International studio (40.1910)

Contemporary Japanese Painting

C

ONTEMPORARY
JAPANESE PAINT-
ING. BY SEI-ICHI
TAKI.'

In contemporary Japanese
painting there run two conflicting
currents, the one struggling to con-
serve the methods of the old
tradition, and the other to work
out a style more in consonance
with the demands of the age. The
advocates of classicism are repre-
sented by many different cults,
-1 > y, r such as—to enumerate those exist-

•"''.' '"' (/;,;:''i " i '"-J--^--""' ing at the commencement of this

i ,, era—the Maruyama, the Shijo, the

| ■<;,■'' J. " Tosa, the Kan5, the Kworin, and

the Chinese Schools. Of these, by
far the most influential and popu-
lar has been the Chinese School
followed by the Maruyama and
the Shijo, the rest only surviving
under the shadow of their past
reputations. In general we may
say that the chief exponents of the

3 3^' 'lr^*Wry * '■" Conservative or Old Schools to-day

'v''/, v S]/ ' w'*'»%vCy'-'- - - are men of mature age, and only

.**»"»» , - _ in few instances are thev men 01

in few instances are they men of
a later generation. On the other
hand, the organization of the New

y

5^ j^T^r*- ■ 1 Sch00l iS) as yetj but tentative;

many and various methods have

A PAGE FROM MR. ALBERT GOODWIN'S SKETCH-BOOK been proposed and put tO the test

(By permission of the Fine Art Society) . ,

or experiment, but the final ana

satisfactory solution has so far not

which is constantly threatening the man who been forthcoming. A little over twenty years ago
allows his receptivity to become dulled, and sub- a revival of interest made itself felt in the long-
stitutes a rigid mannerism for sensitive executive neglected field of art—long neglected because the
expression. Mr. Goodwin is a master of many national mind had up to then been engrossed in
methods, and whatever the medium he may be more practical affairs of life which had been pass-
using—he works with equal skill in oils, water- ing through a great revolution under Western in-
colour and black-and-white—he manages it with fiuences. It was then that the Japanese began to
thorough understanding of its capabilities. In his turn their thoughts to that art which had been the
water-colours especially he shows an astonishing glory and pride of their forefathers, and to express
variety of qualities, but this variety comes from his their views with eagerness on the subject. Then
sense of fitness, from his appreciation of the need there arose a cry that something different from the
for maintaining a right relation between mechanism art of the older schools should be invented and
and subject matter in artistic production, and not that even the followers of the native and Chinese
from any uncertainty about the management of Schools should pursue their studies with an eye
details of craftsmanship. Indeed, uncertainty is to freshness and novelty, and with a mind catholic
nowhere to be detected in his art; few artists are enough to assimilate the good qualities of Western
so sure of themselves. painting. Thus the New School came into existence.

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