Shinkai Takezō

Shinkai Takezō ( Japanese 新海 竹 蔵 ; born June 12, 1897 in Yamagata ; died June 13, 1968 in Tōkyō ) was a Japanese sculptor of the Taishō and Shōwa period . He was a nephew of the sculptor Shinkai Taketaro .

life and work

Shinkai Takezō was born into a Buddhist priestly family. He learned sculpture from his uncle Shinkai Taketaro. At the state-organized 9th  Colorful Exhibition in 1915 he was able to show a work for the first time, namely the sculpture "Mother and Child" ( 母子 Boshi ). He was then to be seen at other colorful exhibitions and the later, now briefly called Teiten exhibitions. Then he switched to the exhibitions of the private Nihon Bijutsuin , of which he became an associate member in 1927. There he exhibited regularly in the sculpture department of the exhibition series. When the sculpture department was dissolved in 1961, he joined the Kokuga-kai ( 国画 会 ) in 1963 . He continued to work tirelessly both with wood carving and with the modeling of sculptures. He was also interested in dry paint technology.

After the Pacific War , Shinkai taught at the "Tōkyō Kyōiku Daigaku" ( 東京 教育 大学 ). He was considered a leading member of Japanese sculpture due to his established style. In 1961 he founded an association of sculptors "Chōkokuka Shūdan" ( 彫刻家 集 団 ), which then merged with the Kokuga-kai in 1963 when they re-established their sculpture department.

Shinkai's "Jüngling" ( ō Shōnen ) from 1954 was awarded the Minister of Education ( 芸 術 選 奨 文 部 大臣 賞, Geijutsusenshō Mombudaijin-shō). Other well-known works are the life-size sculpture of the sumo wrestler Dewagadake (出 羽 ケ 岳 等身 像 Dewagadake Tōshin-zō ), who lived from 1902 to 1950, the "walking" ( 砧 Kinuta ) of a woman and the "torso of a youth" ( 少年 ト ル ソ Shōnen Toruso ), 1951. On the building of the Medical Faculty of the University of Tokyo , he designed one of the two reliefs that show merited doctors at work. In memory of Okakura Kakuzō he created a stone stele with Okakura's portrait and his wish “Asia is / will become one” ( 亜 細 亜 は 一 な り ). It stands in the garden of Okakura's outdoor villa on the Pacific coast (Izura Kaigan, Ibaraki Prefecture ).

Remarks

1. ↑ The dry varnish technique ( 乾 漆 Kanshitsu ) consists of gradually applying layers of varnish to the wooden sculpture. This method was developed in Japan during the Sengoku period .
2. ↑ The other relief comes from the sculptor Hinago Jitsuzō ( 日 名子 実 三 ; 1892–1945).

Web links (images)

The Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art includes a .:

• Walken, 1939
• Torso of a youth, 1951
• Bust of Yūki, circa 1967

literature

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

Web links

• CV, Japanese

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