first instructed by masters of the classical Kanō School, notably by Hōgai and Gahō. His eclectic researches into diverse schools, both Oriental and Occidental, have resulted in his present style, marked by fire and vigor, for which he is probably indebted to his early training in the Kanō School. His Yamaji, or Mountain Path, exhibited in the Fifth Government Art Exhibition attracted the keen interest of the public. Another well-known master of the Inten School was Kōgyō. His works likewise appealed to the public. His technical skill even surpassed that of Taikan. His landscape painting, entitled Keishidai, placed on exhibit in the Third Government Art Exhibiton, was one of the best paintings in the Meiji Era. It was an idealistic portrayal of nature. He mastered the Chinese and Japanese classical touch and added to them a new decorative form. He crossed to China several times, and in his later years Chinese landscapes were his favorite subjects. Such a painting as Summer Day in China, Morning on the Yang-tse-kiang, and Chinese Landscape were placed on view in the Fourth and Fifth Government Art Exhibitions at Ueno.

  Seihō, who lives in Kyoto, came from the pure Shijō School. Some criticize him as lacking ability to touch the deeper chords of passion, but his work excels in naturalism and aesthetic formalism. As a master of pictorial bon mots he has almost no equal. His work entitled Are Yudachi-ni (Dancing girl), placed on view in the Third Government Art Exhibition, has the rare charm of Kyoto.

  Gyokudō and Shunkyo were both eminent painters; the former still keeps his high position in Tokyo, and the latter recently died in Kyoto. They were likewise much interested in design and made beautiful patterns which appealed to the public taste. Gyokudō placed his works, called Sui-en or Morning Smoke, and Sai-u or Fine Rain in a Bamboo Grove, in the Fourth and Fifth Government Exhibitions. Shunkyo exhibited his masterpiece entitled Shiobara-no Oku, or Bosom of Shiobara, in the Third Government Art Exhibition.

  Besides those described above, the following have been master painters in the Meiji-Taishō Era: Hishida Shunsō, Odake Chikuha, Komuro Suiun, Araki Jippo, Kaburagi Kiyokata, Yūki Somei, Hirafuku Hyakusui, and Kikkawa Reikwa in Tokyo; and Konoshima Ōkoku, Kamimura Shōen, Kikuchi Keigetsu, Miyakoji Kakō, and Tsuchida Bakusen in Kyoto. In the Old Yamato-e School we had two well known masters: Matsumoto Fūko in Kyoto, and Kobori Tomoto in Tokyo. They painted mostly classical subjects. Among the painters who clung to the Bunjingwa, or Literati School (Nangwa), Masuzu Shunnan, Yamaoka Beikwa, Takashima Hokkai, and Tomioka Tessai were well known masters. In genre painting we have had such masters as Mizuno Toshikata, Kaburagi Kiyokata, Ikeda Terukata, and his wife Shōen.

  Sculpture in wood, which declined after the Kamakura Period, was probably at its worst in the beginning of the Meiji Era, when everything old and native was ignored.

  However, when the movement of nationalism revived, the study of wood sculpture revived also and in 1889 was included in the curriculum of the Tokyo Fine Art School at Ueno. On the other hand, in 1898, a Departme
nt of Western Sculpture was created. At the same time, Taketarō Shinkai returned from Germany where he had studied Western sculpture. Under such circumstances, Japanese sculpture developed gradually under the influence of the West.

  The eminent sculptors in wood at the beginning were Takeuchi Kyūichi and Takamura Kōun, who were Buddhist sculptors. Among the pupils of Kōun, Yonehara Unkai and Yamasaki Chōun were most famous. After the opening of the Government Art Exhibition such master sculptors as Shirai, Hirakushi, Kitamura, Asakura, and Fujii appeared.

  At this time plaster-modeling and casting by Western methods were introduced. Meanwhile the custom of erecting statues for commemoration became quite popular. Early examples will be seen in the statue of Ōmura at Kudan, in that of Kusunoki Masashige at Kyūjō-mae, and in that of Saigō at Ueno park. They are all cast in bronze on a large scale.

  Throughout the period of Meiji and Taishō we recognize that there were three noticeable movements, working everywhere in the field of fine arts as in the other fields of culture: the introduction of the Western style, the revival of nationalism, and the harmonizing of the new and the old. At the beginning, the people were radical in looking abroad, but they soon came back to their own senses, and strove to create their own art out of the native and foreign. Yet they were still in a transitional stage, only hoping for success in the future.

  CHAPTER 12

  Contemporary Art

  It is one of the hardest tasks to make any complete judgement of contemporary art, because it is so closely related to the changing life of the people. If one watches the kaleidoscope of life as it flows along the Ginza, or in the Mitsukoshi and other large department stores, one will find girls with bobbed hair, clothed in flowery Japanese dresses, or in smart American spring dresses. The people are attracted by things European as well as by things Japanese. A similar diversity in life will be noticed in the dwelling houses of the middle and upper classes. They have parlors in Western fashion, decorated in Western style, and other rooms furnished and decorated in Japanese style. But hosts receiving guests generally wear Japanese dresses. Their figures of course do not set beautifully in parlors of Western style. Thus the actual status of life is composed of different elements of East and West, which, in practice, are not yet quite harmonized.