Life is limited, but art lasts forever. There are many such examples. However, when the creator's life passes away, whether the artwork can continue to survive depends on the efforts of some people related to it, and sometimes it also needs a nudge from fate.
After Van Gogh's death, his younger brother Theo wanted to hold a retrospective exhibition for him, but failed to negotiate with the art dealer, so he could only hold the exhibition at his home. Soon, Theo died of illness. The following year (1891), 15 of Van Gogh's works appeared in the Twenty Figures Exhibition in Brussels and received favorable reviews. The real turning point occurred in 1892. Thanks to the unremitting efforts of Theo's widow Joanna, a retrospective exhibition of Van Gogh was held in Amsterdam, with a total of 122 works. Our understanding of Van Gogh today not only comes from his paintings, but is also inseparable from his letters to Theo. Joanna compiled and published a three-volume collection of letters in 1914. Since then, more studies on Van Gogh have been published, from various angles ranging from art to psychology.
"Van Gogh Fever" is like a monsoon that blew from Europe to Japan after several years. The opportunity was a magazine.
In the 43rd year of Meiji (1910), Shirakaba was founded by a group of literary young people including Sanetsu Mushakoji, Naoya Shiga, Soetsu Yanagi, and Kikuo Kojima. From the beginning, the magazine was not limited to literature, but extended to art, music, drama, philosophy and other levels. The cover of the first issue (1910.4) was drawn by Kikuo Kojima and was obviously influenced by the series of prints "The Glove" by the German painter Max Klingel. In this issue, Kikuo Kojima wrote an article "The New Idealism of German Painting" under the pseudonym k.k., accompanied by photos of some works. The painters mentioned include Max Klingel, Arnold Böcklin (Switzerland), Frankfurt Lanz von Stark.
When "Shirakaba" was founded, Mushakoji Sanetsu was 25 years old and had dropped out of the philosophy department of Tokyo Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo). Shiga Naoya, who is two years older than him, also studied at Tokyo Imperial University. He transferred from the English Department to the Chinese Department but did not finish it. Arishima Ikuma, who had known both of them since they were in Gakushuu, was three years older than Taketsukoji Sanetsu. In order to study art, he went to Italy and then France at the age of 21 in order to study art. In Paris, he became acquainted with Kotaro Takamura, Ryuzaburo Umehara, Tsuguharu Fujita and others, all of whom later became indispensable figures in the history of art.
Learning Academy is a private school from elementary school to high school. Due to the background of this school, the members of "White Birch" are said to be "gongzi brothers", and the title is quite derogatory. However, it is precisely because of their family conditions that they have more opportunities to be exposed to overseas trends. The group continued to grow, and Arishima Ima's elder brother Arishima Takero and younger brother Satomi Jun (pseudonym) naturally began to write for "Shirakaba" and later became writers.
Arishima Ikuma, who had lived in France, wrote an introduction to Cézanne in the magazine's Volume 1, Issue 2 (1910.5), and he was also the one who wrote to Rodin. The letter introduced the magazine "White Birch" and said that they were preparing a Rodin special issue. They would like to inform him of his date of birth. If possible, please give him a photo and a message. Rodin wrote back, not only answering his birthday and attaching photos, but also proposed that he would exchange sketches for ukiyo-e. The next volume 1, issue 8 (1910.11) was the commemorative issue of Rodin's 70th year. It published the correspondence between Ushima Ima and Rodin, and other members also wrote articles about Rodin. Among the contributors, Asakura Fumio was 27 years old at the time and graduated from the Sculpture Department of the Tokyo Art School. He later became a master of sculpture. The works in the Asakura Sculpture Museum in Taitung District will most likely remind viewers of Rodin. This issue of the magazine contains photo albums of Rodin's works. Six months later, they sent thirty ukiyo-e paintings and everyone’s signatures. Rodin wrote back again, offering to donate three bronze sculptures and hold a sketch exhibition in Japan.
