Murayama Kaita

Murayama Self-Portrait, 1916

Woman and Beggar, 1917

Murayama Kaita ( Japanese 村 山 槐 多 ; born September 15, 1896 in Yokohama , † February 20, 1919 in Tokyo ) was a Japanese painter and writer.

Overview

Murayama was born in Yokohama but grew up in Kyoto, where his father, a middle school teacher, had been transferred when he was four years old. As a gifted child, he wrote stories, poems and plays when he was still in school. Then, under the influence of his cousin, Yamamoto Kanae , he began to take an interest in painting.

In 1914 he became a student in the Department of Western Painting at the Nihon Bijutsuin private art academy . In the same year he was able to exhibit five watercolors, including "Girls in the Park" (庭園 の 少女, Teien no shōjo) at the first exhibition of the Nikakai Artists' Association (二 科 会). In 1915 he was able to show the picture “Girl with a flower pipe ” (カ ン ナ と 少女, Kanna to shōjo) at the 2nd Inten exhibition and “Woman at the lake” (湖水 の 女; Kosui no onna) at a special Inten exhibition in 1917. In the same year he showed the picture "Woman and Beggar" (乞食 と 女, Kojiki to onna) at the 4th Inten exhibition, for which he received a prize.

Despite the recognition achieved, Murayama led a disorderly life. Due to an unhappy love affair, there was increased artistic effort, but this weakened him physically. In 1919 he submitted another picture for the 5th Inten exhibition, but died a short time later of tuberculosis.

Murayama's painting was oriented towards the West. He specialized mainly in watercolor and oil paintings. He also published poems and stories.

His other pictures include "Roses with Girls" (薔薇 と 少女; Bara to shōjo; 1917). - A collection of poems by him was published posthumously under the title “What Kaita Sung About” (槐 多 の 歌 ル, Kaita no utaru; 1927).

photos

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  Girl in the park
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  Girl with flower pipe
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  Girl with roses
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  Female nude, 1914/15
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  Woman at the lake, 1917

Web links

Commons : Murayama Kaita  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ ^{a b} These pictures were shown at the exhibition Japanese Painting in Western Style 1985 in the Museum for East Asian Art in Cologne.
2. ↑ Emmanuel Bénézit : Dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs . Volume 7. 1976. Page 616.

literature

• National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo (Ed.): Murayama Kaita. In: Kindai Nihon no bijutsu, Tokyo, 1984.
• Tazawa, Yutaka: Murayama Kaita . In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art. Kodansha International, 1981. ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .
• Laurence P. Roberts: Murayama Kaita . In: A Dictionary of Japanese Artists. Weatherhill, 1976. ISBN 0-8348-0113-2 .

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