Okakura Tenshin Exhibition

 

Cultural News, September 2007

 

 

Statue of Okakura Tenshin. Sculpture: Hiragushi Denchu, Casting: Abe Inzai, 1931.  (Photo courtesy of The University Art Museum, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.)

 

By Yuko Itatsu

 

 TOKYO -  Father of Japanese Modern Art, Pioneer in Japan-U.S. cultural exchange. These are titles that Okakura Tenshin claims. The University Art Museum at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music will exhibit a show on Okakura Tenshin from Oct. 4 to Nov. 18.

 

    The exhibit is part of the 120th anniversary celebration of the University. Tenshin (1863-1913) was the second President of this institution, which is the oldest and continues to be the most prestigious art school in Japan.

 

    Tenshin, a Yokohama native born in 1863, was a unique figure in Meiji Japan.  English was the first language he learned and had an inferior complex about his Japanese. After he was ousted from the President’s seat in an administrative coup, he moved to the U.S. to be the Director of Japanese and Chinese Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Here he was re-united with his original mentor, Ernest Fenollosa.

 

    His most important book, The Ideals of the East (1904), is famous for its opening line, “Asia is one.” Unfortunately the meaning of this phrase was twisted around and used as propaganda to legitimize Japan’s expansionism until the end of WWII.

 

    The exhibit has four parts beginning with an exploration of his personal biography through archival material. The second and third part features his philosophy in art and his pedagogy on how he realized his ideals in the classroom. Artwork by his faculty such as Kano Hogai and Hashimoto Gaho and works by Yokoyama Taikan, who succeeded his philosophy are exhibited in this segment.

 

    Also shown is a recreation of an art classroom at the end of the 19th century. The last part highlights his passion to make art accessible to the public. This involved designing public art, and archiving and conserving valuable works by making reproductions. 

 

    The University Art Museum at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music is in Ueno Park, a 10-minute walk from the JR Ueno Station. Admission (adult) is 500 yen. For more information: www.geidai.ac.jp/museum

 

   Yuko Itatsu is a Ph.D. Candidate in History at the University of Southern California and a part-time lecturer at Tsuda College, Tokyo.