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The Social Background and Production of Komuro Tôru's Equestrian Statue of Date Masamune
Get PDFAn equestrian statue of Date Masamune, renowned as the first daimyô of the Sendai clan, was made in 1933-1935 as a monument commemorating the 300th anniversary of his death. The monument was unveiled as part of the festival honoring that anniversary held on the grounds of the former Sendai Castle in Sendai city, Miyagi prefecture. Komuro Tôru (1899-1953), a sculptor active in Tokyo and Miyagi during the early Shôwa period, made the work. After its completion it came to be a familiar monument symbolizing Sendai, but then vanished from its pedestal in 1944, a mere nine years after its dedication. The sculpture was recast prior to the opening of the 1964 Olympics and today the sculpture stands again as a monument symbolizing Sendai.
There have been few studies done of the sculpture within the history of Japanese art, and no detailed investigation of the process by which it was commissioned and cast, nor the intentions of its makers. Thus, in this article I investigated the social background of the time and considered what led them to create a monument to Masamune. As I confirmed the production process, I also investigated the intentions of Komuro and those involved as they visualized an image of Masamune.
First, I investigated the social background of the work. The Japanese government was then advancing policies to increase international tourism to boost their foreign exchange funds. However, during Sendai's development as a military capital from the Meiji period onwards the city had lost such historical structures as the Sendai Castle Honmaru and Ninomaru which were famous sites linked to Masamune. Then Miyagi prefecture leaders thought why not erect a new monument to Masamune and thereby spur on the development of Sendai’s tourism industry. They sought to use the monument to convey an image of Sendai city itself or Miyagi prefecture to the tourists who visited Sendai.
I next confirmed the monument's production process. Two local historians, Atôda Reizô and Ogura Hiroshi, were in charge of confirming the sculpture's historical accuracy and frequently advised Komuro during the process. The two men considered the educational influence of the work on young people and thus emphasized the need for a monument that showed Masamune peacefully governing, not relying on military might. Komuro took the opinions of the two men to heart and using the sculpture of Date Masamune in armor on horseback at Zuiganji, an image familiar to ordinary people, as his basis, he created a sculpture that would not evoke thoughts of excessive force, battle or military power. One example of this care can be seen in Masamune holding a folding fan rather than a military leader's fan.
Komuro also learned about the musculoskeletal structure of horses from the teachings of Hakuraku and more contemporaneously from military veterinarians, and sought specialist opinion on the armor and helmet. Thus, a variety of local intelligentsia worked with Komuro to produce an image of Masamune who peacefully developed his domain capital. They can be thought to have indirectly sought to show that Sendai had developed through economic means, not dependence on military might.
And so while Komuro and his advisors produced a work with peaceful intentions, at the same time they seem to have been cognizant of the concept of peace itself, which Japan sought to create through its dominion over East Asia. While this sculpture was being built, numerous other monuments encouraging warlike sentiments were also being created. We must remember that this work was created in the midst of such social conditions.
Throughout the article I indicate that this work deeply reflects the state of education, tourism and the military in Miyagi prefecture at the time. This work can also be seen as reflecting the overall tenor of the moment, as the shadow of militarism advanced across the free mood of the Taishô era.journal articl
Principal Article: Advocating Chinese Art and World Literature through Business and Translation: A Study of Wu Hengzhi as a Promotor of Sino- Western Cultural Exchange
Get PDFWu Hengzhi (1871-?), known in English as Heng-Chi Wolfe, from Xiangshan City, Guangdong Province, played a pivotal role of promoting Sino-Western art and cultural exchange in modern time. He was engaged in a great variety of social activities, whether in English-Chinese bilingual translation, legal practice, commercial education, traveling, and publishing business, or in the dealership of Chinese art and the introduction of world literature, with unique contributions. Mysteriously, such a versatile intellectual remained in obscurity since his late days. In this study, the difference that the important yet long forgotten pioneer made in both social reformation and the promotion of Chinese art and world literature, including the opening up of the global market for ancient and modern Chinese painting in Shanghai and the world, will be unveiled. It is hoped that the historical reconstruction in a cross-contextual paradigm will shed light on what Wu Hengzhi and his domestic and international partners had accomplished for modernization from the late Qing to early Republican era of China.journal articl
Research Note: Tanaka Ichimatsu’s Eye and Hand
Get PDFTanaka Ichimatsu (1895-1983) was a Japanese art history scholar particularly known for his accomplishments in the study of Buddhist painting, handscrolls and ink painting. After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University, in 1924 he began working at the Tokyo Imperial Museum, and from 1953 through 1965, he was Director General of the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties. For many years he was involved in the cultural properties administration, such as designating National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties, and thus for more than half a century he played a leading role in Japan’s research on art history. In 1973 he became the second Japanese, after Yashiro Yukio, to receive the Smithsonian Institution’s honor, the Charles Lang Freer Medal. Tanaka wrote more than 100 books and more than 350 research articles, while also serving as director on numerous art compendia volumes. Indeed, it would not be an exaggeration to say that anyone who has studied Japanese art history has read or seen some of Tanaka’s writings. What supported Tanaka’s research was the survey notes he made during his numerous research surveys of artworks. He drew detailed sketches of the motifs in paintings in those notebooks, while also making detailed records of textual elements such as any accompanying text, painting inscriptions and signatures. Those sketches accurately depicted the characteristics of the artworks and many are worth appreciation as drawings themselves. The Tanaka Ichimatsu Archives in the Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties include his survey notes, research materials and photographs, and work is underway to make these materials publicly available in the form of a digital archive.