The members of "White Birch" are no strangers to organizing exhibitions. In July 1910, they held a joint European exhibition of Minami Kaoruzou and Arishima Ima at Takenodai in Ueno Park. They also exhibited European paintings and copies collected by relatives and friends. In October 1911, they held the "Taiwan Print Exhibition" (Western Print Exhibition) in Akasaka. This exhibition contains mostly original prints, mixed with a few reproductions.
The works presented by Rodin will not be exhibited until the "Fourth Art Exhibition hosted by Bai Hua" in February 1912.Later, in the fifth exhibition in April, works by famous artists such as Beardsley, Cézanne, and Van Gogh were brought together, most of which were prints. If you look at it from a modern point of view, you will find it a bit ridiculous, but for the Japanese people at that time, it was the first time they came into contact with the works of these artists. Even the framed printed paintings were enough to shock them.
The magazine "White Birch" was the first to introduce Van Gogh from multiple angles. Volume 2, No. 2 (1911.2) begins with an introduction to Van Gogh and his letters (based on research by German art critic Julius Meyer-Greve and translated by Kikukuo Kojima). Volume 2, No. 6 (1911.6) is a special collection of sketches and etchings by modern masters, including Van Gogh's pen and ink drawings. Volume 2, No. 10 (1911.10) is a special edition of Van Gogh.
"White Birch" Everyone is not satisfied with exhibiting replicas, but also wants to establish the White Birch Art Museum to hold higher-level exhibitions. They raised funds from the society, and at the same time received the support of industrialist Kumita Yamamoto, who purchased Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" for the art museum under construction. Van Gogh painted a total of seven paintings with the same title. Yamamoto Kumita bought the second one with the bluest background. This painting was published in Volume 12, No. 2 (1921.2), Shirakaba Art Museum Memorial Issue. It was exhibited that year and three years later, but was later destroyed by the war.
The protagonists of this article are not Van Gogh and Rodin, but three young people who had not yet made their mark at the time against the background of the west wind spreading eastward. Without mentioning "White Birch", it is impossible to understand the artistic atmosphere they breathed at that time, so I had to spend a lot of ink to foreshadow it.
Their names are: Tanaka Kyōkichi, Onchi Koushiro, and Ogiwara Sakutaro. When "White Birch" held an exhibition of European and Western prints in 1911, Tanaka Kyoukichi was 19 years old and a first-year student in the Japanese painting department at the Tokyo Art School; Onchi Koushiro was 20 years old and studying Western painting at the same school. He was one grade higher than Kyouyoshi and often visited Takehisa Yumeji, who was introduced to book binding by Yumeji; Ogiwara Sakutaro, who is about to turn 25, had enrolled in Keio University preparatory courses several times before but dropped out. The three of them have not yet met each other, and they have their own realistic pressures, creative troubles and hormonal depression to face.
"White Birch" Volume 2 No. 9 (1911.9) is a special series by Beardsley. This issue also contains the third serial of Van Gogh's letters. Beardsley's paintings had a huge impact on Koushiro. In October, he went to the "White Birch" Thai and Western print exhibition at Akasaka Sankai Hall. Many years later, he mentioned in "Kobo Miscellaneous Notes: Art Essays" (Xingfengkan, 1942) that what impressed him most in that exhibition were Munch's prints.
The exhibition features a total of thirty-nine painters and 189 exhibits. Compared with the strong lineup of works by Aubrey Beardsley and Heinrich Vogler, only five prints by Edvard Munch are on display, and two of them are reproductions. Speaking of Munch, of course he not only had "The Scream", but also had unique expressions in the field of printmaking. It was probably the two copied works that left a strong impression on Koushiro Onchi: "Heart" (das herz) and "Encounter in the Universe" (begegnung im weltall).
1912 was the last year of Meiji and the first year of Taisho. This year, Tanaka Kyoukichi wrote poems under the pen name "Tanaka Unknown Grass" in the magazine "The Country of Cherry Blossoms: The Scroll of Hearts" sponsored by Takehisa Yumeji. Koushiro, who was familiar with Yumeji, should have read Kyouyoshi during the manuscript stage. I was deeply moved by the poem and immediately sent a postcard with a handwritten picture of the girl and a short poem. The two young men who expressed themselves with paintbrushes and poems quickly became acquainted, and their relationship with Yumeji further deepened. Kyouyoshi rented a room at the Ueno Club where Yumeji rented, and also brought his friend Shizuo Fujimori from the Western Painting Department to him. Recommended to Meng Er.
