Studio: international art (25.1902)

Contemporary Japanese Art

original efforts and enforce imitation of old works.
It thus naturally lost touch with the growing needs
of the" new Japanese life. The society is now known
as the Bijitsu-kiokai, and holds bi-annual exhibi-
tions at Uyeno.

(2) The Western School. — The influence of
Western art upon Japanese art was felt early in
the seventeenth century, as is to be seen in the
works of Yeitoku and Sanraku. Under the Toku-
gawas it was not only Shibu-kohan and Oado who
imitated the Dutch, but even Okio and Kazan at
times experimented in that style. The Meiji era,
which so boldly essayed to adopt European life
and manners, and heartily condemned the native
customs as barbarous, also rejected the national
art as unworthy of the name of art. The first
Government School of Fine Arts (attached to the
College of Engineering) was conducted by Italian
painters and sculptors. It was closed in 1883,
but several associations and schools were estab-
lished on similar lines. Many students of art
went to study in Paris, Munich, and Italy. In
the public schools instruction in drawing was at
one time all given by the foreign method. In
1896 the study of foreign painting and sculpture
was added to the Government Art School at
Uyeno, and is now holding a prominent place
there. As Japan becomes more and more imbued
with Western ideas, Western art will hold a place
of increasing prominence.

(3) The New School.—Dissatisfied with the ultra-
conservatism of the Classic School, yet hoping to
preserve the best traditions of Japanese art, and
avoiding the imitation of Western technique in its
entirety, a new movement came to assert itself
between the two opposite schools. The peculiar
merits of Japanese art and the possibilities of
adapting itself to modern life and industry were
problems which the New School ventured to solve.
Was Japanese art a thing of the past, or could the
Tapanese art of Meiji preserve its own integrity
whilst imbibing modern notions and adapting itself
to the new Japanese life ? The movement was
encouraged in its efforts by accomplished Western
connoisseurs, among whom we may mention
Dr. Wagner, Mr. Fenollosa, Captain Brinkley,
Dr. Anderson, Air. Conder, Dr. Bigelow, and
many others. A small club was started with this
view in 1882, in which the late Kano Hogai,
Hashimoto Gaho, the late Kobayashi Yeitaku,
Watanabe Seitei, Suzuki Kason, Shimomura
Kanzan, and even the aged Zeshin co-operated.
In 1884 the attention of the Educational Board
was called to the new movement, and a committee

was appointed to report upon the state of art
education in public schools, which decided in
favour of Japanese drawing, especially in connec-
tion with the applied arts and decorative industrial
designs.

A few years later, commissioners were sent
abroad to report on the art institutions in Europe
and America. After their return the Government
established the Tokio Bijitsu Gakko (Tokio School
of Fine Art) in 1889. The course of instruction
included painting, sculpture in wood and ivory,
metal work, bronze casting, lacquer work, and
decorative design—all taught in the Japanese
style, though the students were also required to
study perspective, anatomy and modern notions of
science, especially in reference to industrial design.
The object was to develop Japanese art upon its
own lines. The professors included men like
Hashimoto Gaho, Shimomura Kanzan, Yokoyama
Taikan, Kawabata Giokusho, and Yamana Kangi, in
painting; the late Kano Natsuo, Okabe Kakuya,
Urumo Shomin, in metal work; the late Ogawa
Shomin, Rokkaku Shisui and Kawanabe Icho, in
lacquer; Okazaki Sessei, Ishikawa Koyo and
Oshima Jowun, in bronze; Takamura Kowun,
Nino Kosetsu and Yamada Kisai, in sculpture;
Kawasaki Chitora and Mayeda Kosetsu, in
design.

In 1896 the Government ordered the addition
of courses of European painting and sculpture in
the School. Since then differences of opinion
have arisen concerning the School management,
chiefly in regard to the part that Western methods
should play in the curriculum, which led to a final
rupture in 1896, and ended in the resignation of
Okakura, Gaho, Kanzan, Taikan, Kakuya, Shisui,
Sessei, Koyo, Jowun, Kodetsu, Chitora, Kosetsu
and others, and to their establishing a private art
institute, called Nippon Bijitsu-in, in the same
year.

The Uyeno School since then has devoted itself
mainly to the Western School, of which the faculty
has been greatly augmented. Those professors of
the national style who remained after the rupture
still follow the former method of instruction, but
the students in the course have greatly diminished,
and have joined the Bijitsu-in. Among the remain-
ing professors of the Japanese style, Mr. Kawabata
Giokusho of the Shigo School of Painting, Mr.
Urumo Shomin, a rare worker in metal, of the
Mito School, Mr. Takamura Kowun, a sculptor in
wood, who, with his master, Towun, initiated the
realistic style in wood-carving, may be said to be
the leading artists.

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