DOI Artikel:
Harada, Jirō: Japanese art at the Panama-Pacific exposition
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21214#0176
Japanese Art at the Panama-Pacific Exposition
Take, for instance, Mulberry and Cocoon, by
Murakami-Hoko. This is the title given to a pair
of screen paintings, one of which is here shown.
Upon one are painted two young girls who, half
hidden among mulberry saplings, are picking
leaves for silk-worms. On the other are bright
blossoms of a tree that blooms in autumn, beneath
which an aged woman is drying cocoons. The
former, at the first glance, appears rather sombre in
the general tone of its colour ; but the saplings, the
young maids and the food for the worms all signify
youth and the spring. The latter is rather gay at
the first glimpse, but the flowers of autumn, the
aged woman and the cocoons all signify the decline
of life. Thus it is only by careful examination
that we find the real significance of these pictures,
which is often contrary to one’s first impression.
In order that we may appreciate the effort to
harmonise inconsistencies, we have to know that
our artists take extreme delight in surmounting
difficulties in technique, as well as in choice of
subjects. There is a strong tendency deliberately
to choose difficult means of expression. Take, for
instance, Mitsui-Banri’s Spring in the Palace Garden,
painted on a pair of screens. Instead of choosing
young girls to express the buoyant spirit of the
Spring, the artist has chosen a group of men in the
costume of the ninth century playing football.
Instead of painting bright-coloured flowers of the
spring, the artist has evergreen pine trees painted
in the background and a few petals of the cherry
blossom scattered in the foreground on one screen,
with the suggestion of a branch of cherry blossoms
in the comer of the other. He has eliminated, as
Wf,
iPA-i/L
70
u* %
1
V' i
Y 'fp/l ^
Irf » l «;•
i;! -■ fyf.4
i. iLJKBglE
“midday in summer”
170
BY OKA-TOYAN
Take, for instance, Mulberry and Cocoon, by
Murakami-Hoko. This is the title given to a pair
of screen paintings, one of which is here shown.
Upon one are painted two young girls who, half
hidden among mulberry saplings, are picking
leaves for silk-worms. On the other are bright
blossoms of a tree that blooms in autumn, beneath
which an aged woman is drying cocoons. The
former, at the first glance, appears rather sombre in
the general tone of its colour ; but the saplings, the
young maids and the food for the worms all signify
youth and the spring. The latter is rather gay at
the first glimpse, but the flowers of autumn, the
aged woman and the cocoons all signify the decline
of life. Thus it is only by careful examination
that we find the real significance of these pictures,
which is often contrary to one’s first impression.
In order that we may appreciate the effort to
harmonise inconsistencies, we have to know that
our artists take extreme delight in surmounting
difficulties in technique, as well as in choice of
subjects. There is a strong tendency deliberately
to choose difficult means of expression. Take, for
instance, Mitsui-Banri’s Spring in the Palace Garden,
painted on a pair of screens. Instead of choosing
young girls to express the buoyant spirit of the
Spring, the artist has chosen a group of men in the
costume of the ninth century playing football.
Instead of painting bright-coloured flowers of the
spring, the artist has evergreen pine trees painted
in the background and a few petals of the cherry
blossom scattered in the foreground on one screen,
with the suggestion of a branch of cherry blossoms
in the comer of the other. He has eliminated, as
Wf,
iPA-i/L
70
u* %
1
V' i
Y 'fp/l ^
Irf » l «;•
i;! -■ fyf.4
i. iLJKBglE
“midday in summer”
170
BY OKA-TOYAN