Ueno at that time was a gathering place for young artists. Kaoyama Kotori (real name Kaoyama Torochi), who also lives in Ueno, is a preparatory student of the Sculpture Department of the Tokyo Art School. He introduced Kyoukichi to his relative, a young woman, and Kyoukichi fell into hopeless unrequited love. Love affairs pass quickly, leaving young people with wounds that are difficult to heal. Kotori did not pursue further studies and dropped out to become a disciple of the famous print engraver Igami Hanko. Igami Hanko was also an indispensable supporter of Takehisa Yumeji, who engraved most of Yumeji's works.
Kyouyoshi studied Japanese painting at school, but his focus was more on oil painting, watercolor painting, etc. Xiaoniao turned to printmaking and tried to start from a technical level. This choice may have some impact on Gongji and his friends.
In the Japanese painting world, if you want to be recognized, you must first join an official exhibition such as "Bunzhan" (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Exhibition). Takehisa Yumeji has no connection with the officialdom. His reputation relies on publications and the readers that come with them. In November 1912, Yumeji held the "First Exhibition of Yumeji's Works" at the Kyoto Prefectural Library. From the time to the location, this exhibition is obviously competing with the Kyoto Exhibition. Koushiro, Kyouyoshi, and Shizuo went to Kyoto to help set up the exhibition, and Kyouyoshi left a sketch of the scene. The exhibition was a great success, which was also a success achieved by Meng Erquan based on his own strength. Needless to say, the young people around him were also infected with the joy of success. Back in Tokyo, Gongji visited the bedridden bird and excitedly described the scene of Meng Erzhan to his sick friend. Xiaoniao had tuberculosis, which they knew nothing about at this time. Gongji stayed overnight and slept side by side with Xiaoniao.
In June 1913, Xiangshan Xiaoniao died of illness. Gongji later always wanted to hold a retrospective exhibition for the bird, but it failed.
This year, Kyouji began to draw covers for Dayangsha's magazines "Boyen World" and "Girls World". At the same time, he also made a circulation magazine "Secret Room" with his friends. "Secret Room" published the prints left by Kotori, as well as Kyoukichi's original prints. He also wrote many novels and poems for this hand-made "write, write, draw and draw" magazine. When he returned to his hometown of Wakayama during the summer vacation, he lost weight rapidly and thought it was due to being too busy at work. Back in Tokyo, news came one after another of the deaths of several friends - all from tuberculosis. For Gongji, from last year to this year, falling out of love and then losing friends one after another was a series of blows. Little did he know that the seeds of a greater crisis had already been planted. In October, Gongji was busy working on magazine covers at Dayangsha until late at night. On the way home, he coughed up blood and was later diagnosed with tuberculosis.
The physical state has the most direct impact on the painter's creation. Although he had various thoughts about oil painting, suffering from tuberculosis made Kyoshi actively or passively turn to smaller-scale media such as printmaking and pen and ink painting. Like Koshiro, he also likes Munch's prints. He owns a collection of Munch's paintings and reads them repeatedly.
Bedridden, Kyoshichi reread Rousseau's "Confessions" and wrote long letters to Yumeji and Koushiro, talking about various changes in his body and heart. He longed to recover and to create. As if the heat of his body also swept over his soul, he not only made woodcut prints, but also wrote a large number of poems. He made a long list of books for himself, ranging from criticism, philosophy, to art history. Koshiro's letter gradually became his spiritual support. He wrote in his reply: "There are really only 'companions' left around me, transcending relatives, transcending lovers, transcending wives, transcending everything. Koshiro Enji, I I believe in you. I want this 'belief' to develop further."
