Studio: international art (88.1924)

TOKYO

TOKYO.—On account of the catas-
trophe last fall, the usual autumn
salon, as well as other art exhibitions
scheduled for the season at the Takenodai
galleries (Uyeno Park) and elsewhere in
Tokyo, had to be cancelled, though pre-
parations for them by the artists through-
out the empire had been fairly on the way.
In the circumstances, it was a seasonable
enterprise on the part of the two important
dailies, the " Tokyo Nichinichi " and the
" Osaka Maenichi," to organise an exhi-
bition of paintings by contemporary artists
of traditional as well as of European style.
The exhibition contained contributions
from some of the usual exhibitors to the
Teiten (the salon), the Nihon Bijutsuin,
the Nihon Bijutsukyokai, the Kokuga
Sosakukai, the Nikakai and the Shun-
yokai, the last two being societies of
painters in European styles. It was but
natural that the exhibits, comprising 174
paintings in Nippon style and 181 oil
paintings, should come mainly from the
Kwansai, the western part of Nippon
centred about Kyoto. a a a

Speaking of the section for the tradi-
tional style of painting, there were a fair
number of large pieces that showed endless
labour and pains in the production, as
Ichii-Shunsai's Bamboo Grove, in which
each leaf of countless number was care-
fully shaded ; Nagata-Koka's Autumn by
the Water, in which each one of innumer-
able leaves of hagi was minutely depicted ;
Konno-Keisuke's Ferns, in which even the
moss that covers the ground was realistic-
ally represented ; Fuzome-Tetsuichi's A

Seaside Village, with an effect of pen-and-
ink drawing ; and Kodama-Kibo's Spring
Sea, in which the flowers and trees in the
big landscape were most faithfully de-
picted. Of course, the endless labour put
on the silk does not always bring a happy
result. No, on the contrary, it more often
ends in showing merely a certain technical
skill devoid of artistic qualities. However,
not a few of the above-mentioned works
gave a weight and dignity to the exhibition
inasmuch as they so evidently showed a
serious attitude of the artist towards his
work, even though it mainly confined
itself to the mechanical realm. Deep was
this impression, due mainly to the fact
that there had been a marked tendency in
our recent art for a careless treatment of
a simple subject—anything to avoid labour,
mechanical as well as mental. 0 a

There were unusually large numbers of
panels dealing with women in all phases
and aspects. Notable among them were
Kikuchi-Keigetsu's Woman with a Water
Jar, Nishiyama-Suisho's The Rose of
Sharon, Kitani-Chikusa's Puppet Show-
man's Wife, Watanabe-Kishun's Woman,
and Ito-Shoha's Offended at the Mirror.
Highly commendable were Suga-Tenrei's
Garden Banquet, Fujimura - Shigeru's
Snowy Landscape, and Kawamura-Man-
shyu's Gorge atNezame-no-toko. Amasterly
triumph over technical difficulties was
shown by Takenouchi-Seiho in his Bank
of the Yellow River, boldly treated with
broad brush strokes. Highly noticeable on
the whole in the section of paintings of
Nippon style was a greater approximation
than ever before, in general appearance and
apparent technique, to the oil painting of
the West. In many instances the usual
linear outlines have been discarded and
light and shade have been resorted to in
order to bring out values and gradations.
This is highly interesting, as a number of
painters in oil are now trying to benefit by
what good they find in the paintings of
their compatriots and by endeavouring to
inculcate, as far as possible, into their own
the Oriental method of expression. a

In the European section praiseworthy
were Kobayashi-Mango's By the Window,
Kaneyama - Heizo's Interior, Atake -Yasu-
goro's Baby Sleeping in Mother's Bosom,
Arai-Kan's Reading, Kawakami-Sakyo's