Today I would like to talk about “Japanese painting”. Or should I say “(traditional) Japanese-style painting” to be more precise?
I am not talking about old “Japanese painting” from the Edo period or earlier, but about “Japanese painting” from the last 100 years or so.
Specifically, from the Meiji era to the beginning of the Showa era (from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century). This was a time when a new wind was blowing in the Japanese art world.
The Meiji era was a period of great change for Japan: the feudal system, which had lasted for more than 600 years, collapsed and the country shifted to a constitutional democracy, with the entire warrior class that had existed until then gone.
The new system of government, with the Emperor as head of state, was not yet a full democracy, but many of the old restrictions were still abolished. A variety of foreign cultures were introduced to make the country world-class.
People who just a few years ago shaved their heads and wore kimonos with topknots are today wearing long hair and wrapping themselves in suit. One Englishman, surprised at the rapid change, said, “The last ten years in Japan are comparable to a hundred years in Europe”.
It also influenced Japanese artists and changed the long-established Japanese sensibility. Music, painting, sculpture and theatre were all affected. In step with the prevailing trends of the times, a greater emphasis was placed on free expression rather than the formalism of the past.
The changes were so great that they also led to confusion and conflict, and chaos, but it was also characteristic of this period that a variety of new styles emerged from this.
Unfortunately, there is still some gulf between art and the common man, and its influence remains today.
In older times, art was the preserve of high-ranking warriors, aristocrats and the rich, and was therefore less familiar to the general public. As mentioned in “BONSAI”, the “art organisation” of the Meiji era elevated art to a higher status than necessary.
One of the artist who sought out and sprouted a new style of Japanese painting even in such a chaotic situation was “川瀬巴水:Kawase Hasui”.
Born in 1883 in Shiba, Tokyo (now Minato Ward, Tokyo), Hasui was interested in painting from an early age and dreamed of becoming a painter in the future.
At the age of 14 he apprenticed himself to a master painter, but his parents considered it only a hobby and did not want him to become a painter.
Hasui took over the family business for a while due to his parents’ opposition, but his yearning for painting never waned and he eventually gave up his job and threw himself back into the world of painting.
As a painter, he started again late, at the age of 25.
Although his mature years were marked by anguish, as he was at the mercy of the various painting styles that were flooding the market at the time, he began to establish his originality in his mid-30s.
His prints were based on the old Ukiyo-e technique, but also incorporated Western expressions. This was particularly evident in his landscapes.
Therefore, even today he is not considered a ‘painter’ but a ‘ukiyoe artist’ or ‘landscape printmaker’.
In addition, he chose ordinary, everyday scenes rather than famous scenic spots as the subject matter for his landscapes. He travelled and walked all over the country and left prints of landscapes that touch the hearts of the inhabitants of each region.
This may be the reason why he was later called the ‘poet of travel emotion’.
His landscapes may have been influenced by what in the West would be termed “impressionist painting”. What is there is not an exact conveyance of the landscape, but a nostalgia that appeals to the viewer’s heart.
No useless sounds can be heard in his paintings.
No, not zero, but extremely faint whispers.
It was a summer afternoon, the sound of the rising clouds in the distance.
The faint buzzing of insects heard in the autumn grass.
Silvery fields, the sound of stamping snow.
And it’s a babbling brook with floating cherry petals…
Hasui’s work has been featured from time to time in recent years, but it was rather people abroad who paid attention to his work when he came up in the world. Steve Jobs was also a fan of Hasui’s work.
Today, exhibitions of paintings and art are often held in Japan.
However, only famous names such as Van Gogh, Renoir, Picasso and Dali are featured and talked about on TV.
The paintings of these great artists are wonderful, but I think that the works of painters who convey the scenery and emotions of old Japan should be better appreciated in Japan.