In March 1914, Kyouyoshi, Koushiro and Shizuo decided to launch the print magazine "Tsukiei", which was somewhat influenced by the "White Birch" Thai and Western Print Exhibition. At this time, Kyouyoshi was not yet 22 years old, and Koushiro and Shizuo were 23 years old. It can be seen from Kyouyoshi's postcard to Koushiro that the magazine title was his idea. The boss of Luoyang Tang, which published "White Birch" and "Meng Er Painting Collection", heard their idea and said, "It's only a loss of thirty yuan, so let's do it." They plan to practice it before publishing it officially. At the end of the month, the three people quickly completed the first issue of the private album "Moon Reflection", which only has three volumes, each holding one volume.
's private collection "Yue Ying" with only three volumes per issue has been published for a total of six issues. As soon as the first issue came out, Kyouyoshi had to go back to his hometown to recuperate due to illness. Before leaving, he gave the five prints he created for the second issue of the private album to Koushiro, and he continued to create after returning home.
Koshiro initially thought that Kyoshi's return to his hometown was just a temporary situation and he would recover soon. However, Gongji's letter revealed the breath of death: "The flowers in May are shining at this moment. The soil is covered with green, and the blessings of the sun and rain are everywhere. In such a rich scene, a life is eroded." Gongji has just experienced his third Second coughing up of blood. From "Secret Chamber" to "Moon Reflection", his career of concentrated and large-scale printmaking lasted only half a year.His works may have many immature aspects, but they have a certain power that directly touches the soul of the viewer. "Anxious Heart" (pictured above) published in the second issue of the private album, and "The Castrated Man and the Scarlet Poppy" (pictured below) in the fourth issue, are both the brainchild of him wandering between life and death.
Since Gongji was ill, the first two issues of the public journal used prints that had been published in the private edition of "Yueying" earlier. Koshiro's style gradually changed during this period, moving from semi-realism to abstraction. Perhaps because he witnessed the transformation of his friend, Kyouyoshi sent a new engraving, which was an unexpected surprise for Koushiro.
"Cordyceps Sinensis" (pictured above) published in the public magazine "Yueying III" is a strange work. Different from Kyoukichi's rough brushstrokes that seemed to be burning, this time's lines are extremely quiet. It is difficult to imagine that they were written by a late-stage tuberculosis patient who often had high fever. Tanaka Kiyomitsu compared this painting with the bamboo-related poems of Ogiwara Sakutaro in "Painters of the Reflection of the Moon" (Chikuma Shobo, 1990). "Important poems such as "Ogiwara Sakutaro's "Hanged in the Sky" and "Bamboo" appeared. , which began at the end of the third year of Taisho (1914), so it happened to be during this period that Sakutaro quietly wrote "From the lonely and sick ground/grow thin green bamboo roots"... Breeding an upward vision, it coincides with Kyouyoshi's " The vision of "Cordyceps Sinensis" contains such a similar essence"
Fujimori Shizuo's print "Ocluded", the public magazine "Moon Reflection iv", this issue is called "Death Gives Life", it is made for Fujimori Shizuo's sister. In December
, Shizuo's sister passed away. Due to the lack of medical conditions and common sense, young people of that era were surrounded by too many deaths, often at a young age. The news of death makes the living feel even more lonely. Kyouji, who was already very close to death, was deeply shocked. You can understand it by looking at the pen and ink drawings he left behind. "The Dead and What's Left Behind" and "The Last Dance" (pictured below) are both composed of twisted black lines, bursting with strong emotions.
In 1915, Kyouyoshi's condition became somewhat stable. Not only did he start making prints again, he also saved a 16-page pen drawing "Xin Yuan Yu Qu I" and gave it to Koushiro.
's public magazine "Tsukiei" is almost unsold. There should be some recipients of the magazine as a gift, such as Takehisa Yumeji and Kitahara Hakushu. Kitahara Hakushu is Kyouyoshi's favorite poet. Koshiro and the others went to visit him and presented him with a magazine. Afterwards, Kyouyoshi learned about Hakushu's current situation from the letter and decided to continue writing "Heartbara Yuki II" to give to the poet. At this time, his physical strength no longer allowed him to draw the ten pages originally envisioned, and in the end he only had six paintings.
