Modern Japanese Art from the Museum Collection

II. Art of the prewar Showa period (1926-89)

Maturity of Japanese-style and Western-style paintings

After the individualist trend in the Taisho period (1912-26) and the subsequent rise of modernism, some artists extended the trend and pursued avant-garde expression, but others negatively reacted and turned their eyes to Japanese traditions and classics, emphasizing Japanese and Oriental tradition as the starting point of creative activities. Many Japanese-style painters strongly inclined toward classicism, typified by Yasuda Yukihiko and Kobayashi Kokei who often tackled historical subjects using strictly controlled lines following ancient Chinese examples. Western-style painters such as Umehara Ryuzaburo and Yasui Sotaro gradually established lucid and decorative styles that might be called "Japanese oil painting" In short, it can be said that modern Japanese painting reached its maturity around this period.

III Art during and after the War

Soon after the 1929 Great Depression resulted in economic protectionism in many countries, the second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, leading to the enforcement of the National Mobilization Law next year. It was a difficult situation for "modern" artists who were thought to ground their activities on individuality. In addition to usual military painters, leading artists began producing war record paintings by commission from the military press section. On the other hand, younger painters such as Ai-Mitsu, Matsumoto Shunsuke, and Aso Saburo created realist works aiming at leaving evidence of humanity at a narrow margin of wartime statism--rare legacies handed down to postwar art. This section centers on realist paintings of the 1940s and 1950s, including those artists who began their careers after the war.

IV Art in the 1950s and 1960s

In 1952, the Treaty of Peace with Japan went into effect and the country regained its sovereignty. The 1950s saw strong economic revival, and the 1960s unprecedented level of economic growth. In the 1950s, Higashiyama Kaii and Takayama Tatsuo introduced profound color planes, leading the transformation of Japanese-style paintings to presentation of internal image. Including abstract paintings and sculptures, Japanese art in this period in general had a strong tendency toward direct revelation of the origin of life, or the bosom of Nature or the universe. After rapid improvement of the social system and urban infrastructure began for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, modern thinking revived to highlight the relationship between forms or the framework of artistic expression. Those artists who began their careers after the war, such as Domoto Hisao, Kusama Yayoi, and Miyawaki Aiko, produced new types of abstract paintings.