REVIEW: Exhibition 'Kaii Higashiyama' PART 2

Afterglow

Afterglow 残照 1947, colour on paper, 151.5 x 212.0 cm, framed. The artist 東山魁夷 finished this picture two years after he was called up and joined the army and trained to dash himself at the enemy's tank holding a bomb. The picture has a simple but exquisite composition, subtle and intricate colours created by multi-layered pigments. It took me a while to escape from the gravity of the picture. And so Section II: Conversation with Nature begins.

Nihonga in the Time of the Anti-Nationalism after WWII

    "Once the war came to an end, as a reaction to the extreme nationalism before the war, a trend to negate traditional culture arose. This surge advanced on the world of nihonga, too and there were even cries that nihonga would cease to exist. Amidst such circumstances, many artists made a variety of attempts, but Kaii Higashiyama was rather cautious. He did not react to radical opinions and new theories of painting unless he himself was convinced. He was more interested in and keen about what was fresh amidst the flow of time. He was probably the sort of person who wanted to probe thoroughly into what the society was really calling for." ––Masaaki Ozaki 尾崎正明, translated by Kikuko Ogawa 小川紀久子, from the catalogue of the exhibition

Autumn Shade

Autumn Shade 秋翳 1958, 160.0 x 167.6 cm, colour on paper, framed. This is my most favourite piece from the period of the establishment of Higashiyama style. At around this period, Higashiyama appears to have started experiments with textures. Jikuso 軸装, or Hanging Scroll/Handscroll, was the traditional way of displaying pictures in Japan, then Frame allowed Japanese-style painting to try the thick coats of pigment. It can be said that the examples by the outstanding artist are quite beneficial materials. Toward the next, Section III: The atmosphere of the Ancient Cities.

His View of Nature / Our View of Life

    "Things went very well from Afterglow onwards. In 1960 (Showa 35), Higashiyama completed The Sun and the Moon in Four Seasons, a mural for Togu Gosho (the Crown Prince's Residence). The following year, he held his first individual exhibition and his position in the art circles was secured. However, that also meant an increase of additional social matters other than working on his paintings. It was no wonder for Higashiyama, who was intrinsically fond of solitude and sought it in nature, to consider escaping from ordinary life and moving somewhere far away.

    From April to July 1962 (Showa 37), aiming at the brief spring and summer, Higashiyama traveled with his wife to the Nordic countries of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The Nordic nature he came in touch with on this trip blended superbly with the artist's inner urge and bore plenty of fruit. "I experienced heartfelt empathy with the life that lights up during the brief spring and summer in this country." As this comment by Higashiyama testifies, the Nordic landscapes such as Reflected Images (cat. no. 21) and White-Night Light (cat. no. 28) all have a powerful vigor in the depths of the limpid picture.

Reflected Images

White-Night Light

   Style-wise, there is not so much difference from Higashiyama's works until the such as Autumn Shade (cat. no. 18) and Green Echoes (cat. no. 19). A clear-cut composition, placid coloring, rich lyricism are common to both groups. There are, of course, necessary measures taken concerning the composition to represent the grandeur of the nature in the Nordic countries. Yet, in Higashiyama's landscape paintings treating nature as the subject matter, be it Japan or Europe, neither looks out of place on account of the difference in location. At times, if the location was not revealed, we would not be able to tell whether it is a view of Japan or Europe. This is because, wherever it is that Higashiyama portrays, it is unmistakably a landscape by Higashiyama. What makes a landscape painting by Higashiyama a landscape by Higashiyama is his Japanese view of nature when observing nature and the lyricism deriving from there. This remains unchanged regardless of whether he is depicting Japan or Europe.

    The gentle change of nature—the Japanese seeem to identify the beauty and sorrow of life there. The cherry blossoms in full bloom in spring and the petals fluttering down, on the one hand, celebrate the joy of life while, on the other hand, symbolize their transiency. The autumnal foliage that colors the entire mountain in the autumn symbolizes the momentary brilliance of life and, at the same time, conversely signifies the finals moment of life. The Japanese identified the universe itself amidst a brief flow of time in the working of nature in which life and death interplay and gave it form. Not only in art but in literature and the performing arts, too, there was an undercurrent of what might be called the aesthetics of change, so to speak, and that was the core of Japanese beauty. Kaii Higashiyama's works are deeply connected to such tradition at the root." —Masaaki Ozaki

Higashiyama's depictions of foreign landscapes evoke a strange feeling. The viewers lose their current location in front of those of his paintings, as Ozaki describes.

Kyoto / Germany / Austria

    "Having brought his Nordic series to an end for the time being, Higashiyama began working on the wall painting for the new Imperial Palace and also started working on views of Kyoto in full. As an artist, Higashiyama says the mist trailing across the mountains, the moisture of the air, and the seasonal changes of the nature in present Kyoto enabled him to take in feels of the Heian period, when Kyoto used to be more Kyoto-like." —Masaaki Ozaki

It is said that Higashiyama had received suggestions from Yasunari Kawabata 川端康成 that Higashiyama should paint Kyoto before it changes. Kawabata — novelist, writer, Nobel prize laureate — loved the old city Kamakura 鎌倉 and around the area, and spent a lot of time there, and seems to have concerned about the radical change of Japan after the war and its influence on historic cities.

A Lonely Traveler

    "The year after he held an exhibition featuring the four seasons in Kyoto, Higashiyama headed to Germany and Austria. The purpose of this journey was to visit the ancient cities lying quietly in these two countries. The Germanic race, who, on the one hand, are supposed to have lived struggling against nature, on the other hand, enjoy life in harmony with nature. The pristine and modest people love their hometown and live caring for nature. Higashiyama was deeply moved by their attitude. After recognizing the Japanese beauty created over a long period of time by the people and nature in Kyoto, it was only narural for him to have been attracted to the old towns in Germany and Austria and the culture kept alive there. The pendulum that had swung back to the south once again swung to the north.

    Whereas the views of Kyoto were mainly landscapes of nature and gardens, the majority of the works Higashiyama created based on this journey to Germany and Austria were townscapes and views of buildings. It was unusual for Higashiyama to treat the subject of a town, but he did paint a few works from time to time. ——

    Higashiyama's eye to discern signs of "life" in nature did not change even when he was looking at a town. Within the ancient capital, which had continued through a long history, and its culture, he tried to find evidence of nature and the life of the people living there. In the end, people are part of the nature. People live with nature and are in a state of flux. The warmth of life living amidst transiency was probably what Higashiyama wanted to touch on and feel. As the final scene of the four seasons in Kyoto, he painted Yearend (cat. no. 35). The faint light coming through windows of the houses and the hidden darkness behind the half-drawn curtain in Window (cat. no. 54), which was painted in Germany, both reveal the firmness of the workings of human beings and the artist's gentle eye empathizing with that.

Yearend

Window

    However, Higashiyama does not step in any further. Neither does he mix intimately with others. During his Nordic tour he saw a festival celebrating the summer solstice. People may expect him to join the dance in a circle, but that was not what he wished to do. He says he is not the performer on stage but the onlooker watching from the audience. To look on from the outside—As Higashiyama likened himself to a wandering apprentice, he was persistently a wandering traveler in search of solitude." —Masaaki Ozaki

It concludes on the next Monday-post, REVIEW: Exhibition 'Kaii Higashiyama' PART3 (final)

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