Chōkai Seiji

Chōkai Seiji ( Japanese 鳥 海 青 児 ; born March 4, 1902 in Hiratsuka ( Kanagawa Prefecture ); died June 11, 1972 ; real first name: Masao ( 正 夫 )) was a Japanese painter of the Shōwa period in the Yōga style.

life and work

Chōkai attended Fujisawa Middle School . Then he studied at the Faculty of Economics at Kansai University , from which he graduated in 1926. While he was studying, he submitted the picture "Drawing of a Western Girl" ( 洋 女 を 配 す る の 図 , Yōjo o haisuru no zu ) to the exhibition of the artist group Shun'yō-kai ( 春陽 会 ), which was accepted. In the same year he founded the artist group "Rokujin-sha" together with Migishi Kōtarō ( 三 Künstler 好 太郎 ; 1903-1934).

He also got to know Yorozu Tetsugorō and Kishida Ryūsei , where he was influenced by the latter. In 1928 he won a prize at the Shun'yō exhibition for his painting "River Without Water" ( 水 無 き 川 , Mizunaki-kawa ). In 1930 Chōkai traveled to Europe via Moscow, where he stayed for three years. From there he also visited Algeria and Morocco.

After his return to Japan, Chōkai began his "bullfight" ( 闘 牛 , Tōgyū ), a series of pictures of terraced fields, painted in a dark, calm style. He also created a series of pictures based on his 1939 trip through China. In the same year he became interested in classical Japanese art and collected everything from ukiyo-e to Buddhist art. In 1943 he left the Shun'yō-kai and joined the "Association of Independent Artists" ( 独立 美術 協会 , Dokuritsu bijutsu kyōkai ).

After the end of the Pacific War , Chōkai developed his style further, as his Mamiana scene shows, a series of landscapes, a series of pumpkins and works about Egypt. In 1956 he was awarded a prize by the Ministry of Culture, in 1958 he received the highest award at the exhibition Gendai Nihon bijutsu-ten ( 現代 日本 美術展 ) for his picture "Pikador" ( ピ カ ド ー ル , Pikadōru ; 1958), in 1959 he won the Mainichi- Fine Arts Award.

In addition to the “picador” mentioned above, his representative works include the painting “Man, condescending the blind” ( ブ ラ イ ン ド を 降 ろ す 男 , Buraindo o orosu otoko ; 1960). A larger collection of his works can be found in the Hiratsuka Art Museum ( 平 塚 市 美術館 , Hiratsuka-shi bijutsukan ).

literature

• Suzuki, Toshihiko (Ed.): Chōkai Seiji . In: Nihon daihyakka zensho (Denshibukku-han), Shogakukan, 1996.
• Japan Foundation (Ed.): Japanese Painting in the Western Style, 19th and 20th Centuries. Exhibition catalog, Cologne, 1985.
• Tazawa, Yutaka: Chōkai Seiji . In :: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art. Kodansha International, 1981. ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .

Web links

• Picture collection in the Hiratsuka Museum

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Chōkai is the family name, Seiji the first name.