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Studio: international art — 59.1913

DOI issue:
Nr. 245 (August 1913)
DOI article:
Studio-talk
DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21159#0264

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Studio-Talk

■with it a significance difficult to overlook. Some of
the pictures in the first section showed that the artists
had merely copied the conventionalised form of
the old masters, without any attempt at individual
expression. In the second section, however, some
betrayed an arduous struggle for self-expression
regardless of methods or tradition. In them were
to be discerned sparks of originality, not always
quite pleasing, but significant as indicating a sincere
effort to work out the future of our painting.

Visitors to the exhibition were invariably struck
by the enormous size of the paintings, out of all
proportion to the requirements of modern Japanese
houses. Byobu, or folding-screens, were much used,
mainly because they afforded large areas to paint
on—in fact, screens so predominated that it was
appropriately called by
many a byobu te?irankai—a
screen exhibition. The
size of the galleries with
their huge plain walls was
mainly responsible for this
tendency, for small kake-
mono such as hang in the
tokonoma (place of honour)
of an ordinary Japanese
house seem lost in such a
place. Another reason, it
is stated, is the inadequacy
of ordinary kakemono for
the expression of artists’
ideals and the display of
their skill; and the tradi-
tional shape is also deemed
ill adapted for that realistic
representation of complex
subjects which is now called
for. The result, however,
was in many cases disas-
trous. Many of the paintings
looked like bromide en-
largements of kodak pic-
tures. What can be done
with the traditional shape
■and size even in coping
with modern requirements
was admirably shown by
the work of Terazaki Kogyo
■and Yokoyama Taikwan,
and a number of others
treated the subject to suit
the shape in a logical
manner. The result was a

sort of bird’s-eye view, such as the Turnip Garden
byTsuchida Bakusen and The Long Bridge of Seta
(one of the eight scenes of Omi) by Imamura
Shiko.

The first section contained a great many nangwa,
after the style of the Southern school. On
the whole the drawings of this section showed
merely the technical qualities found in the works ot
the artists of the later Tokugawa period. They
revealed a painstaking effort to observe the rules
formulated by the various schools without a proper
understanding of the very spirit which was crystallised
into a form. Consequently, a great number of them
were devoid of life and individuality. The same
criticism applies to the second section, although
not on the same ground. Here many of the artists

BY YAMAMOTO SHUNKYO

A GORGE AT ARASHIYAMA

244
 
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