Maeda Seison

Maeda Seison

Maeda Seison ( Japanese 前 田 青 邨 ; January 27, 1885 in Nakatsugawa , Gifu Prefecture - October 29, 1977 there , real name Renzō ( 廉 造 )) was a Japanese painter of the Nihonga direction .

life and work

Maeda went to Tokyo in 1901 and became a student of Kajita Hanko (1870-1919), who is known for woodcuts in the Ukiyoe style. From him he got his stage name Seison (about "Blue Village"). In 1907 Maeda joined the artist group Kōjikai ( 紅 児 会 ) of Yasuda Yukihiko , Hayami Gyoshū and Imamura Shikō and participated with them in the further development of Nihonga, called Shin-Nihonga . In 1912, at the 17th annual Kōjikai exhibition, Okakura Kakuzō became aware of him.

At the 6th exhibition of the annual exhibition organized by the Ministry of Culture (short name Bunten ( 文 展 )), also in 1912, exhibited the picture “ Mikoshi ” ( 御 輿 振 り , Mikoshi furi ), which received a third prize and made his name known. In 1914 he exhibited at the exhibition of the resurrected Nihon bijutsu-in the picture roll ( emaki ) “cut bamboo” ( 竹 取 物語 絵 巻 , Taketori monogatari emaki ) and the three hanging rolls “cure in the hot springs” ( 湯 治 場 , Tōjiba ) and then became an associate member of the Nihon bijutsu-in. In 1916 Maeda created “Eight Famous Views of Miyako ” ( 京 名 所 八 題 , Miyako meisho hachidai ) in a more western monochrome ink manner. From 1922 to 1923 Maeda and Kobayashi Kokei were sent to Europe by the Nihon bijutsu-in for further training. During this stay the two made copies of the picture scroll "Admonitions / Teachings of the Court Ladies" (attributed to Gu Kaizhi ) in the British Museum .

In 1930 Maeda received the Asahi Prize of the newspaper Asahi Shimbun for his screen " Yoritomo in the cave" ( 洞窟 の 頼 朝 , Dōkutsu no Yoritomo ), which he had submitted to the Nihon bijutsu-in the year before, in 1935 and in 1944 he became a member of the Academy of Arts he the title "court artist" ( 帝室 技 芸 員 , Teishitsu gigei-in ), from 1951 to 1959 he was a professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts, the later Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku .

Maeda's paintings with historical themes also include the Japanese "legation in Rome" ( ロ ー マ 使節 , Rōma shisetsu ), an open “sarcophagus” ( 石棺 , Sekkan , 1962). The two-winged screen with a figure from the Nō theater “In anticipation of the appearance” ( 出 を 待 つ , De o matsu , 1927) belongs to another series of topics . In 1955 Maeda was awarded the Japanese Order of Culture and named a person with special cultural merits .

Maeda is buried in the cemetery of Tōkei-ji Temple in Kamakura .

Remarks

1. ↑ The hot springs are shown in Kusatsu , Shuzen-ji (now the Izu district ) and Ikaho .
2. ↑ The two-winged screen shows Minamoto Yoritomo , who had to spend the night in a cave with followers after the defeat on Ishibashiyama.

literature

• Tazawa Yutaka: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art . Kodansha International, 1981. ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .
• Laurance P. Roberts: A Dictionary of Japanese Artists. Weatherhill, 1976. ISBN 0-8348-0113-2 .

Web links

Commons : Seison Maeda  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Maeda Museum in Nakatsu

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