html In June, Gongji went out to participate in the military recruitment inspection on a rainy day, which further worsened his condition. At this time, the poet Ogiwara Sakutaro, who was a complete stranger to him, asked through Koushiro if he could do illustrations and bindings for his first collection of poems, "Barking Moon". Sakutaro came up with this idea after seeing Kyouyoshi's paintings in the public magazine "Tsukiei". Gongji expressed that he wanted to read the other party's poems. After reading it, he wrote back and said that if he wanted to use printmaking, I would refuse (due to his poor health). If pen drawing was also possible, I would do it.With his consistent aesthetics, Gongji's idea is not a simple illustration of a collection of poems, but a collection of poems and paintings. He planned to paint a hundred paintings and select twenty or thirty good ones. What seems a huge task to a healthy person is, of course, unfinished. When the doctor asked him to take an absolute rest, he had no choice but to write to Koushiro, talking about his ideas and regrets, and asking him to refuse on his behalf.
Koushiro dropped out of school in July because he was inconsistent with the school's aesthetic philosophy. He had a newlywed wife and an unfinished career. For a while, he was both smug and a little confused. I just dropped out of school, and the first thing I received was a notice of physical examination for military conscription (current students are exempt from military conscription). Fortunately, the result was that I failed. In September, it was decided to make the public magazine "Yueyingvii" the last issue. The main reason was that the sales volume was really not ideal, and Luoyang Tang could not continue to lose money to support it. Starting from October 22nd, a small exhibition of Yueyingshe titled "Farewell" will be held at Harbor House for three consecutive days. In addition to the paintings of the three people, there is also a work by Xiangshan Xiaoniao. On the 23rd, Gongji passed away at the age of 23. It took almost a week for Koushiro to learn of Kyouyoshi's death via a postcard. "Yueying vii" was published in November, and Gongji could not be seen during his lifetime.
Koushiro held a small exhibition of Kyouji's works at his home, and then wanted to publish a collection of his works. He planned to raise publishing funds from the society first, placed an advertisement in "White Birch", and also asked people around him. It was necessary to raise 200 yuan, but after raising funds from many parties, it was still far from the total amount. As a last resort, we had to return part of the funds raised. Previously, he asked Gongji's cousin to look for other works in his hometown, and the other party sent Gongji a draft of "The Barking Moon" before his death. There are fourteen paintings in total, thirteen are painted in red ink on light red medicine packaging paper, and one is painted in gold on thick black paper. Since Kyouyoshi died of lung disease, the paper was sterilized and the paintings were partially damaged.
The once shelved "Barking Moon" binding project was picked up again by Koushiro. He negotiated with Sakutaro whether he could use Kyouyoshi's posthumous work as an illustration and send the work to the other party for review. Sakutaro responded with a warm letter in early 1916, It means that as a living person, we must present the spirit of the deceased to the public. In June, Sakutaro and Muro Xisei co-founded the Emotional Poetry Society and began to publish the poetry magazine "Emotions". Koushiro did the binding for the magazine and later wrote articles for the magazine, which shows that the exchanges between the two parties continued to deepen. In October, Sakutaro wrote again, formally commissioning the binding of "Barking Moon", and proposed that it should be a joint work of three people, and that the book should contain an introduction to Kyoukichi.
As the author of a poetry collection, the above requirements can be said to be unusual. As a reader who has been separated for more than a hundred years, I can only infer that Kyouyoshi's paintings and his death, coupled with Koshiro's consistent enthusiasm for "letting the world see Kyouyoshi", have all become some kind of impetus.
In February 1917, "Barking Moon" came out. Published at his own expense, 300 yuan came from Sakutaro's mother. Contains 53 poems and 2 long poems. Beiyuan Baiqiu wrote the preface, and Shi Shengxi Xing wrote the postscript. The publisher is Emotional Poetry Society and Bairi Society. There are 500 volumes in total and the price is 90 cents. When it was first published, it encountered censorship and was asked to delete two poems and cut six pages (three sheets) because they were "indecent". After the first edition is out of print, second-hand books are expensive, and the unabridged editions of several previously circulated volumes are even more expensive.
