DOI Artikel:
Harada, Jirō: Japanese art at the Panama-Pacific exposition
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21214#0174
Tap cine se Art at the Panama-Pacific Exposition
“voices of little birds
BY HIRATA-SHODO
Yoshine, and the historical painting by Kobori-
Tomoto already referred to.
Moving Clouds has won the admiration of many
as it expresses the majesty of the mountains towering
above the shifting clouds, emphasised here by a few
huts which, huddled together by a gurgling stream,
give them that appealing quality by which in land-
scape pictures the sublimity of nature is brought into
intimate relation with man. This painting shows
how effectively the unpainted part, the bare silk
upon which the picture is painted, does its work
in the composition, as the clouds have been depicted
by not painting them, contradictory as this may
seem. It is a very important quality in Japanese
painting to leave a part, often the greater part,
blank and let that blank portion perform its
necessary and very important function in the
picture.
Similar effective use of the blank space was to
be seen in the work of Kobori, the only historical
subject in this section. Kobori is one of the fore-
most Japanese painters of historical subjects at the
present day and he faithfully follows the traditional
method of the school in which he ranks as a leader.
Suggestion is the life of Japanese art, and it is
evidenced not only by the use of blank spaces but
by the effect of association and by the introduction
of only the bare essentials. Spring on the Kamo
River by Takakura-Kangai, suggests more by asso-
ciation. It is a gorgeous screen with gold and
vivid colours, and was one of the most decorative
pictures in the exhibition. In this picture a girl
is portrayed in the act of hanging gaily coloured
materials to dry, and with the aid of the willow the
168
artist tries to show the brightness and the colours
of the spring, suggesting at the same time the
joyousness of the life of those who are to wear the
garments made of that material. It is extremely
suggestive of Kyoto, the capital of Japan for nearly
eleven centuries, where the river and the dyeing
industry, closely connected with each other, have
in a large measure determined the activity of th at
city.
There were other pictures of subtle suggestion,
su ch as T amaya-Shunki’s Eastern Breeze, from wh ich
you got the feeling of a zephyr rustling the leaves
of an acacia freshened by a recent shower. The
dewy freshness of the morning was vividly suggested
by Tosima-Teiun in his picture called Shades of the
Morning, in which you seemed to feel the dew
on the petals of the flowers. The effort made by
Hirata-Shodo in his Voices of little Birds betrays a
certain trend of many of our young artists. Shodo
has tried to convey the sudden burst and thrill of
the notes in the songs of little birds in a sombre
forest by means of painting the slender, upright
forms of the silver birch among trees with dark
stems.
There were some pictures that revealed, or
perhaps concealed, a certain ideal which underlies
all our great works of art. Perhaps it is the most
vital element in Japanese art. Without under-
standing it a right interpretation of Japanese art
is impossible. It signifies one of our national
characteristics, namely, our joy in surmounting
difficulties and endeavouring to harmonise apparent
inconsistencies. It will be interesting to trace this
underlying spirit in some of the paintings exhibited.
“voices of little birds
BY HIRATA-SHODO
Yoshine, and the historical painting by Kobori-
Tomoto already referred to.
Moving Clouds has won the admiration of many
as it expresses the majesty of the mountains towering
above the shifting clouds, emphasised here by a few
huts which, huddled together by a gurgling stream,
give them that appealing quality by which in land-
scape pictures the sublimity of nature is brought into
intimate relation with man. This painting shows
how effectively the unpainted part, the bare silk
upon which the picture is painted, does its work
in the composition, as the clouds have been depicted
by not painting them, contradictory as this may
seem. It is a very important quality in Japanese
painting to leave a part, often the greater part,
blank and let that blank portion perform its
necessary and very important function in the
picture.
Similar effective use of the blank space was to
be seen in the work of Kobori, the only historical
subject in this section. Kobori is one of the fore-
most Japanese painters of historical subjects at the
present day and he faithfully follows the traditional
method of the school in which he ranks as a leader.
Suggestion is the life of Japanese art, and it is
evidenced not only by the use of blank spaces but
by the effect of association and by the introduction
of only the bare essentials. Spring on the Kamo
River by Takakura-Kangai, suggests more by asso-
ciation. It is a gorgeous screen with gold and
vivid colours, and was one of the most decorative
pictures in the exhibition. In this picture a girl
is portrayed in the act of hanging gaily coloured
materials to dry, and with the aid of the willow the
168
artist tries to show the brightness and the colours
of the spring, suggesting at the same time the
joyousness of the life of those who are to wear the
garments made of that material. It is extremely
suggestive of Kyoto, the capital of Japan for nearly
eleven centuries, where the river and the dyeing
industry, closely connected with each other, have
in a large measure determined the activity of th at
city.
There were other pictures of subtle suggestion,
su ch as T amaya-Shunki’s Eastern Breeze, from wh ich
you got the feeling of a zephyr rustling the leaves
of an acacia freshened by a recent shower. The
dewy freshness of the morning was vividly suggested
by Tosima-Teiun in his picture called Shades of the
Morning, in which you seemed to feel the dew
on the petals of the flowers. The effort made by
Hirata-Shodo in his Voices of little Birds betrays a
certain trend of many of our young artists. Shodo
has tried to convey the sudden burst and thrill of
the notes in the songs of little birds in a sombre
forest by means of painting the slender, upright
forms of the silver birch among trees with dark
stems.
There were some pictures that revealed, or
perhaps concealed, a certain ideal which underlies
all our great works of art. Perhaps it is the most
vital element in Japanese art. Without under-
standing it a right interpretation of Japanese art
is impossible. It signifies one of our national
characteristics, namely, our joy in surmounting
difficulties and endeavouring to harmonise apparent
inconsistencies. It will be interesting to trace this
underlying spirit in some of the paintings exhibited.