The Tanaka Ichimatsu Archives also include his own sketchbooks from his primary school years onwards and postcards he wrote and illustrated. His pictures of his childhood interests include numerous splendid examples. This article focuses on Tanaka’s eye, his ability to see, and his hand, his ability to depict what he saw, while also introducing the home environment and family relations of the Tsuruoka city, Yamagata prefecture, home where he was born and raised. One Tanaka family ancestor, Tanaka Tôkô (田中桐江) formed a literary circle in Ikeda (present-day Osaka prefecture in the Settsu (摂津) domain during the Edo period, and produced a lineage of educated descendants. Ichimatsu’s father, Ichinei (一寧) was a teacher of Japanese and Chinese literature at Shônai Middle School (庄内中学校), and his father’s brother, Ittei or Kazusada (一貞) studied under Fukuzawa Yukichi, and studied in America and Europe as the second Keiô Gijuku overseas scholar. After returning to Japan Ittei/ Kazusada taught sociology and became the first director of the library at Keio University and is credited with founding that library. Ittei/Kazusada traveled to the West three times, and he can be considered to have been an important influence on his nephew Ichimatsu. While Ittei/Kazusada was in Paris in 1902-1903, he joined the local Japanese student organization called the Cercle du Panthéon, and is known to have developed friendships with such Japanese painters as Wada Eisaku and Kanokogi Takeshirô. On the other hand, postcards became common in Europe in the latter half of the 19th century and this led to a worldwide picture postcard boom. Ichimatsu’s own paintings on postcards were influenced by this trend and their painting style reveals the influence of Ôshita Tôjirô, a popular watercolorist of the period. Ôshita was also one of Ittei’s friends and contributed two pictures to Ittei’s book of travels. Ittei sent picture postcards from Europe to his hometown of Tsuruoka, and thus Ichimatsu can be thoughtto have learned about unknown to him arts through his uncle in Europe. For example, Ichimatsu’s sketchbook from January 1914 while he was a middle school student in Tsuruoka includes a copy of the Delphic Oracle from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes. This shows that Ichimatsu saw one of the postcards that Ittei had sent from Rome and copied the imagery. Thus, from childhood Ichimatsu practiced looking at things with his own eyes and then depicting them with his own hand. The drawing of a picture was thus also training to leave records and this skill can be seen as at the heart of his study and survey of massive numbers of artworks in later years.
Around the time that Ichimatsu began working at the Imperial Museum he began writing his survey notes in notebooks. Then, starting in 1934, he began to write his notes on B5 size square-ruled genkô yôshi manuscript paper, which could then be organized by artist or genre. He conducted surveys of artworks on an almost daily basis, and thus he accumulated survey notes. He realized that by organizing the pages by artist, period or other categories, they would be extremely useful in later reference situations. Thus, we can say that Ichimatsu constructed his own massive database. In busy years, Ichimatsu would survey more than 320 objects per year. Overall, the Tanaka Ichimatsu Archives contain more than 20,000 survey notes. The digital form of this analogue Tanaka Ichimatsu Archives currently being created will become an Institute archives for future public access.journal articl
Networking Core Centres for International Cooperation on Conservation of Cultural Heritage Project “Conservation and Utilisation of Historic Buildings in Bhutan” : Examination of Restoration Plan and Utilisation Plan of Farmhouses : Examination of Value Evaluation of Farmhouses as Cultural Heritage
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Study concerning Transcription of Staff Notation for Tokiwazubushi by Hogaku Chosa-gakari
Get PDFIn the study of tokiwazubushi, progress has been made in the historical study of its performances and performers, but little has been done from the point of view of music. The author thinks that one large factor for this is that there is no “score” in tokiwazubushi that can be considered as a common language. For example, of the officiall １y published scores 6 (of these 2 are only small parts of repertoire) from Hogakusha are in the style of bunkafu notation while 1 from Tokiwazu Hyojun-fuhon Kanko-kai is in the style of kenseikaifu notation. Such circumstance not only makes the musical study of tokiwazubushi difficult but also casts a shade on the promotion and transmission of tokiwazubushi.
Fear toward such a situation already existed in the Taisho period. Hogaku Chosa-gakari, an official group involved in the investigation of Japanese music established within the music department of the Imperial Household Ministry (1907-1943 ?) attempted to write tokiwazubushi score on the staff notation system. The present paper clarifies the purpose, history and method of that attempt based on material from the archives of the Tokyo University of Arts to consider the significance and issues related to the attempt to write tokiwazubushi scores on staff notation system.
This paper is a part of the results obtained from the project of “Grants-in Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (C), ‘Fundamental research for musical analysis of tokiwazubushi (18K00158, Maehara Megumi).departmental bulletin pape
Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage from Disasters: Program at the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties and Its Significance
Get PDFIn recent years the question of how intangible cultural heritage may be protected from disaster is a topic of interest both in Japan and abroad. From the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred in March 2011, the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage at the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties has been continuing investigation related to the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage from disasters. The diverse topics undertaken may be categorized into the following: 1. Investigation of damaged intangible cultural heritage, 2. Compilation of records on intangible cultural heritage, 3. Construction of archives on intangible cultural heritage, 4. Sharing of information and construction of networks, and 5. Investigation overseas. In the present paper, the content of these investigations is delved into and the significance of each domestic and overseas movement is discussed critically. In addition, in comparison with international movements, investigation on the use of intangible cultural heritage (for example, traditional knowledge) for disaster risk management will be needed.departmental bulletin pape
