Yorozu Tetsugorō

Yorozu Tetsugorō

Self-Portrait with Clouds (1912)

Yorozu Tetsugorō ( Japanese 萬 鉄 五郎 ; born February 17, 1885 ; died May 1, 1927 ) was a Japanese painter in the Yōga style.

Life

Yorozu Tetsugorō was born in Tsuchizawa (Tōwa-machi) in Iwate Prefecture. His parents ran an agricultural and marine products business. In 1903 he went with his brother to Tōkyō and attended the Waseda School (today: Waseda University ) and from 1905 also the painting school of the Hakuba-kai (白馬 会) at Kikuzaka in Hongō, where he learned to draw under Nagahara Kōtarō . In 1906, after leaving school, he went to America, but returned six months later in early 1907. From 1907 he attended the department for western painting of the "Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkō" (東京 美術 学校), the forerunner of today's Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku . There he dealt with Post-Impressionism and Fauvism and founded the "ア ブ サ ン ト 会" (Abusanto-kai: Absinthe Society) with some friends. He completed his training in 1912, for which he submitted the painting "裸体 美人" (Ratai bijin: Naked Beauty), a very expressionist work.

In the same year he founded, together with Takamura Kōtarō , Saitō Yori , Kishida Ryūsei and others, the "フ ュ ウ ザ ン 会" (Fyūzan-kai: Fuzain Society), in which he played a leading role. In 1914, after a short period of military service, he returned to his homeland, where he buried himself in work. It was the time when he switched from Fauvism to Cubism. In 1917 he went back to Tōkyō, where he attracted attention in the 4th exhibition of the artist group Nika-kai (二 科 会) with his picture "持 た れ て 立 つ 人" (Motarete tatsu hito: person leaning on). This picture is a landmark of the processing of Cubism in Japan.

In 1919, Yorozu moved to Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, when he was ill . There he began to be interested in traditional painting, especially in the painters of the Nanga style, such as Uragami Gyokudō , Ike no Taiga and Tani Bunchō . He studied these in great detail, even began to paint in their style and showed the results at an exhibition.

From the beginning of 1922, Yorozu was a guest member of the Shun'yō-kai (春陽 会) artist community and continued to produce pictures with echoes of the Nanga style. In his late work he achieved what can be described as a kind of Far Eastern Expressionism. At the beginning of 1927 tuberculosis broke out in full, and Yorozu died after just a few months.

Other important works are “日 傘 の 裸 婦” (Higasa no rafu: act under a parasol; 1913), “木 間 風景” (Ko no ma fūkei: landscape between trees; 1918), “夏 の 朝” (Natsu no asa: summer morning ; 1924) and "水 着 姿" (Mizugi sugata: figure in a bathing suit; 1926). He also made some woodblock prints.

style

Yorozu was one of the first Japanese painters to take up the influence of post-impressionism . Influences of Fauvism and Expressionism later came in as he developed his distinctive style.

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  Self (1912)

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  Naked Beauty (1912)

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  Leaning figure (1917).

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  Nude (1926)

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  Figure in a bathing suit, 1926

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  Landscape by the Sea, 1926

Remarks

1. ↑ This picture was shown at the exhibition Japanese Painting in Western Style 1985 in the Museum for East Asian Art in Cologne.
2. ↑ Today simplified 万 written.
3. ↑ Fuzain: approximately Coal drawing.
4. ↑ This image appeared as a postage stamp for the Japanese Post.
5. ↑ Mount Fuji in the background .

literature

• Japan Foundation (Ed.): Japanese Painting in the Western Style, 19th and 20th Centuries. Exhibition catalog. Cologne 1985, DNB 860140512 .
• Yutaka Tazawa: Yorozu Tetsugorō. In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art. Kodansha International, 1981, ISBN 0-87011-488-3 . (English)
• Laurance P. Roberts: Yorozu Tetsugoro. In: A Dictionary of Japanese Artists. Weatherhill 1976, ISBN 0-8348-0113-2 . (English)
• T. Kagesato: Yorozu Tetsugorō. In: Gendai Nihon bijutsu zenshū. Volume 18, Shueisha Verlag, 1974. (Japanese)

Web links

Commons : Yorozu Tetsugorō  - collection of images, videos and audio files

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