The outer cover of "Barking Moon"
uses Kyouji's early pen and ink painting "Flowers of the Night" on the cover. Kyouji once said that if he published a collection of poems, he would like to use this painting as the cover. The book uses 11 works by Kyouyoshi (including 4 posthumous works) and 4 works by Koshiro. Koushiro, who is responsible for the binding design, puts himself in an extremely low-key position and does his best to present Sakutaro and Kyoukichi to the readers.
Tanaka Kyouyoshi's posthumous manuscript, the title page of "Barking Moon", was exhibited in recent years under the title "Light"
Tanaka Kyouyoshi's pen and ink painting "Sloth", published in "Barking Moon", originally included in "Xin Yuan Youqu i"
in poetry After the section, this unique collection of poems has more than a dozen pages about Gongji.
The first is Kyouyoshi's letter to Sakutaro, which contains: "My physical body will not be far away from decomposition. This premonition makes my hands work hard. When I think of my shadow when my brother's collection of poems is published, I can't help but smile. ."
Then there is Gongji's poem in the farewell issue of "Moon Reflection".
Next is Koushiro's "Illustration Postscript":
"About illustration, he (Kyoshichi) said this: 'I think it is a big thing to illustrate other people's poetry collections. So if I do illustrations, I want to be non-obsessive. In the original poem, illustrations were added arbitrarily. '...Therefore, these illustrations are more composed of strong interweaving than the similarities in temperament between him and Ogiwara-kun in the eyes of others or me, which is unknown. The shared joy of a beautiful life has an even more intimate beauty. It is of course Kyouyoshi’s own work, but it is not his alone.”
Finally, there is Sakutaro’s article, “On the Art of Kyouyoshi Koda”.
"If you think about it, Kyouyoshi's art is the sad scream of 'injured life' itself. In fact, his art is not a 'narration', but almost a 'scream', a high-pitched cry of life. In Japan Among all the arts created by people, I have never seen anything as full of real life and terrifying authenticity as his art."
Ogiwara Sakutaro died at the age of 55 in 1942. He published eight collections of poems during his lifetime. He was later called "the father of modern Japanese poetry", which was not unrelated to the initial success of "Barking Moon". He wrote at the end of the preface to "Barking the Moon": "I want to nail my own gloomy shadow to the ground on a moonlit night. Let the shadow never chase behind me."
"Barking the Moon" has accumulated over time. Becoming a legendary book, Tanaka Kyoukichi's "scream of injured life" is no longer obscured by the fog of death.
Koushiro Onchi died in 1955 at the age of 63. Nowadays, when people talk about Koushiro Onchi, they all think of him as a master of Japanese printmaking and a pioneer of abstract expression. After the death of his close friend Tanaka Kyoukichi, whenever he had the opportunity, he introduced Kōkichi and his works to the public through writing, exhibitions, and in every possible form.
Koushiro Onchi's print "Lyrical Bright Time", published in the public magazine "Tsukiei v". This work is considered a pioneer of abstract expression in Japanese woodblock prints.
Japan's Wakayama Prefectural Museum of Art and Japan's Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art have held "Moon Reflection" and related exhibitions of Tanaka Kyōkichi in recent years.
Kitahara Hakushu wrote in the preface of "Barking Moon":
"As far as I know, your soul has an infinitely pale face. It always looks like it is sick. However, it is the pain of the pearl oyster body being rubbed by a small grain of sand. The more and more The more it is poked by pain, the little sand will become a pearl. Your poem proves that it is the real body, and the mucus dripping from the flesh is the product of real pain. "What
said is also applicable to Ogiwara Sakutaro's poem. Paintings by Tanaka Kyoukichi.
Japanese rock band yorushika released the single "Barking Moon" in October 2021, paying tribute to Ogiwara Sakutaro's collection of poems
As the saying goes, "If you never forget it, there will be an echo." I have seen Tanaka Kyōkichi's paintings, and I have feelings about "The Reflection of the Moon" and even "Barking Moon" After further understanding, the author used "Cordyceps" as a bookplate in his short story collection "The Stalker".
Author: Moyin
Text: Moyin Editor: Qian Yutong Editor: Shu Ming
Please indicate the source when reprinting this article.
