DOI Heft:
Nr. 243 (June 1913)
DOI Artikel:Harada, Jirō: Modern tendecies in Japanese sculpture
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21159#0038
Modern Tendencies in Japanese Sculpture
Taketaro, whose Anniversary of Victory, a disabled
soldier on crutches, and Sakyiimei, a blind Chinese
historian, are clever and good examples of his work
in wood. Practically all the works mentioned in
this paragraph were intended to be ornaments for
the tokonoma, yet betray the influence of Western
sculpture to their advantage.
Among the works executed after the Western
style, there were in the exhibition referred to a
few good heads, such as A Rustic, by Kitamura
Masanobu ; two busts, My Father and My Mother,
by Asakura Fumio, whose Youth, a nude figure,
was highly awarded; a group of Goats by Ikeda
Yuhachi, showing some good qualities, as well as
figures by Ogura Uichiro, Fujii Kosuke, and
Tatehata Daimu. Praying for FCelp, by Kitamura
Shikai, was the largest piece of marble sculpture
ever shown in Japan. We have often wondered
at the non-existence of marble sculpture in this
country. The scarcity of the material may be one
of the main reasons, but there seems to be some-
thing in our racial ideas regarding art which has
“a rustic” by kitamura masanobu
impeded the adoption of this permanent medium,
for the people feel a peculiar sensation of delight
and satisfaction in making deep and clean cuts in
such a material as wood with a sharp tool. To-
18
day marble is quarried in certain parts of Japan,
and its use for sculpture is becoming more general.
In dealing with the modern tendencies of
our sculpture a word or two must be said
about the inspiring influence of Auguste Rodin.
“youth” by asakura fumio
He is adored and his work worshipped here.
Three small sketches of his created a sensation
when recently exhibited in Tokyo, and aroused
many of our artists from their drowsy indifference.
The modern tendency of trying to express
deep emotion is largely due to him. Gradually
our sculptors are beginning to see the fallacy,
which Rodin pointed out by the aid of his antique
copy of the Venus de Medici, of thinking “that the
ancients, in their cult of the ideal, despised the
flesh as low and vulgar, and that they refused to
reproduce in their works the thousand details of
material reality . . . that the ancients wished to
teach Nature by creating an abstract beauty of
Taketaro, whose Anniversary of Victory, a disabled
soldier on crutches, and Sakyiimei, a blind Chinese
historian, are clever and good examples of his work
in wood. Practically all the works mentioned in
this paragraph were intended to be ornaments for
the tokonoma, yet betray the influence of Western
sculpture to their advantage.
Among the works executed after the Western
style, there were in the exhibition referred to a
few good heads, such as A Rustic, by Kitamura
Masanobu ; two busts, My Father and My Mother,
by Asakura Fumio, whose Youth, a nude figure,
was highly awarded; a group of Goats by Ikeda
Yuhachi, showing some good qualities, as well as
figures by Ogura Uichiro, Fujii Kosuke, and
Tatehata Daimu. Praying for FCelp, by Kitamura
Shikai, was the largest piece of marble sculpture
ever shown in Japan. We have often wondered
at the non-existence of marble sculpture in this
country. The scarcity of the material may be one
of the main reasons, but there seems to be some-
thing in our racial ideas regarding art which has
“a rustic” by kitamura masanobu
impeded the adoption of this permanent medium,
for the people feel a peculiar sensation of delight
and satisfaction in making deep and clean cuts in
such a material as wood with a sharp tool. To-
18
day marble is quarried in certain parts of Japan,
and its use for sculpture is becoming more general.
In dealing with the modern tendencies of
our sculpture a word or two must be said
about the inspiring influence of Auguste Rodin.
“youth” by asakura fumio
He is adored and his work worshipped here.
Three small sketches of his created a sensation
when recently exhibited in Tokyo, and aroused
many of our artists from their drowsy indifference.
The modern tendency of trying to express
deep emotion is largely due to him. Gradually
our sculptors are beginning to see the fallacy,
which Rodin pointed out by the aid of his antique
copy of the Venus de Medici, of thinking “that the
ancients, in their cult of the ideal, despised the
flesh as low and vulgar, and that they refused to
reproduce in their works the thousand details of
material reality . . . that the ancients wished to
teach Nature by creating an abstract beauty of